•Downtown San Fransisco•
The three men entered into a tall skyscraper like building, walking past the front desk and into an elevator, pushing the button for the top floor, the doors closing as it began its long climb.
The shield was being held carefully, if it got damaged, their boss wouldn't be happy, especially if it was damaged and he learned how much they spent on it.
"Can't believe that old man didn't even haggle on this thing."
"But hey, at least Valmont will be happy."
"And thats worth the cash, any day."
The elevator stopped, showing it had gotten them to their destination, and the doors slid open to reveal a rather large office like room, a set of large clear glass windows on the left side wall, allowing light in and giving whoever was in the room an impressive view of the city.
"We're back boss!"
An olive skinned man with whitish blond hair wearing a green suit sat at a ornate wooden desk at the back of the room, stood up as the men approached the desk, setting the shield upon it.
"Where did you three find this?"
"At some antique shop in chinatown, but the old man running the shop didn't even haggle for it, funnily enough."
"Is this all that you bought or..?"
"Yea, well, there was this statue they had but the old man said it wasn't for sale so-"
"Describe it to me."
"Well, it was like a dragon, kind of-?"
"It was like one of those eastern dragons, except it was curled up like a snake!"
"..was the statue on a shelf or..?"
"No boss, it was hanging on a wall."
The man raised an eyebrow in absolute confusion.
"Are you absolutely sure?"
"We're sure, boss."
The man went into thought, fiddling with the cane in his hand as he did so, and the three men stood and waited, not wanting to derail his train of thought.
When he finally got an idea, he stopped moving and turned to face his employees.
"I want you to go back to the shop you found the shield in and try to find out as much information on that statue you saw as possible, do i make myself clear?"
"Of course, boss."
"Yes sir."
"Clear as crystal."
"Good, as for the shield, hang it up next to the vase from the ming dynasty."
The shield was hung up as their boss requested, the man sitting down at his desk and he picked up a nearby telephone.
"What are you doing, boss?"
"I have to make some calls. Just..do as i told you."
The men then left, heading to the elevator, and used it to head back outside.
•Antique Shop: The Next Morning•
"Uncle? What are you doing up..wait, did you not sleep last night?"
"Uncle was doing research, very important."
"But all night? Geeze, i haven't had an all nighter since my freshman finals in college."
"Uncle may not be young anymore, but he can be very determined."
Alex yawned as he poured himself a cup of coffee, and walked over to the demonic statue on the wall.
"So.."
"I've given what you said some thought, mortal."
"Oh, really?"
"..yes, i have."
"And?"
"Well, as much as i hate to admit it, you are correct in the fact that..i will need help in retrieving the rest of my talismans, seeing as how i'm..like this."
"Thats good."
".."
"What?"
"Aren't you all going to help me?"
"Well, i mean we will, when you ask."
At that moment, Jackie walked up to him.
"So, whats his answer..?"
"Shh."
The statue growled, its eyes flaring up as it did so, before it spoke.
"Will..will you all help me get the rest of the talismans?"
"See, was that so hard? And yes, we will, right Jackie?"
"As long as he doesn't give us a reason otherwise, then yes."
"Oh, before i forget-"
Alex took out the rooster talisman and put it into the first slot, where it glowed a reddish orange glow for a few moments before fading away.
The demon let out a sort of groan, like it was stretching its arms out after sitting in a chair too long.
"You aren't going to say thank you?"
The demon didn't answer, but Uncle then came out of his study, holding a leatherbound book in his hands.
"Uncle has good news."
"What is it, Uncle?"
"Uncle has discovered that the demon's name is Shendu."
"..that's it? Did you find any information on the other talismans?"
"Uncle is still looking, but he will let you know when he finds something."
The man took another drink of his coffee, setting the cup on a small table next to him.
"Even if we could find a way to find them, how would we get to where they are?"
"We'll think of something, we just have to do this one step at a time."
Alex gave a nod as he yawned, grabbing his coffee off the table, taking another drink from it.
"What are you drinking, mortal?"
The man turned towards Shendu, swallowing his drink of coffee before answering.
"It's coffee."
"What is coffee?"
Alex stopped for a moment, but then realized that Shendu likely didn't have it back before he became a statue.
"Its like tea, only..more caffeinated."
"And i'm guessing you mortal's drink it to keep awake?"
it made sense, he had seen them drink it after all.
"Yes, mostly. Maybe when we get you back to how you were, you could try some."
He switched on the nearby radio, which was on one of those music stations that one would listen to on their way to work, or if one were stuck in heavy traffic.
It wasn't bad, but it was really the only kind of music they could listen to that uncle didn't complain about.
"Then why don't you drink tea?"
"Just not a tea person."
"Hmm."
The man sat down in the chair behind the front desk, prepared for any potential customer's that might come in.
It was honestly a waiting game, and usually a few would come in now and again, but most of the time the shop was quiet, which was nice.
However, the man fell asleep without even realizing it, well, he did once he felt uncle finger flicking him in the head, which made him wake up.
"Ah! I'm awake!"
"Why are you sleeping? Uncle needs you in case customer's come in and want to buy Uncle's wares!"
"Sorry uncle, guess i was more tired than i thought..given what's happened over the past few days.."
"Well, if you have trouble to stay awake, then Uncle will make some tea."
He heard Uncle walk away, his footsteps disappearing into the backroom of the shop.
The man laid back in the chair, letting out a yawn.
'Jackie did say to take this one step at a time, after all.'
"Yet, i have a feeling that this isn't going to be easy, no matter what we do, even with Shendu's assistance.'
"Maybe i could talk to him.."
Alex glanced over at shendu, but noticed he looked like he was..sleeping?
Was..that even possible?
He'd have to ask him later.
However, the front door bell dinged, and the man turned to see who had entered, and noticed it was the three guys who bought the shield the other day.
'Their back? Well, suppose i can't blame them.'
Uncle came out from the back room, greeting them in his usual way.
"Mind if we look around? Our buyer wants to see what else you have to sell."
"Not at all, but if you break it, you buy it!"
The three men split up, going to different parts of the store, looking over the artifacts that were on display.
Alex still kept an eye on them, glancing at each of them when he could, even laying back in the chair so he could see them when they were behind him.
They didn't seem to notice, either.
"Hey, old man, could you tell us about this?"
Uncle came out from the backroom, seeing the japanese man holding a light greenish jade statue in his hands, seemingly being careful with it for..well, as uncle told them "you break it, you buy it."
"Ah, yes, that is a very interesting piece."
Uncle walked over to the man and began to explain the piece to him.
"Alex, do you mind coming to help me up here?"
The young man looked up to see Jackie holding a laundry basket in his arms, which looked to be about half full of dirty clothes.
"Sure, be up there in sec!"
He got up and made his way past them, walking upstairs to help Jackie, going into his room and bringing out his own dirty clothes, setting them into the basket.
However, unknown to any of them, the bouncer looking man had snuck past and into the backroom, coming back out after a minute or two and made it look like he was looking at what was nearby.
"So, how much do you want for it?"
"Let uncle think..how does 2000 dollars sound?"
"Sounds good to me."
They paid for the statue, then left, Uncle heading back into the backroom of the shop.
•Down the street•
"Can't believe we managed to do that."
"Yea, we must of gotten lucky."
"Thankfully i managed to get a photo of that statue while you were talking to that old geezer, Chow."
"And i took pictures of an old book while you were negotiating."
They continued walking, not breaking their pace as they weaved through the people walking the other direction.
"Why didn't you just steal the book, Ratso?"
"They would've noticed it was gone."
"He has a point there, finn."
"Anyway, at least Valmont will be happy."
As if on cue, a limosiune pulled up to beside them, the side window rolling down the reveal Valmont sitting inside.
"Get in you three, we have a meeting to get to."
The three men got in, sitting on opposite sides from valmont, shutting the doors behind them as the limosuine drove off.
"So, what did you find?"
"We have this statue-"
Chow set the statue on the small table in the center of the seats, but Valmont did not look impressed.
"Did you find anything on that statue you mentioned?"
"I got a picture of it, boss, and Ratso took pictures of a book they had-"
"Believe us, you'll like em!"
Valmont fiddled with his cane abit, looking at the three of them.
"..good job, but i'll have to look over them later, as i said, we have a meeting to get to, and we can't be late."
"Who's this meeting with, boss?"
"Oh, just an old friend of mine."
Chow, Finn and Ratso had a gut feeling that whoever this old friend of Valmont's was..they were not one to be messed with..