Our Time in Reverse – What it Takes
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Chapter 26: Treasure Hunting For Dangerous Shadow Walkers
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CAMEO TIME, 90's Club! Rejoice!!
The rest is explained. This is right before in my own telling, how the rooster talisman came to end up elsewhere. Fun twist, it was in the shop but the item wasn't looked over until it was too late. Finder's keepers?
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Down the bustling city lines in San Francisco Slade traveled in his worst disguise to date. An art collector, or just a guy waltzing by an antique shop that specialized in mostly Chinese and some South Asian pieces of pottery…charms.
He saw one thing that made it all worth the walk. The bell above the shop's door jingled, as Slade Wilson off the clock, eyed at every curiosity that his mind could contain in a single plot file.
He had one, Will had instructed about the readings of a strange storm brewing on the coast, mostly mistaken as interference or natural causes. Slade's main issue was being out of Robin's heads pace while the boy had his hands full consoling a possible Tamaranean simpleton.
Slade rolled his eye to a face on the wall. A golden disc, a battle spectacle, not of interest…. How curious he was…Oh, it had a small octagon shaped tile. Looked like -
No, a stone rooster , on a shiel -
"May I help you?"
The elder that walked out had a stereotype ideal that old was in. This was San Fran, not Burbank. He acted spry in Slade's scope, yet he was checking out the clientele very differently….
"Ah, yes. You have a lovely collection of wares and I couldn't help but come in to see for myself; I'm actually an art collector from New York and would love to see if you have…something for a dual purpose. I've been searching for an item and happened by… something. With…An interesting history –
" Aiya!" The man threw his hands up, and just after the door had been left shut, two others entered. A young, bright eyed ten-year-old (gonna say about) with dark hair and nearly hazel light brown eyes in an orange hooded sweatshirt, and a taller adult with a build under a blue top and of course… they looked to know each other.
No. Will had not said this place had a drama of anything of the –
"Hi uncle – oh! You look like a valued customer who's here to see some novelty ancient Chinese history, huh?"
The girl was tapped on the shoulder by the stern looking adult she'd returned with. "Now, Jade." The man had a rough accent yet spoke well as if you could never know he was already a resident for many years like his uncle.
"This man should not be bothered so quickly; his flight must have been troublesome… I apologize for my niece; she is only interested in –
"This business is not for the collective hand. It is for the soul and mind to ponder. NOT ." Uncle brought up a word, making Slade wonder if this was a wormhole he'd jumped into.
"Not, to just say he wants something with a use that is two sided, I do not concur it. What you said to me, sounds very sneaky…what did you say that your name was again?"
"Yeah, sir ?" Jade mimicked her uncle as Jackie, the taller Slade found, broke up the two. A man with some sense. Finally. And no sense of danger made that doubly ok.
"I was aware actually of a special staff used by a sorcerer in the far past. They say his occultic beliefs were driven by a mysterious entity. My gallery could use a good ghost story and I'd love to have it around by -
"Not for sale. Jackie??" The man drove out the last "e" to show Slade was done here. "Please handle this man while I decide what must happen."
"I think my uncle means that is far too…unpredictable what may happen if the staff were to leave this shop. We have given rights to it by the museum. You see –
"Uncle Jackie is a super dorky – but interesting…. archaeologist that specializes in discovering lost tombs and "preserving "cultural heritage sites..." Jade quickly air -quoted, seemingly a snooze to that fact. "He's usually no push over to money grabbers like –
" Jade!" Both Uncle and Jackie shouted in her ears as she grumbled and sat off to the side, eyes as sharp as a cat's. She'd be a great con artist if her grades slipped – there was reason to see them do just that. "What we can instead interest you in maybe, is a sword from the –
"That staff has a specific, symbol on it. Don't you have any more items like that one?"
As Uncle who already had the willies around the stranger was to this question, he wondered if his manner of not acting evil would hold. No one here could read his mind, or…
Could they read his chi?
Damn magical boys. First John C. Now?
"There are many ancient texts written ABOUT the staff of "Kagutsuchi - kami" (Borrowing a real name in myth partly "meaning he who starts fires") and superstitions surrounding how it was used to stop the brothers of thunder and lightning in the old stories…. you may take that. If you do not continue to concern Uncle!!"
This would be in season one around the ep of the shield, but my way. *
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He'd have to steal it, or rather….
Clicking his tongue, Slade went round the block while the Chan family as Will had informed, were stopping to chat about him with the window curtains all the way down.
"He was very…. deter –
"Ah! – ya!" The man used a book, the very same excuse to whap his nephew on the back of the skull rather forcefully. "You did not see what his true purpose was. The person in those cloths is no wolf, he was one upon entering my shop and his chi was raw with something I cannot consider…. good." The old man rubbed his chin in thought of this while Jackie rubbed the back of his neck. Jade mimicked Uncle and hummed before hopping off her corner chair where she'd been forced to wait, pacing like a young detective. "Maybe he's a super-rich jerk who collects stuff he wants cause his parents never told him –
"He is unsound, very dangerous. That face did not try to hide, but intimidate. I will arm the shop tonight, if I must."
"Uncle, you are just overreacting –
"If I am gonna be in this, I should have a code name, right Jackie? Stake – out time?" Grinned Jade as the idea made her leap up and down. "I bet he'll send assassins, or toadies who don't get paid like –
"There are no such characters in real life." Jackie corrected the child. "Honestly, you were allowed to stay because your grades are slipping and you need an activity to keep you more entertained –
"What's more entertaining than stopping a one – eyed criminal break in to steal a valuable staff from some ten – thousand-year-old sorcerer used to defeat elemental deities in Uncle's heyday?" Jade rolled her eyes, seeing as she'd been wiser all along. "C'mon! He was so fooling no one!"
"What…that poor man had two!" Jackie gawked as Uncle had his finger pointed at his one orb, the other was shut with a wry wrinkle. "The other was a fake, as I told you nephew. Not all wolves will walk in naked and bear their bellies as this one has. It wants to test us."
"You…."
Jackie looked to Jade, while Uncle was not going to stop…
"Fine, I will…. allow Uncle this…. stake – out…one time, BUT! Jade is to go to bed at a reasonable hour."
"I never get to do anything with you! No fair! Uncle is….old, and he still naps!" She pouted.
"I have slept with one eye opened and two eyes shut in the same scenario. This is just a memory, yet we must be prepared for whatever this man wants to take. That aura was very wrong, and I will show you the power of Uncle's ancient chi magic." Winked the old man.
"Tonight."
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"Tonight, Will." Slade knew this was a bad idea. The bot replica was still a prototype.
~Are you daft? That bug in the robot's processing could –
"It's only a fire hazard if it's not stopped in time. I can use that to my advantage. The girl will be a problem. And I fear…. that I'm not the only one agreeing on this."
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Right as Jade was told to go up to her room above the shop, the festivities would be a shortened event altogether. Slade wanted a clean break, no fuss. He programed the bots to salvage as much as they could, to look into the most likely thing he wanted as his own. The other bot was wearing a straw hat and a cloak in black. He didn't want it to be spotted right away. Why not have some fun on his day off while it lasted?
The kid wanted assassins falling all around her bedroom walls? He'd –
Slade then picked up from the bug camera as a second foot – race….
He looked closer. A few feet. Foot soldiers.
No, assass -
Not….
He saw the bots getting ready, then he saw shadows dance by them, and vanish.
Slade's eye narrowed at his luck. Competition ?? What for?
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Part two, anyone? Will be a cut between Slade not seeing what the shadow khan wants, getting what he is after and…. Robin consoling Star for the first time before fear itself comes to an end.
So far, Raven has been at this for a day because time on the outside can vary. Find out!
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