A Little Lamb
"Come on now Val…" Jade murmured ominously as she narrowed her eyes at the blonde woman before her. Valerie tried to ignore her, keeping her mind focused even as she felt her hands begin to shake. "It's just you and me… At the end of this day, only one shall remain standing! Now, you must choose…"
Valerie locked eyes with the girl, the tension between them mounting.
"Fine," Valerie growled out. "I choose….. do you have any two's?"
"Nope!" Jade practically grinned with satisfaction. "But I know you have the last King! HA! Hand it over!"
"God-damn it!" Valerie cursed, though she couldn't stop her lips from twitching into a smile as she handed Jade the last King, leaving her down to her lonesome two and three fours. Jade grinned as she piled her four kings, emptying her hand. "Wait a minute… where did the other three twos and last four go?" Valerie asked.
"I don't know," Jade shrugged. "They got lost ages ago,"
"You could have told me that sooner," Valerie grumbled.
"What would be the fun in that?" Jade chuckled, and Valerie had to laugh with her, the girl was just too endearing.
It was a Saturday morning in the shop, and although still in her first week, Valerie was still enjoying her time at the new job – she couldn't say it was dull what with the regular talk of magic, talismans and evil ninjas. Sometimes it felt like a cross between a dungeons and dragons website forum and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cosplay. And that thought alone was enough to make Valerie chuckle.
"Hey Val," Jade suddenly said, using the nickname that she had given Valerie shortly after she had agreed to continue working in the antique store. Valerie turned to look at the young girl. "Are you really gonna stay here all weekend? Don't you… you know, have stuff to do?"
"My university course doesn't start till next week, so I have no homework. And might as well earn some extra pennies whilst I'm here," she smiled at the girl as she cleared away their game and began to get ready to get back to work – she never knew when Uncle was just around the corner to yell at her for 'slacking'.
"You don't want to go out with your friends?" Jade asked.
"The only people I've really talked to in San Francisco are your family and Captain Black," Valerie explained, feeling a twist of embarrassment in her stomach.
"Surely there must be someone though…" Jade trailed off, though her eyes looked up at the older woman sadly, as if she already knew. Valerie tried to give her a brave smile as the twist in her insides turned into a full stab.
"People my age… they are more into drinking, cars, video games and gossiping," she tried to keep the bitterness out of her voice as she spoke. "I like books, history, cosy nights in, studying and all that jazz,"
"Well, you know you got me, right?" Jade looked up at her dutifully.
"Yeah, I know," Valerie smiled, this time genuinely. "And anyway, what are you going to do with your weekend? Not spending all your time at the shop, surely?"
"Jackie's gonna be taking me to Melvin World as soon as he gets back!" Jade squealed excitedly, bouncing in place. "I can't wait!"
"You like Marlin Moose?" Valerie asked with an amused look.
"Duh,"
Just then, the doorbell rang, and both of them looked up in time to see Jackie walking through the door groggily, his suitcase hanging from his grip.
"Hey Jackie," Valerie said by way of greeting, but then noticed his absolutely exhausted appearance with tussled hair and deep bags under his eyes. "Oh… rough trip?"
"You have no idea…" he mumbled, but whatever he was about to say next was interrupted when Jade flew across the room at him.
"Jackie!" Jade exclaimed happily as she leapt into her uncle's arms, who was only barely awake enough to catch her in surprise.
"Hello Jade," Jackie said with a tired smile. "Did you –"
"I'm going to Melvin World!" Jade sang triumphantly.
"What?" Jackie asked in confusion, before comprehension finally came to him. "Oh… okay, but first I go home and get some sleep…"
"Ooooohhhh…" Jade moaned.
"Jackie!" Uncle came into the room, holding his arms out as if he were going to hug Jackie. "What did you bring me?"
"The sheep Talisman…" Jackie mumbled holding up the stone octagon with the engraving of a sheep upon one side.
"Good!" Uncle said happily as he snatched the talisman from Jackie's fingers. "Now we can do Research!"
"But I'm very tired…" Jackie moaned.
"Let him sleep Uncle, he needs it," Valerie said.
"Oh!" Uncle frowned suddenly, holding the Talisman to his ear, as if he were listening to it. "I'm sorry… wait…"
"The Talisman's speak now?" Valerie asked in a deadpan voice as she crossed her arms. Whilst she believed in all this talisman-magic-stuff (she couldn't really deny it seeing as she had seen it with her own eyes), the only way Valerie found that she could cope with all this magical mojo was if she only processed little pieces of information to believe at a time.
"What is it?" Jackie asked. "What do you hear?"
Uncle slapped him on the forehead with two fingers.
"I hear the sheep not telling me what powers it holds!" Uncle grumbled. "I DO here the sound of our footsteps as we walk into the back room to translate inscriptions!" he said as he began to drag Jackie towards the back of the shop, Jade clinging to his other arm.
"Please Uncle!" Jackie pleaded. "I have been travelling for 18 hours; I jumped from a helicopter and ran along a falling train…"
"How are you not dead?" Valerie murmured, though she had to admit, she was slightly impressed.
"That is why you must relax with some good books…" Uncle said as he opened up the back room. Jackie groaned.
"Chan possess yet another talisman?" Shendu asked as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing, the enforcers and Valmont standing before the dragon-statue with uneasy looks. "While I have none?! You are weak Valmont… and your men are fools!"
"That's it!" Finn snapped angrily, clearly almost as frustrated as Shendu himself. "I ain't taking no more lip from a statue!" he then reached into his jacket for his gun, but was stopped when Shendu's hissing voice cut across him.
"I am no statue!" Shendu snapped, finally having enough and deciding to assert his rightful dominance over these pathetic mortals. His eyes glowed with menace as he regarded the humans before him. "You stand in the presence of a Demon Sorcerer…" the dragon spoke ominously, so that all within the room were caught on his every word. "I once held dominion over a vast empire… but my subjects betrayed me…" he spoke spitefully as he was suddenly lost in his own memories: of ancient days, of china, and of the warrior Lo Pie who inspired such hate and rage in the dragon even nine hundred years later. "They cast a Chi spell which imprisoned me in this pitiful form, where I have remained for nine hundred years. The twelve magic talismans from which I drew my power were scattered to the winds…"
"Whoa…" Ratso murmured in awe.
"You got jacked," Finn added.
"Acquisition of all the Talismans will allow me to be free of my confinement and walk the earth once again…" Shendu finished his tale with a serpentine hiss.
"At which time," Valmont added as he turned to look at his enforcers. "We will be rewarded with the treasure of Ching Xi Hung; worth taking a little lip… don't you think?" Valmont raised his eyebrow at Finn who smiled nervously. "Retrieve the talisman," Valmont ordered.
"They probably still have it at the shop," Finn suggested.
"Nah, they got to have it at Section 13 by now," Ratso countered.
"Either way," Valmont interrupted. "Go to the Shop and see if it's there,"
"And this time," Shendu rumbled. "Watch out for brooms; if she had a mop she might have killed you," he added with dark humour.
"Waste of time," Ratso grumbled in the passenger seat of the car as they pulled up outside the Antique shop. "It's probably at Section 13 by now… wherever that is…"
But Finn wasn't paying attention to him as he watched the Talisman-finder, with its four snarling dragon-heads, one beginning to glow as it pointed in the direction of the shop. Finn smirked triumphantly at his partner.
"Oh, I'm sorry, did you say something?" he grinned. But then, they heard the doorbell to the shop chime and looked across the street as they saw the young woman from before exit the shop, pausing only momentarily to shout back into the shop interior:
"Uncle! Jackie! I'm going to the store, you're out of tea again!" she called, and with that, she closed the door and began to walk down the street.
"Score!" Finn grinned as he and Ratso exited the car and began to quietly make their way into the shop.
They entered the store as quietly as they could, noticing that Chan and the old man were in the back working on books at the desk with their backs to the front door. Glancing at the dragon idol in his hand, Finn noticed how it was glowing in the direction of the stairs, and he looked at Ratso as he pointed up. They made their way upstairs, following the idol wherever it lead them as they were brought up towards the attic where they saw the kid that Chan always had with him. She was asleep on an old and dusty sofa… and what do you know? The Talsiman was sitting right in the palm of her hand!
"No way!" Ratso whispered.
"Yes way!" Finn grinned.
"So then Chan lifts a whole BUS off the ground and he chucks it at us!" Ratso exclaimed dramatically as he lifted his arms up as he demonstrated the pose to Valmont, who was tapping his fingers on his sleeves with impatience. Shendu was feeling the same as he would have ground his teeth with irritation as he glared at the two enforcers.
"He wasn't easy to take down, but…" Finn paused as he reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out something and placed it upon the desk. "We knew how much you wanted this…" he then lifted his fingers and revealed the Sheep Talisman sitting upon the desk.
Valmont's brows rose slightly, the only indication of his surprise as he reached for the talisman, feeling the weight of it in his hand. He then promptly turned and threw the talisman at Shendu, the stone fitting perfectly in one of the twelve slots that were carved into his statue body. The talisman glowed, the carving of the sheep lighting up, and Shendu felt a rush of power flow into him, like a piece of him was fitting back into place.
"Cheers Shendu," Valmont smirked. "The first of an even dozen,"
Suddenly, Shendu felt the power wash over him as he felt the talisman activate with his will. He felt a rush of euphoria as he felt the ancient magic work through him and suddenly felt himself… move?
"I am FREEEEEE!" he cried with joy, but then remembered how it was only one talisman… and then also noticed how he was a disembodied spirit floating outside of his statue body. Returning to it, Shendu would have grinned as his eyes glowed at Valmont with approval. "The Sheep Talisman enables me to project my astral form…" he told them. "An admirable start, but I MUST have the others,"
"Yeah," Ratso moaned. "But finding Section 13 won't be as easy as taking a talisman out of a sleeping kid's hand – ogh!" he wheezed as Finn elbowed him in the stomach.
"Did that occur before or after Chan threw the bus?" Valmont eyed them.
But Shendu was no longer paying attention, his cunning mind racing with this new information. A child just happened to be sleeping with the sheep talisman in her hand, one that knocked the physical body unconscious whilst the soul wandered unheard and unseen? That could be no coincidence.
"This… sleeping child… may not be sleeping at all," Shendu mused aloud. "And if her spirit wanders her vessel has a vacancy!" he continued as he used the power of the sheep to project his spirit, breaking free of his stone shell and soaring through the room as a spectral serpent, a dark glee in his movements as he raced through the air, overjoyed to be free of his motionlessness, even if it wasn't physical.
He moved over the city of San Francisco, slithering through the air, through solid buildings and even through human bodies as he headed straight towards the destination of the Antique shop. Valmont had tapped into satellite surveillance on his computer, and Shendu had watched over his shoulder from his mounted place on the wall, so he knew where the shop was located. And besides, his sixth sense burned as he scented the use of magic, and much more specifically, HIS talisman magic. This was a good sign, he realised as he came onto the street where the Shop sat, as it meant that the child was still outside of her body.
Entering through the walls of the shop, Shendu rose up through the floors, following his sixth sense to the attic of the building, rising like a cobra as he saw the body of the girl lying limp and seemingly asleep on the chair, her uncle actually asleep not far away… and the curious sight of the spirit of the girl in the same room. He hissed at her threateningly before she could move towards her body. The girl turned, her eyes going wide with terror as she beheld him, and Shendu made his eyes glow within the massive smoke-coils that was his spiritual body.
"Whoa!" she exclaimed, soaring away from him in fright. "What are you?!"
"Everything you will grow to fear!" he snarled as he launched himself towards her, sweeping her aside with his huge 'body', making her shriek as she dodged away from him. Shendu slithered to her body and pushed himself inside. Now, when Shendu passed through normal people who were not astral projecting, he simply passed through them as if they were little more than air because the waking soul would simply repel him from the body, whereas a sleeping one would be dormant enough for him to enter and communicate but not possess and control. However, when a body was without a soul, it craved one to fill it in order to give it direction and make it function, so therefore it gladly welcomed Shendu, allowing him to easily slip inside the girl's head as if he were putting on new clothes.
It took him a moment to get himself acquainted with this new body, having inhabited stone for nine hundred years, it took just a second to get used to the soft flesh, supple bones, short stature and weak muscle structure that made the body of the child. But when he did, he immediately sat up straight, opening his eyes as he willed the red glow to soften in order to complete his disguise. He already had a perfect plan in mind for this body, one that would bring him one step closer – or four – to being free of his stone prison.
Shendu made the body stand up, and walk over to the sleeping form of the infamous Jackie Chan, the one who had been giving him so many troubles as of late. There was a temptation to snap his neck right now and save himself the trouble of dealing with Chan later, but he needed him alive… for now. So, with a foot, Shendu nudged the sleeping man awake. At first all he did was moan, but then he slowly shook himself awake.
"Wha…" he murmured.
"Time to awaken dear uncle…" Shendu made the girl's body say with that innocent and sweetly voice.
"Sorry Charlie," Shendu heard the spirit of the child say angrily. "But my body isn't big enough for the both of us!"
Shendu knew what she was about to do, and almost had to laugh as he did not stop her as she came swooping through the air towards her body. But as she came to within touching distance of her own flesh, Shendu simply brought up a wall of his magic that instantly repelled her, sending her flying away from her body, her spirit coming to a stop somewhere in the air. She shook her head, almost a mixture of confusion, denial and panic coming across her face. But then, her expression hardened to one of anger, as she came at him again as Shendu was trying to pull Jackie Chan up and onto his feet. The girl tried to latch onto her physical arm and pull him out, though he only looked at her out of the corner of his eye as if she were only a slight annoyance.
"Get out of there! Give me back my skin and bones!" she yelled, but Shendu merely pushed her away. He then managed to get Chan up and onto his feet and began to lead him by the hand towards the stairs. Noticing how exhausted the man appeared to be, Shendu decided to use this to his advantage.
"You should not sleep on the floor uncle Jackie," he said with false concern.
"Oh…" Jackie yawned. "We should go back to Section 13,"
"Yes…" Shendu replied, for he could have purred: everything was already going according to plan! "Section 13…"
"JACKIE!" they heard someone shout, and Shendu presumed that it was the old man, Jackie's Uncle.
"Uh," Jackie slumped in defeat. "Eventually…"
Shendu growled in frustration. Now he remembered why he had never possessed people so much when he had been a living creature: humans were incredibly annoying!
"JACKIE!" the old man called again. "Valerie is nearly back from the grocery store! Come and help her with the bags!"
"Coming!" Jackie called down.
Shendu followed Jackie down the stairs to the main body of the shop, and all the while the spirit of the pestering girl followed them.
"Jackie!" she cried desperately. "She's not me! You gotta listen!" but Jackie just passed right through her. Shendu looked straight at the spirit that now hovered in front of him, a smile playing across his lips as he taunted her with her own flesh.
"Scream all you wish, child…" he whispered to her mind, spirit to spirit. "They are deaf to you…"
Suddenly, the doorbell rang as someone entered the store and Shendu looked over in time to see a woman enter, her arms heaped with two full bags of shopping. She deposited them on the counter by the door, wiping her feet on the doormat as she turned to –
Shendu felt his breath freeze in his body's throat as he beheld the face of the woman before him. Flashing images of memories coming to him from centuries past… Mei, her lovely face blushing under a blossom tree, her blood spilled upon a battle ground, the source of all his present torment. For a moment, Shendu felt a flash of panic that this was Mei before him, somehow alive and before him. But then he realised that that was a ludicrous idea. Mei was dead, perhaps long since buried, and this woman was not her, even though they shared a passing resemblance.
Mei had been a lovely creature like that of garden flowers, her dark hair smoothed and brushed to perfection, her eyes glittering like still pond water, her figure petite and fragile. This woman was a different creature entirely: this was a beauty that was wild and presently untamed, with her smooth skin, long and thin face, clear cut cheeks that stood out to give her face an unusual angle. Her hair was like the colour of wheat, shoulder length and perhaps brushed this morning but work and the outside elements hand tangled it into a charmingly tussled appearance. Where Mei had been small and femininely petite, this woman was taller and straight with hardly any womanly curves. But the one thing they did have in common was their eyes: crystal blue that sparkled like clear water. It was these eyes that connected them, that and the little things like the curve of their necks, the structure of their teeth, the length of their fingers… Shendu found himself wondering at the possibilities. Perhaps this was a descendant of Mei? But how could that be? Shendu found himself biting at his fleshy cheek as he wanted to know more.
"Valerie," the old man complained as he saw her shopping bags. "I asked you to get tea bags, not the whole store!"
Shendu had to blink. This was the Valerie who had beaten Valmont's imbecilic men with a broom? The one who suddenly held his curiosity for the time being was the Valerie?
"I needed to buy a few things for my dinner tonight," Valerie explained. "Don't worry I didn't use any of your money,"
"No wonder you took so long!" the old man whined.
"Hey, I got the tea didn't I?" she said as she produced a box of tea bags from one of the shopping bags and began to walk towards the kitchen. Shendu thought it to be a great opportunity to follow her… unfortunately, to his great annoyance, he was in turn followed by the spirit of the girl.
"What do you want with my body?!" she pleaded desperately, though he ignored her, instead keeping his focus on the woman in front of him as she went to the kitchen worktop. She filled the kettle and put it on to boil as she began to find the china tea set and began to fiddle with tea leaves and properly preparing the tea. Shendu was surprised, this was the ancient way of making tea, how mortals did so when he ruled all of Asia, Valerie was toiling over this when he spotted the box of easy tea bags within arm's reach.
"You should not toil so over tea, Valerie," Shendu said in the girl's sweet voice, blinking the child's eyes in an attempt to appear adorable. He wanted to know more about Valerie, and he knew that human's had a very large soft spot for their kind's offspring.
"Yeah, well… Uncle refuses to drink anything but proper tea leaves. He thinks it helps soothes his mind. God knows it doesn't sooth his temper," she mumbled the last bit with a wink to Shendu – or Jade's body.
"He will not know the difference. It will make you quicker," Shendu pointed out.
"I tried, but he knew. Practically threw a fit – I thought he would pop a hip," she chuckled at her own joke.
Shendu looked about him, noticing the spirit of the girl still hovering and glaring at him as she studied him with a scrutinising gaze. Smirking at her, he dragged a chair from the table to the work surface beside Valerie and climbed up so that he was level with her.
"Leave Valerie alone! And what do you want with Jackie?!" the girl cried. Shendu grinned sadistically for only the spirit to see, as he purposefully slowly reached out and grasped the handle of a cleaver, brandishing the blade of the knife so that it glinted in the afternoon light. Immediately he saw the girl's face contort with horror as she turned and shot through the wall as fast as she could, squealing: "AH! JACKIE! JACKIE! JACKIE! LOOK OUT!"
Shendu struggled keeping his dark chuckle to himself as he turned back to the work station and pulled out an orange from Valerie's shopping bag and began to chop into it with the cleaver.
"Refreshments, anyone?" he called out so that Chan and the old man would hear his sweet sing-song voice. It grated on his spine to be this sickly sweet, but he knew that if he wanted to get to Section 13 and his talismans, he needed to play nice with his enemies.
As he chopped, the kettle boiled and he and Valerie worked side by side for a moment to prepare a tray to take into the other room. Shendu was actually surprised at how well they synchronised their work together, even though the demon-in-human-skin had much better reflexes from his millennia of existence. But then, he noticed how one of his orange slices rolled away, and his hand darted to catch it, but so did Valerie's.
Their hands collided as the woman's fingers brushed the back of Shendu's human hand. And instantly, Shendu felt a jolt run through his burrowed body, his demon-magic swelling within him until he thought he might burst from –
"Ow!" Valerie yelped as she sharply withdrew her hand, shaking it as she grimaced in slight pain. "Electric shock," she muttered.
Shendu blinked, surprised once again. She had felt that too? Shendu had thought he had been the only one who could, he had felt his dark chi grow and manifest inside of him, until he thought he could crush this entire building, even in this frail and weak child's body.
"I'm sorry Valerie," he said, though didn't mean it, he was actually rather interested in touching her again to see what would happen.
"Not your fault," she murmured as she looked at her hand as if inspecting for a wound. Shendu had to struggle not to roll his eyes, it was only a shock. "Curiouser and curiouser…" she murmured.
"What?"
"Please don't tell me you haven't read Alice in Wonderland Jade," Valerie raised her eyebrows in surprise. "That's a classic! Surely you should have covered it in school!"
"Not as of yet," Shendu said vaguely, knowing that one wrong answer could make the woman suspicious if he did something the "real Jade" would not do.
"'You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope.' Jane Austen." Valerie smiled. "'I would challenge you to a battle of wits, but I see you are unarmed.' William Shakespeare,"
"A book is like a garden carried in the pocket," Shendu murmured, but Valerie heard him and turned to look at him with praising eyes.
"Exactly!" she beamed. "Good Chinese proverb there,"
"The Chinese were wise people," Shendu said, feeling a lick of bitterness inside of him as he reminded himself that it was HIS wisdom and iron rule that had uplifted those rats from the mud.
"Oh yes, very wise – and advanced. They invented fireworks, alcohol, even proper paper." Valerie rambled animatedly. Shendu was surprised once again, for this woman seemed very knowledgeable in the way of history.
He had to smirk to himself, for Valerie was unintentionally capturing the interest and curiosity of the Demon Sorcerer before her. Many would consider that dangerous. What was perhaps even more dangerous, was the fact that he was starting to see more of Pei in her, not so much Mei. At a glance, she resembled Mei, but that woman had been a flower who only knew womanly attributes of her time. But her father had been inquisitive, righteous and educated, and Valerie was more leaning towards him in personality.
"Where do you come from, Valerie?" he asked bluntly.
"You know where," Valerie said as she stirred the tea and began to set the tray. "I come from Toronto."
"No, I meant your family,"
"Oh, well… I don't really know. My mum says that her family came to Canada with European settlers in the seventeen hundreds,"
Shendu had to hold back his growl of frustration. That gave him no direct answers. But he had to wonder, was it possible that…
But then his mind was brought back to the matter at hand when Valerie started to make her way towards the kitchen door with the tray of tea and fruit. Shendu deftly put himself in her path, and looked up at her with an innocent look with hidden dangerous eyes.
"Let me carry that in for you Valerie," he said, and promptly took the tray from her before she could protest. He then carried it into the back room where Chan and the old man were sitting at a desk surrounded by books, with the spirit of the girl hovering above them, trying to be heard by her relatives.
"Orange slices and Oolong tea for my cherished elders?" he smiled up at the two adults as Valerie came into the room behind him. The spirit of Jade blanched.
"Wonderful," the old man mumbled, his eyes glancing at Valerie as she sat in an armchair with a book in her lap.
"Thank you, Jade," Jackie smiled as he and Uncle both took a slice and cup.
"It's probably poisoned!" the spirit cried, but of course no one heard her, though that didn't stop her from continuing. "DON'T! Jackie – NO!"
But Jackie drank from the cup, sighing appreciatively, his eyes drooping slightly from his apparent exhaustion.
"Mmmm, delicious," he said with an approving smile to his niece's body.
"And nutritious," Shendu added.
"Jackie!" the spirit whirled around her uncle's head, angrily scolding him though he could not hear her. "She is sooooooo not me! How could you fall for that sweet as pie routine?! She's obviously an imposter! She's some kind of evil-spirit-thing! But… why would an evil spirit act so nice?" the girl asked herself. Though everyone ignored her.
"Please forgive my interruption," Shendu said to the adults, wanting to get to the root of his mission quickly. "But I wish to go to Section 13 now," he blinked expectantly.
"And why would it want to go to… Ah!" the girl exclaimed suddenly, and Shendu had to stop himself from looking at her or giving any kind of reaction to her. "SECTION 13! The other talismans! She – IT – must be working for the Dark Hand!"
Shendu had to hold back his bark of laughter. He, work for the Dark Hand?! It was so stupid an idea that he would have considered it an insult if it wasn't so humorous and ludicrous a thought!
"Oh well," Jackie yawned. "Jade wants to go, so I'll just – OW!" he yelped when the old man flicked him. "Arrange a ride for her," he grumbled.
Shendu couldn't hold back his grin of triumph.
Valerie was still engrossed in her book whilst Jackie was on the phone to Captain Black. She looked up briefly from the pages of inscription translations – which she was silently finding fascinating – in order to see Jackie slump against the wall, clearly exhausted and almost falling asleep whilst speaking. Jade was waiting by the door, her body unusually upright and stock still, as if she were a cat on alert. Perhaps the girl was more upset about not going to Melvin World then Valerie had thought, maybe she needed to go to Section 13 (where Valerie had realised that Jackie and his niece lived). Uncle was at his desk, holding a magnifying glass to one of his books as he studied the text.
Valerie loved books, she practically called them her best life-long friends, but even she was beginning to feel frustrated at their lack of progress at finding a translation for the talisman. Perhaps, if Uncle's books were better categorised, she thought with a slight huff, then this might be easier.
"Okay," Jackie said as he came off the phone and turned back to Jade. "Captain Black will be here to pick you up in a few minutes."
And true to his word, a large black van pulled up outside the shop, and Captain Black knocked on the door. Valerie stood in the doorway to the backroom, watching out of the storefront window as Captain Black took Jade into the van. Jackie said goodbye and waved them off, before walking back into the backroom and slumping into his chair. Valerie watched the van drive off, before joining him back in her armchair, unenthusiastic about picking up the translation book once again.
"HTCHA!" Uncle exclaimed, making both Valerie and Jackie jump and look over at the old man as he peered over his text book with a magnifying glass. "The Sheep Talisman possess the power of Astral Projection," he declared.
"What's that?" Valerie frowned. "Like when the consciousness is outside the body?"
"In a way, yes," Uncle agreed.
"Great," Jackie smiled, before slumping back in his chair. "Night-night!" he promptly tried to fall asleep and snore.
"One more thing!" Uncle said, causing Jackie to jump back awake. "Astral bodies can pass through walls, but they cannot be seen, or heard,"
"So… not so much messengers, but more spies," Valerie summarised.
"Unless," Uncle continued. "They enter a person's dreams,"
Valerie looked over at Jackie… who had fallen back to sleep again. She did pity the poor guy, he had had it rough the past day or so. Unfortunately, Uncle saw him asleep as well and with a scowl, he flicked his forehead, causing Jackie to bolt awake.
"BWHA!" Jackie exclaimed as he sat bolt upright.
"One MORE thing…" Uncle loomed over Jackie with a broom in hand. "You forget to sweep the store!"
Jackie practically whimpered.
"Here Uncle," Valerie said, closing her book and taking the broom from the old man. "I'll do it, let Jackie go sleep upstairs."
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Jackie whispered to her as he hurriedly made his escape before Uncle could protest.
Uncle grumbled about making himself some coffee – though Valerie was a little concerned as he had only had tea not that long ago – whilst Jackie went upstairs to his old room to sleep, and Valerie swept the store. It was nearing closing time for the shop, and therefore close to Valerie's quitting time. She calmly made her usual rounds in the peaceful shop: sweep the floor, clean the kitchen, check the till, and make sure everything was locked up. However, she didn't even make it through half of that list, when all of a sudden she heard a commotion come from Jackie's room, and she turned just in time to see him barrel out of the door and race down the steps as if the hounds of hell were at his heels, and he raced for the backroom.
"Jackie?!" Valerie exclaimed, shocked. "What's going on?"
But Jackie didn't answer, and as Valerie quickly followed him, she saw him reach for the box where they had put the talisman but finding nothing inside.
"Oh no!" Jackie gasped in horror. "My dream was no dream…"
"What?" Valerie frowned at him, confused, as Uncle walked into the room behind her.
"Jade is right…" he murmured as he gave the box to Uncle.
"Right about what?" Valerie asked, but no one answered as Uncle looked into the box with horrified eyes.
"Where is the Talisman?" he asked.
"Jade has it! Er, argh! I–I mean HAD it," Jackie fumbled. "This will sound crazy but –"
"Jade took the Talisman and now she is trapped in astral form while an evil spirit walks in her body!" Uncle shrieked in a rush, seemingly terrified as his eyes went wide.
"Ah… yes," Jackie, said, rather mystified.
"Wait-What?!" Valerie squawked, her mind tripping over itself to process the information she had just heard.
"The Sheep Talisman put a wolf in sheep's clothing," Uncle murmured. "You two find Jade, and I will find a Chi spell to banish the wolf."
"Wait – WHAT?!" Valerie exclaimed. "Could someone please tell me what is going on!"
"I'll explain on the way – come on!" Jackie yelled in a rush as he grabbed her hand and began to run with her out of the store, half dragging her along. Valerie shrieked as she was pulled out of the store and was running after Jackie down the street.
"Jackie!" she shouted to him. "Please explain, NOW!"
"Err… long story short," Jackie huffed as he continued to run, Valerie finding it rather difficult to keep up with him. "Jade took the talisman, its power sent her spirit out of her body. The Dark Hand came into the shop when we weren't looking, and grabbed it. Now something ELSE is in Jade's body and trying to get to the other Talismans!"
"So wait… Jade is POSSESSED?!" Valerie's eyes went wide and she nearly tripped over her own feet in shock.
"Pretty much, yes!" Jackie rushed as he turned a corner.
"And how do you know this?!" she called as she turned the corner after him.
"Because the REAL Jade told me in a dream!"
"Saying you're taking direction from a dream is not very reassuring!"
"Just follow me!"
"But where are we going?!" she shouted as she was falling further behind and tried to catch up, but her legs already screaming in pain.
"Melvin World!" Jackie shouted back to her as he picked out his phone from his pocket and was already pressing speed-dial. "Captain Black!" Jackie gasped when the other end picked up. "Trust me! You're in terrible danger! Jade is Evil!"
Whatever Black said, Valerie didn't hear; she was too busy locating and watching an empty cab that was coming towards them down the street.
"No!" Jackie shouted down the phone hysterically. "You don't understand! Jade is –!" but the phone cut off, the other line disconnected. Valerie, meanwhile, waved her arms as she ran into the road in front of the cab, throwing caution to the wind as she frantically signalled for it to stop. The driver beeped his horn at her furiously, and stamped onto the breaks until it came to a screeching halt not two feet from her. Valerie tried not to whimper.
"Jackie!" She shouted to the man, who almost slipped on the pavement with his sudden stop, he saw Valerie standing by the cab, and an instant later they were climbing into the backseat. "Melvin World, as fast as possible please!" Valerie ordered the cabbie, and they were then racing away as the Cab did a U-turn in the road and sped towards the nearby amusement park.
Not ten minutes later, they arrived, and Valerie all but threw whatever change she had in her pocket at the driver as she and Jackie hurriedly climbed out. They quickly made their way into the park, even as an announcer said on the speakers that Melvin World was closing. As they came into the park, the pair of them looked frantically about them for any sign of the familiar short, black haired girl and the bald, serious man as her companion. Jackie was the one who spotted them, when they saw Captain Black, one of his agents and little grumpy looking Jade standing beside a large Melvin Moose costume for a photo. As they drew close, Valerie saw the moose lean in close to the little girl.
"Drr, smile for the camera!" the man in the costume said in a dopey voice. Jade only looked at him with such a cold expression, one would think she would start sprouting horns and fire.
"Soon I shall devour your soul," she hissed to the moose. The man gasped as he quickly recoiled from her.
Valerie didn't know whether to laugh in hysterics or shiver with fear.
"Captain Black! Get away from her!" Jackie shouted as he and Valerie ran up to them. Captain Black looked up at the pair of puffing and panting adults before him as if he didn't know whether to feel concerned or amused, and decided to try for both as he held up a hand to them.
"Whoa there Jackie!" he smiled, but Valerie saw that the young girl was glaring at her as she growled.
"She's not really Jade!" Jackie yelled. "The Talisman's magic has made her a sheep! Err, n-no-no-no-I mean-!"
"Jackie!" Valerie hissed. "Black, she's possessed!"
Captain Black frowned at the pair of them, his mood instantly draining from his face as he gave them each a look that said 'really'? And then Valerie remembered: Black didn't believe that the Talisman's held any form of magic, as any sane person would.
"I'll prove it!" Jackie looked around, searching desperately for something, anything, before he yanked on the poor man in the Moose Costume and pulled it towards the body of his niece. "WHAT'S THE MOOSE'S NAME?! THE NAME!" He practically screamed at the girl as he pointed at the Moose's nose.
Jade's eyes shifted uneasily as she growled again, Valerie was a little unnerved, she didn't think humans could growl so convincingly.
"You can't name it, can you?!" Jackie insisted to the stoic little girl as he shoved away the Moose in question. "YOU'RE EVIL! YOU'RE EVIL!" He screamed.
Valerie promptly face-palmed.
"Jackie…" the condescending tone of Captain Black's voice spoke out as he gently took his friend by the shoulders, seemingly actually concerned. "You look like you could use a little sleep –"
CRACK.
Valerie suddenly looked to see two pincher grips on Black and his agent's shoulders as the pair of them suddenly went rigid, and collapsed to the floor, limp.
"Oh my god!" Valerie shrieked as she stared in wide-eyed horror at the bodies. "Are they dead?!"
"Not yet…" Everyone turned to see Jade standing beside Black's body, but her eyes were orbs of glowing red, and the voice… Valerie felt an involuntary shiver run down her spine and her breath catch in her throat as she heard that voice. It was a snake like hiss with the articulation of someone that belonged to an ancient world, but a menacing power, a growl to it that was barely contained beneath the surface.
"Who are you?" Jackie whispered as he stared in horror at his niece.
"Your executioner…" The voice hissed as it grinned sadistically at Jackie.
Valerie yelped and leapt back as Jade's possessed body raced towards Jackie, swinging for him, though he easily out stepped her or even placed a hand on her head to prevent her from getting closer. Being in the body of a ten year old was no advantage against a martial arts master, Valerie summarised.
"Jade!" Jackie tried to say as he attempted to restrain the body of his niece without hurting her, despite her obvious attempts to harm him. "Stop that! Or…or, err, I-I'll give you a spanking!"
"As you wish," that voice snarled out from Jade's mouth. "This is not MY body!" Valerie shrieked again as Jade leapt into the air, aiming a flying kick for Jackie's chest, though Jackie caught her and hugged her close to him, restraining her as the girl struggled in his grip. "WEAK little girl!" the voice hissed to himself – for Valerie thought that it sounded male.
Jade planted her feet on Jackie's chest and pushed off from him to flip away and land back out of reach, before turning around and sprinting away towards the fun-house. Jackie sprinted after her.
Valerie was left feeling alone and utterly useless as she wrung her hands anxiously, going to the body of Captain Black and rolling him onto his back. She didn't trust that… thing, it might have lied that Black was still alive. She hastily pressed her ear to his chest and struggled to listen for a heartbeat through his thick trench coat and her own pounding heart in her ears. She only breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the steady "boom" in his chest. She tried to shake him awake, but got no response, she even slapped him like they did in the movies, thinking it might work, but nothing worked.
Suddenly, she heard a crash, and she spun on her heel in time to see the giant board of Melvin Moose suddenly collapse, with the distinct figure of Jackie on top of it as well as several other black shapes. Valerie struggled to make out what they were, but as they acrobatically leapt and flipped towards Jackie, she had to wonder, was this the Shadowkhan that Jade told her about? But she had no time to think on it, as she watched the board fall towards the rollercoaster tracks, with Jackie still on it.
"JACKIE!" she screamed.
Jackie fell onto the track of the rollercoaster, almost tripping and falling off, though he barely managed to keep himself on. The freaky-black-ninjas followed him every step of the way.
Valerie heard a whirring sound and turned to look at the entrance to the rollercoaster ride, just in time to see Jade – or her possessed body to be precise – switch something on the ride console and walk towards the rollercoaster carriage. Valerie felt an icy feeling of dread claw at her stomach, and before she knew what she was doing, she was turning and running towards the figure.
Shendu watched with growing frustration as Chan continued to elude death as he fell from the giant-moose-board onto the rollercoaster tracks, racing down them with his momentum until he reached a stop and continued to fight the Shadowkhan as if they were on even ground! The demon spirit wanted nothing more than to snarl and spit fire at the annoying mortal, but this body was useless for practically everything!
Well, almost useless, Shendu thought slyly as he looked over at the console that would power up the ride. The idiot Captain Black had taken him on the ride earlier when he believed that "Jade" had wanted to come to Melvin World, which Shendu had LOATHED the entire time. But Shendu remembered that the ride went at a very fast pace… fast enough to break bones. With a wicked smile, Shendu operated the controls on the console, the park was closed and the staff were gone now, so all he had to do was flip a switch, pull a handle and then go towards the carriage. He wanted to make sure he broke Jackie Chan into a thousand pieces.
"What are you…" the spirit of the girl asked as she followed him, but he ignored her as he walked to the carriage. "Hey! Stop!"
"Wait!" a voice shouted.
Shendu turned in time to see the woman, Valerie, running towards him, a desperate look on her face. Shendu was curious as to what she was doing, but knew he had more pressing matters to tend to and so climbed onto the ride as the brakes released and it slowly began to pull away.
Suddenly he felt a thump as something impacted with the carriage and he turned in his seat to see Valerie lying across the backseat, clutching at the bars as she tried to stay in place as they began to pick up speed. She sat herself up as she looked to him with a pleading expression, her eyes locking with his as if she could see past his mortal flesh and see the real creature beneath.
"Please!" she begged in a loud voice in order to be heard over the clanking of the ride as they were pulled to the height of the first incline. "Stop! Give us Jade back, we don't want any trouble, please stop this!"
"There is no stopping it…" Shendu hissed at her as he turned around, unconcerned as the woman shakily tried to climb into the next carriage closer to him, trying to reach him, even though she shrieked with fear and clutched the handle bars when they turned a corner and the leaning carriage threatened to send her into the abyss.
"What do you want?!" she shrieked as she half fell into the carriage, her grip on the side enough to turn her knuckles white.
But Shendu didn't answer, only smiled when they picked up speed again as they came over the top of another incline and he saw that Chan was directly ahead of them, straight in his line of sight and unprepared for the high speed ride coming straight towards him.
"JACKIE!" Both the woman and the spirit beside him screamed at the same time.
Chan turned in time to see Shendu coming towards him, and dropped down through the gaps in the tracks just as Shendu passed over him. He growled when he saw that the man was unharmed as he climbed back onto the tracks from where he had held the bottom.
"You are SO not fighting fair!" the spirit scolded Shendu, though he ignored her, watching Chan and seeing if there was a way to reach him. The only way was when he would be passing underneath the track the human was on in a few moments –
"Stop this!" Valerie shouted as Shendu suddenly felt her hands grip onto his arm as she pulled herself up behind him in the seats at his back, she latched her other hand onto his other wrist in an attempt to restrain him. "Enough!"
But once again, when she touched him, Shendu felt a rush of energy flow into him so suddenly he was almost taken aback by it. He gasped as he felt the power fill him up to the brim, as if he was filled with helium and about to float away. He heard the woman hiss as the electric shock stabbed at her again just like before, and Shendu used that moment to flip himself backwards, almost dislocating his body's arms in the process. He landed with his heels on Valerie's back, knocking the wind from her and loosening her grip on him enough to tear her away. Instantly he felt the power fade, and he was almost angry for it. He wrenched one arm behind her back and grabbed a handful of her hair with his free hand. She screamed in pain and tried to kick him off, wriggling and bucking and almost unseating him, he was almost –
Suddenly, Shendu felt the carriage jump as something slammed into it with a loud "THUD", and an instant later an arm wrapped around him, pinning his arms to his sides and effectively restraining his child body. He instantly struggled but Chan held him firm.
"It's for you," the man snapped as he shoved something against Shendu's ear.
"Hello?" came the voice of the old man from the shop. Shendu continued to struggle, but was stopped cold at what he suddenly heard on the other end of the phone. "Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao… Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao… Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao,"
Shendu heard the chant, the magic of the Chi Spell soaked into his spirit, his eyes widening as he felt its grip on him and begin to rip his spirit from his borrowed body. Shendu struggled to stay in place, but the good chi countered his own as it pulled him and tore him out of the body with a blaze of red light.
"NO!" he shrieked as he was ejected from the body of the girl, which instantly went limp without a soul to direct it. Flung into the air in his serpentine spirit form, Shendu instantly tried to retake his stolen vessel, but the moment he tried to touch it, a wall of magic was raised and blasted him away, making him shriek with pain as recoiled from it. He was banished, with no way of getting back in; his weak form without the full strength of his true body as well as his other talismans meant that he could not even blast apart the Chi Spell that kept him out. He seethed as he looked upon the faces of his enemies, Chan holding the body of the girl as he worriedly tried to wake her. The demon's gaze lastly fell upon Valerie as she climbed to her knees and tried her best to help. Shendu slithered his spirit up beside her brushing his snake-like body along her arm, but upon contact, he felt no rush of energy as he had when he had been flesh; as he suspected, without a physical form there was no way for the energy to transfer – which Shendu was still curious as to what it was. And then, acting on an impulse, he snaked his head close to hers, his mind brushing hers, as he whispered to her: "You and I will meet again very soon…"
Valerie flinched as if she had actually heard something, spiking Shendu's curiosity all the more, but then the woman relaxed and shrugged it away, completely forgetting in the next moment. Now, with no body to steal and no other way to get to his talismans, Shendu reluctantly accepted defeat and flew through the air back towards the skyscraper that Valmont owned. He reached the top floor and ruefully settled back into his body.
"Blasted Chi Spell…" he hissed angrily to himself.
Unfortunately, he wasn't alone. Valmont was sitting at his desk and turned around as he heard the dragon statue speak.
"Shendu? Back so soon?" Valmont struggled to keep his self-satisfied smirk off his features as he spoke in a mockingly innocent voice. "Oh, and what – no Talismans?"
"ENOUGH!" Shendu roared so loud that Valmont actually jumped in his seat, looking very uneasy as he slowly wiped that smug look off of his face. Shendu's eyes glowed as he glared at the human, his anger at his own failure was doubled by the fact that he was trapped in this stone prison and unable to move once again. "Have you found any information on the girl working with the Chans?" Shendu demanded.
"Yes I have," Valmont said in more cautious tone to the demon's mood. "By taking a look at Chan's bank account, he has made payments to one Valerie Payne. It wasn't exactly difficult, almost her entire life is on public record."
"Tell me everything,"
"Alright," Valmont murmured as he turned to his computer on his desk and brought up a file and began to read off the information to Shendu. "Valerie Payne: Born in Washington, her mother Stephanie Payne, originally from Canada, put her under her name as she and her partner were not married at the time of Valerie's birth. She went to public schools, notably succeeding in the field of history. Her parents married when she was two but divorced when she was ten and young Valerie lived with her father in Washington whilst her mother returned to Toronto Canada to pursue her career in Law. Valerie graduated to become a history student, but left her university when her father, a police detective, died last year. She moved in with her mother for three months, before moving to San Francisco and now attends the San Francisco University as a history undergraduate student and working for Jackie Chan."
"What of her family history on her mother's side? Where did they come from?" Shendu asked.
"The Payne family have lived in Canada for many generations but were originally European settlers," Valmont answered. "Other than that I can't find much of them. It seems we have nothing to fear from Miss Payne, she is an ordinary and uninteresting girl,"
But Shendu wasn't entirely convinced, something about Valerie called to him. Was it the resemblance she had to Lo Mei? Was it the way she held his curiosity or how she amused him? Or was it the weird transfer of energy between them whenever they touched? All these questions in Shendu's mind, and each wanted answers. Answers that he would find out for himself soon enough. He was almost convinced that Valerie was a descendant of Lo Mei, and therefore a descendant of Lo Pei. How wonderful would it be to have sweet vengeance on the descendant of the one who imprisoned him? In the meantime however, it would be most wise to keep a close eye on his prey. Just to see what happened next.
Author's Note: A big thank you to everyone who reviewed! Thank you guys, it really meant a lot to me to have your support! I hope everyone enjoyed the second chapter, and as you can see I will be following the show though I will make some adjustments in order to better fit my story. Hope that is okay! :)
Now please leave a review, I would love to hear your thoughts and some of your suggestions. :) Until next time!