41Disclaimer: I don't own Jackie Chan Adventures; JCA and all its characters are the property of Phil Weinstein, Frank Squillace and Jackie Chan himself.
A/N: Hello gain, dear readers. As always, many thanks to all the reviewers, and people who spend their time in reading this thing; I love you all. So, it's Innsmouth next, probably the first location people think of when hearing about Lovecraft. This city is the last stop in the Massachusetts arc, and so it's going to have this chapter and the next one dedicated entirely to it, plus a bit from the one after those. Without anything else to say, let's start. As always, more notes at the chapter's end.
Jackie Chan Adventures
Out of the Corner of the Eye
Chapter twelve
Depths of Innsmouth
From the journals of Marcus Malone. Twelfth entry. November of 1967
Grandfather. I'm a grandfather now; been one for months. Just like I became a father for Wilma in the blink of an eye so has she become a mother to little Joseph and Jonathan too. Seventeen, my little daughter is just... but she is the consort of the Lurker at the Threshold. Her sons are Princes... Lavinia seems a bit taken aback too. Wilma, our daughter... she doesn't feel like being the same she was.
As for the Project... I suppose it has already reached its final stage. My grandsons are the proof of that, and I suppose what Lord Nyarlathotep intends to do with Jie and his family... Is this what our dear Wizard Whateley tried to accomplish? Is this what I wanted? I don't really know...
I'm sorry for not being able to properly explain, I had a terrible dream tonight, and it has been bugging me in the head since. You see, in my dream I was suddenly back into my old home, when I was just a child. I was in my family's dining room, and there was a large table where the Defiler, a Mi-Go and a Deep One were sat. Presiding the table was no other than my friend, Robert Black. He told me to sit down and eat... and we were eating nothing but my old friends, my former companions when I was just a simple journalist. And I ate their flesh, and drank their blood. We had their brains for supper. Then the strangest thing happened; I blinked... and my friend Robert Black shifted into the albino that I met back in Germany. I blinked, and he was a Japanese man I only know from books, Oda Nobunaga, I believe. I blinked one last time... and Robert became an individual that towered over the rest of the attendants. He was dressed in a large, dark robe that covered his whole, large body. Long arms, as long as himself in fact, reached to one spot and another of the table, grabbing food. He was skeletal, only skin and bones, and only four fingers in his hands. The skin was black... and I mean black as oil. And the face... there was... only a mouth there, only a mouth full of three lines of sharp teeth made of pure gold. He smiled at me, and then laughed. I laughed too. I understand now, what Robert means. What He means.
We are nothing but a joke, aren't we? Good, evil, morality… they are nothing but part of the same joke we are. But I want to be here! I need to be here, for my family! I don't want to be a joke! There has to be a way… some way to remain living…
Deep into the ocean…
Innsmouth had always been a town of fishermen. In fact, the first thing that had barely resembled any form of civilization had been nothing but a small settlement of fishermen, living in small and bad built cabins made out of good and junk. Those fishermen didn't neither want nor need more; living there, living from the goods that the sea gave them, that was enough for them.
It wasn't until the year of 1643 that the place started to become something that could be called town. During the following century, the town grew exponentially, always dedicated to fishing; until 1812, when the winds of war made the trades the town had with the South Seas to falter. It wasn't until sixteen years later that, in 1828; the founder and patriarch of the Marsh family, Obed; made contact in the Polynesia with a certain civilization. He made a contract with them, and brought them, guided them, into Innsmouth's shores. In 1840, the Esoteric Order of Dagon was founded in the town; and Innsmouth experienced a great upsurge. Since then, the town and the civilization remained in contract, and with the passing of time, and especially after the arrival of the Whateley Project; the town and the civilization blended with each other... until a point in which Innsmouth belonged to that civilization more than it belonged to the United States of America, or the planet Earth, for that matter.
And so Innsmouth remained, with the civilization deep beneath the sea that married its coasts. Tranquil, peaceful, waiting... Waiting... Deep below...
Until they heard the sound of wheels, coming towards the town, towards their shores, towards their home. They stirred, deep below, under the waves. Moving, whispering, asking and theorizing. Gathering in the hall, where the coming wedding was still under preparations for the new moon. Roaring; with webbed hands and strong fins; scaled bodies tall and small and of every color imaginable. The citizens of the citadel, the Guardians of the Sea…
"Father! Mother!" echoed their voices. "Who has come?! Who are the outsiders?! Are they friend, or foe?!"
In the end of the large hall, so large it was that it resembled a city's boulevard, was a pond of dark water. Inside it two forms were swimming, and albeit how exactly they looked couldn't be seen, it was clear that they were far larger than the rest of the city's inhabitants.
"No, not enemies, not foes;" answered the deep and sonorous voice of the Father.
"Yet they are important pieces in the play. And one bears blood of the Court. They should be treated as guests;" answered the Mother, her voice gentle yet strong, like a calmed sea before a tidal wave comes.
"Then as guest they will be treated! Invited to the wedding!" the inhabitants of the city said in unison. "They will accompany the bride to the altar!"
And so they started to prepare, deep below, under the waves, deep into the ocean...
Here in magnificent Y'ha-nthlei. City of the Deep Ones.
Innsmouth; Massachusetts
I don't like this place; Tohru thought as he and the rest dismounted Ratso's van and started to walk into Innsmouth's streets, he and his former coworker at the service of the Dark Hand carrying their luggage (which wasn't so much, they were carrying mainly Uncle's potions and ingredients); Tohru at his back and Ratso in his hands. It's not only the smell, it's… something else. The sensation in that chamber under Miskatonic, that was just a remnant, but this feels… fresh.
The Chan Clan, in the company of Ratso and Viper, had arrived in Innsmouth at dawn, after an entire night of driving from Arkham, trying to put as much distance as they could between that city and themselves. The sumo had to admit, Ratso's van was good and comfortable, big enough for him to fit in; but this must had been one of the most uncomfortable drives in a van of his life. Necessity to leave Arkham or not, and gratefulness for her help or not, traveling in a small space with both Jackie and Viper wasn't a very good idea. The two adults had been trying their best to avoid the other's gaze, but the fact that they couldn't was pretty evident. The revelation of Viper's motivation for have being working for White had been pretty shocking to them all, and the fact that Jackie was hurt by the fact that Viper hadn't come to them for aid was nothing but a spoken secret. Jade had remained almost the entire trip sleep, leaning against one of the sumo's arms, and Uncle had acted as Ratso's co-pilot; much to the former enforcer's chagrin.
And now here they were, in their destination, in Innsmouth; as the sun rose in the horizon and over the sea, and some people started to exit their houses and walk the streets towards the harbor or open their small businesses; mostly composed of grocery stores, a pair of funeral homes, a trio of buildings taller than the others that he supposed were an hotel, the town's church (actually a magnificent cathedral) and the town hall… and fish shops. Fish shops all over the place, with the names of the families that the sumo supposed run them over the doors. And that kind of establishments always meant…
Fish…; Tohru thought in disgust as the owners of the shops put one or two metallic tables in front of their businesses; then covered them in crushed ice and started to put the damn, oceanic animal all over them; some of them so fresh that seemed alive. I hate fish; Tohru declared in his own mind. He didn't know exactly the reason behind his personal disgust over that type of animal. It wasn't a phobia, he could recognize fear when feeling it; but what he felt with the fishes was just… disgust. And apparently, Innsmouth's reputation as a fishermen's town wasn't just for show, as Tohru saw how many of the repugnant creatures were even from the deep sea, identifying even one of those famous Humpback Anglerfish, with its iconic antennae ending into a luminescent gland. Tohru couldn't avoid chuckling internally. For how much he hated fish, he really knew a lot about them, having to use some of the rarest species' parts in some of his chi potions. If this were a different situation, and they hadn't just escaped from whatever in the name of all gods in human history was that chamber under Miskatonic; he knew that Uncle would already be bargaining with the owners about those rare type of fishes. Why a town of fishermen, of all things? I could stand it if it were just the shops; but this horrid smell!
"And I thought that Dunwich looked old," Jade commented as they walked and turned a corner to access another street. "This place seems to have stopped its time in the thirties."
Jackie couldn't avoid agreeing with his niece. While Arkham was relatively modern and Dunwich had at least some presence of civilization; this Innsmouth looked like it hadn't advanced a bit. Like many of these towns of New England, especially the ones near the coast and the sea; Jackie knew that their structure was still the same from when they had been first built, with the houses resembling nothing but homes out of the second half of the nineteenth century. Dunwich had given him the impression of a place which houses had passed for several reformations, but the archeologist inside of him knew that these houses and edifications hadn't been reformed or changed in the slightest since the moment of their creation. That was strange, what kind of technique had they used to conserve them like that? They were old yet… they conserved themselves into the best of shapes. Not even the wood seemed to be decaying.
"Maybe towns like this don't need to change with times," Jackie said. "If its economy is based on fishing, as long as they can fish, I suppose they don't need anything else."
"You wanna know what I think?" Ratso asked next. "I think some people here look weird. Like… incredibly weird."
"That's just rude, man;" Jade answered. "They seem like very pleasant people to me."
Uncle was the one to react to Jade's sentence now, looking around, focusing in the few Innsmouthians that were in the streets with them. Ironically, the first word that came to Uncle's mind, even with the paranoia that had accompanied him and that had done nothing but grown since he had met with Joseph White; was the word 'Affable'. The men, women, children and elderly in the streets had all a smile in their faces, greeting their fellow citizens and the six of them with politeness. Yet like Tohru could, Uncle was able to feel the same unnamed feeling over the town. In the cobblestones of the streets, I the air and the thin fog that seemed to cover the whole place… there it was, this time alive, moving, looking. Uncle could feel it in the people too, and it wasn't just the overly big eyes, or the somehow strange skin with a variant green tonality to it. It was that all of them, less or more, but all of them gave him that feeling. His mind trailed back to that large chamber under Miskatonic and the photograph of that poor girl with an abomination sprouting out of her womb. There was something not right here, and the more the elder chi wizard thought about it, the more loose ends he was able to put together in his mind. But a part of him didn't want to.
You speak about justice, yet you let a good man die. That phrase, that damned phrase. It had hit him hard. And right now, thanks to that phrase, another term had joined the word Necronomicon inside his head, and that was the term Whateley Project. Damn it all, could he be related to all this mess? It could be befitting, Uncle know that he was capable of things like those… He was growing more and more fretful with every minute.
"Not wanting to interrupt the lovely chit-chat…" Viper aid then, taking the old man out of his thoughts. "But where exactly are we going to go now?"
That question remained in the air, as no one knew how to exactly answer to that. Viper rolled her eyes at the effect her question had made over her companions.
"Armitage spoke to Jade and me about something called Esoteric Order of Dagon that had the Necronomicon in their possession;" Jackie explained. "Maybe our priority should be to search for that."
"But we don't know where that Order is, or if even is within Innsmouth;" Tohru said. "We could use some information."
"What about that guy we met in the bus?" Jade asked. "Boggs, wasn't it? He said he owned an hotel here, and I bet it's that one;" the teen said while pointing to one of the tallest edifications. "Maybe we can get some info if we go there, and that's not speaking about a lace to rest a bit. No offense, Ratso, but your van it's not the best place to take a nap."
"Is niece crazy?!" Uncle asked aloud, gathering some attention from the bystanders, and thus deciding to lower his voice. "We are in enemy territory!" he said in a whisper.
"And what does that change?" Jade asked. "Even if some of these people are as bad as that Waite woman and those creepy things you found under the university, there's no proof that all of them are evil and monsters. I mean, what would the probabilities for that be?"
"Jade is right there," Viper seconded the teenager's sentence. "If we don't gather information we won't be able to find that book you are searching for, and it would be good to have a place to use as reunion point, for not speak about resting."
Uncle grunted a bit under his teeth. "Alright," he said after a bit. "But we must have eyes open the whole time! Uncle doesn't want to get assaulted by some force of evil in the middle of his sleep! One more thing! We must not let known what our intentions are until we are sure that there is no peril. So no one mentions book to anyone!"
Jackie shook his head slightly, albeit during the following days he had to admit that Uncle's paranoia had proven quite right at some points. Except for Dunwich, that was sure. Even if Director White was related to that flayed man Uncle had spoken about, the one armed man's mother couldn't… Jackie took a hand to the side of his head then, as a sudden sensation of pain had started to pick at the back of his skull.
"You alright?" Viper asked him, making Jackie to finch a bit upon hearing the former thief to direct herself to him directly.
"Yes, just a small headache;" Jackie said. "Probably because of the stress," the archeologist said trying to find an explanation, even if the pain was dimming out now. And yet he had heard something, something strident when the pain came.
Violent play of a violin…
The 'Gilman Warm House' hotel was a pretty impressive building, that's something one had to admit. Apparently, it had been the mansion of one of Innsmouth's richest families in the past, the Gilman family; and thus was a very huge and ample building, pretty in the exterior and quite comfy in its interiors. The floor was all upholstered in greenish carpet, the walls and ceiling all made of natural wood that still smelled to forest. From the ceiling, small lamps hanged and gave enough light to see and read, albeit Jackie was sure that in the moment night hit the coastside town, the light won't be a lot, and thus the hotel will appear considerably dark. He didn't have any intention of staying in this place the whole day, anyway. The sooner they found the Necronomicon and they get themselves back to San Francisco, the better. Upon entering, they found Ebenezer Boggs sitting behind a desk in the main hall, looking at his fingers as if he was looking for something.
"So y'all really came to visit beautiful Innsmouth, eh?" Boggs asked of the party of six members in the moment they arrived at his hotel and he noticed their presence. Apparently he hadn't forgotten them. Then again, Innsmouth received very few visits from outsiders, so the six's presence was surely noticeable. "Well, good ol' Boggs promised a discount, and discount he'll give!" the old man said while rubbing his bad dropped beard and clacking a laughter. "So how many rooms are going to be, friends?"
"Well, we are six, so…" Jackie started, but then old Boggs interrupted him by holding up a hand.
"Now stop there, lad;" man of the bad cropped beard said, surprising Jackie upon calling him 'lad'. "Good ol' Boggs knows that all of ya' are surely tired from the trip, and that the majority of you want to sleep alone and peacefully, but Innsmouth's holding a wedding tonight, and there're very few rooms free."
"Oh, you mean little Lily's brother's wedding, right?" Jade asked, remembering what the little girl in the bus had said to her about that. Boggs gave an affirmative nod.
"Aye, Barnabas Marsh is marrying tonight, under the moon," Boggs said. "Second member of that family having that name, the lil' boy. Hehe, time really passes very fast."
"Wait, does that mean that we will have to share a single room?" Tohru inquired in a polite tone, a sentiment that the others didn't share in the slightest.
"Nay, I still have three rooms free, and one of them is individual," Boggs said, taking three keys with numbers plastered into them from a drawer of the desk. "Here, 214, 215 and 216;" he read the numbers, before tossing the last one towards Jade. "That's the individual one."
"Score!" Jade said aloud while gripping the key and holding it up in her fist.
"Wait, why does she get the individual one?" Ratso asked displeased.
"'Cause a girl of that age needs privacy, friend;" the old man answered to the Italian-American man.
"Yep, I need privacy, all the privacy in the world;" Jade said, grinning like a devil.
"215 is for the gentlemen," Boggs explained, probably referring to Tohru, Uncle and Ratso. "And 214 is for the couple here. By the way, ma'am, didn't see ya' in the bus to Dunwich;" Boggs aid to Viper. "But neither did I meet the man in the bad suit! No offense, friend!" he said to Ratso, who rolled his eyes upon the man's commentary about his clothes.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait…" Viper said then, raising her hand a bit. "Who are you calling a couple?"
Boggs raised his hand and pointed to both Jackie and Viper, his index finger fluctuating between both of them. "I'm referring to you two, of course."
There was silence, then there was some unintelligible nonsense that Jackie mumbled, and an enormous shout of 'WHAT?!' from Viper, and then the two adults had started to yell to the poor man that they weren't a couple.
"Nah, ya' not fooling anyone;" Boggs said. "Good Ol' Boggs is the best knowing these things. You two are a couple, my gut says so."
"Oh, your gut is really going to be saying something once I kick…!" Viper started to say, but then Jade took her by one arm and decided to drag her out of the room.
"No kicks, no hits;" Jade said. "C'mon Viper, let's check my room, and then we will talk and calm ourselves…"
Once Jade and Viper had exited the main hall, Jackie took the key to the room number 214, his and Viper's luggage (which amounted to no more than a bag) and headed in that direction, in silence and with an angry expression. That left Tohru, Uncle and Ratso alone alongside Boggs.
"I touched an open wound there, didn't I?" Boggs asked to nobody in particular.
"You have no idea," Tohru answered, sighing and rubbing the back of his head. The sumo took one of the family's credit cards from out of his pocket. He found somehow ironic that he was, along with Jackie, the one responsible for carrying those. Even if she had progressed, Jade was still a teenager, and somehow chaotic in her organization, and Uncle surely didn't even know what a credit car was. Even if he owned a shop. Even if credit cars had been around since the first half of the twentieth century. "Here, Mr. Boggs, take your payment."
"Thank you very much, friend;" Boggs said, taking the credit card and getting his fee. Ha! Old city with old customs, yet they had enough technology to use credit cards and informatics systems. "And sorry for bothering those two, when my gut tells me something, I have to say it."
"I suppose it's nothing, Mr. Boggs;" Tohru said in his usual polite and gentle attitude. "You couldn't have known."
"Say, Boggs;" Ratso asked then, looking around. "This place's called 'Gilman Warm House', but you said you own the place. And you aren't a Gilman, right?"
"Ain't no Gilman myself, nay;" Boggs answered, rubbing his head. "But the last Gilman took to the water long ago. Left their old bud Boggs with the hotel, and I run it since then. It's hard sometimes… considering I got no family of my own still on the land. But Innsmouth takes care; so I must follow doing my job."
"Took to the water?" Ratso inquired again.
"Aye, gone to the ocean;" Boggs explained. "Those people that worship that man in the crucifix go to that… 'Heaven', nay? We go to the water, to the deep. So are the teachings of the Order of Dagon."
"Does Boggs-man mean the Esoteric Order of Dagon?!" Uncle shrieked, stepping into the conversation with the same delicacy of a truck striking a porcelain store. However, Boggs didn't seem to take that at heart, and just shrugged and snorted.
"Aye, that's it," Boggs answered. He ten raised an eyebrow slowly towards Uncle. "Why the interest? Want to convert?"
Before Uncle could retort, Tohru stepped in and answered in his sensei's stead. "You see, our friend Jackie…"
"The lad in the blue pullover."
"Right… Well, he has to do some research on the Order for his work at San Francisco's university;" Tohru explained, bending truth with the best lies he could think about. "And he decided to transform this into a trip for all the family. It would be great if you could help us, Arkham and Miskatonic… didn't turn out as we expected."
"Ha! Miskatonic is full of geniuses that are too full of themselves to use that genius," Boggs said. "But if ya' searching for the order, it's the cathedral near the harbor. That's the principal place for the mass anyway."
"Thank you very much, Mr…"
"We must depart there immediately!" Uncle yelled again, starting to walk towards the door.
"But what about Jackie, Jade and Viper; sensei?" Tohru asked.
"And what about our luggage, man?" Ratso asked too. "I have things in there," he said pointing to the wallets he had taken from Arkham. "Like my degree; or my diary!"
"Nephew, niece and thief have things to settle!" Uncle yelled from the hotel's gate.
"And I'll carry your luggage to your rooms, don't worry, friends;" Boggs stated, earning a thankful glare from Ratso in the process.
"Quick!" came Uncle's yell again, now from the street. Sighing, Tohru made a sign to Ratso in order to follow him, and they departed, but not before Boggs directed himself to them for the last time.
"Say, before you go;" the old hotel owner said. "How's that fellow old man named?"
"He…" the sumo started to say, but then realized that he didn't know about Uncle's real name. "He is just Uncle, Mr. Boggs;" Tohru answered. "Why do you ask that?"
"Reminds me of some young lad that came here once; when I was pretty and young too;" Boggs explained. "One of Mr. Black's… close friends, I believe. Jie was his name. They're quite similar, your old man and him."
"I don't know, Mr. Boggs;" Tohru said with a smile as he and Ratso started to walk again towards the door. From the opened gate, they could see Uncle already strolling down the street. They wouldn't have a problem catching up with him due to his age. "Perhaps you mistook him for other man, but he is just Uncle Chan."
"Yeah, that was it!" Boggs said then, making Tohru to look back at him with a surprised look. The old man had raised one of his hands and pointed his index finger to the heavens, as if that reinforced his sudden moment of reminiscence. He had a happy grin on his face, the result of the memory coming back. "That was the name!"
"Jie Chan!"
Room 216
Can't believe they don't have Wi-fi; Jade thought as he checked her mobile phone. The signal of the phone was incredibly bad, too. Her room in the hotel was plain simple, actually. A bed, a window, a bathroom with a shower, all clean and prepared for customers. Speaking of the bed, Viper was now sitting there, looking at one of the room's wall. Saying that she was looking into the nothingness would be more appropriate, however. But I should handle this first.
"Hey Viper;" Jade said as she sat down in the bed too, near the ex-thief. "So… almost ripped that old man a new one, eh?"
"Sorry for that," Viper apologized. "He just said… and I saw red, that's all."
"Look Viper;" Jade started, trying to found an appropriate way to handle this. "You know I look up to you, that I always have. And I'm know it's probably not my business, but could you please… tell me what happened in Italy?" the mention of that country made the former thief to shiver slightly. Great, she had touched just in the right spot. "You don't have to if you don't want… but you two were super happy with each other one day, and then you took a trip to Italy, and poof! Everything's gone! I mean, three years, that's a…"
"Pretty long time, right?" Viper cut in. "Yes, I thought the same when I took that trip to Italy. I mean, Italy, considering how much of a dork your Uncle is, I thought he would like that place. I mean, being a dork is one of the things I like from him."
Like, Jade thought. She said 'like', not liked. Wait, so she planned it? This sounds a lot like those kind of things that people do when… oh no…
"So we went to Italy, we took an hotel have the complete trip;" Viper explained, making one of her fingers to create little circle in the air. "We went to every museum in Rome, to the Vatican… Jackie looked like one of those kids that walk into a candy store. And don't misunderstand me; he was a total gentleman in every way, only starting with those cutely annoying expositions of his… so one day we went to this restaurant near the Coliseum and…"
"Oh my god. You proposed to him;" Jade said in a completely surprised tone, and Viper tilted her head towards her, and for the first time in her life Jade saw the ex-thief with teary eyes. Something was wrong there, Viper didn't cry. She had never saw her cry, in the same way she had never seen Jackie cry. Badasses didn't cry. But people did. Everyone cried.
"Yes, yes I did;" Viper answered. "I thought that your Uncle would never ask for himself, so I decided to do. He usually said that he loved that courage about me… I thought that he was thinking in a similar way that I did…" Viper's voice trembled slightly.
"And he just said 'No';" Viper answered. "And left."
Room 214
Jackie was carefully unpacking some of his clothes from his bags when he heard something coming towards the room he supposedly had to share with Viper. It wasn't even your typical room for two people, no. It was a freaking double bedroom, with just one, enormous double bed. Yes, because that was the thing he wanted the most right now, thinking about Viper and himself as a couple, right.
The noise sounded nearer and nearer by the moment, sounding very similar to someone stomping in the floor of the hotel while yelling and cursing. It didn't last long until Jade opened the door to the room with a kick, entering with the angriest expression Jackie had ever seen on the teenagers face.
"Jade! What are you doing?!" Jackie asked, concerned by the door, even if it hadn't occurred anything to it. good door.
"YOU'RE AN ASSHOLE!" Jade yelled at the top of her lungs.
"I'm what?" a stunned Jackie asked.
"An asshole!" Jade repeated. Something wasn't good there; Jade never spoke to him like that. Her hands had even started to ignite themselves in small flames. "Viper told me about Italy! Who could you be such a prick?!"
"Jade, wait!" Jackie heard Viper's voice coming right from the hall. The ex-thief reached the frame of the door, and looked at both of them. Jackie didn't lose two seconds before frowning.
"You told her?!" Jackie asked in an angry tone, but Jade interposed herself between the two adults.
"Oh no! You aren't shouting at her!" the teen said, her golden-like amber eyes flashing with fury. "Why shouldn't she have told me?! How was I supposed to know otherwise?! Would you've told me that you were an asshole?! And silly me thinking that this had been a misunderstanding … well no, you were a prick the whole time!"
"Jade, that's enough;" Viper told the teen from the frame of the door.
"You know? You're fucking right!" Jade said while storming out of the room. "This is your shit, not mine! You handle it! I'm gonna take a walk before I burn this whole motherfucking place down!" Jade walked the small hall and went directly to Innsmouth streets, stomping the cobblestone grounds as she walked in a state beyond fury.
Jackie and Viper looked at Jade go, the ex-thief entering the room shortly after. She looked at her luggage, and then looked around to see that the double bed and had a very similar reaction to Jackie's. Sighing, she started to unpack the necessary things she would need for a day.
"You should have told her," Viper told Jackie as she unpacked her things.
The archeologist continued with his unpacking too. A part of him was angry at Viper for telling Jade about what had happened, another one was angry at himself for not telling Jade, and another one felt… ashamed.
"I know," Jackie said. He breathed deeply. Perhaps Jade was right. It was time to talk about some things.
Innsmouth's streets
That jerk! All the time thinking that uncle Jackie had his reasons… and he was just a coward!; Jade thought as she walked down Innsmouth's streets, turning around corners and entering alleys at random. How could he say 'No' to Viper? No one should say 'No' to Viper! I wouldn't say 'No' to Viper!; the teen turned around abruptly, then to the left of a street, and then into an alley that smelled to cat's pee. They loved each other, and he said 'No'! I could have little cousins by this point! And I would take them to amusing parks, and then train with them… And Jackie and Viper could have been fucking happy!
Jade stopped in her mindless rampage, and breathed in and out to calm herself. Some of the bystanders of Innsmouth had been staring at her the whole time, perplexed of seeing a sixteen year old girl just walking mindlessly around, cursing and frowning.
But I don't know his reasons either, Jade thought in a more calmed way. Damn it, why can't those idiots make a thing simple? If you love someone, then you love him or her; nothing else! Man, look at me thinking this, glad Steph isn't here, or she would start talking to me about Paco again. I wonder how he's doing. What could he do if El Toro was the one on this mess? Probably nothing, I doubt that El Toro has any problems with women…; Jade started to walk normally, returning to one of the town's main streets step by step. I need to calm down.
"Miss Jade!" a cheerful, innocent voice came from the other end of the street Jade was in that moment, and turning over her heels the teenage agent of Section 13 saw a small figure running towards her, jumping just a few meters away in order to collide with her chest, sending her to the ground.
"WHOA!" Jade shouted in surprise as she hit the cobblestone pavement and Lily, the small Innsmouthian girl she had met during their bus trip to Dunwich, now wearing a backpack full of what seemed to be papers; hugged at her strongly.
"Miss Jade, Miss Jade!" the little girl with hair similar to seaweed said while rubbing her little head against the teen's chest. "You came to Innsmouth! How're you?! What're you doing here?! Did you come to my bro-bro's wedding?!"
"Hi Lily;" Jade greeted the girl, not even bothering to ask from where exactly had she came from. After all, she did that all the time when she was younger. "Why did you charged onto me?"
"'Cause I wanted to hug you!" the girl answered while getting herself off from Jade, and back to her feet. Jade stood up too, and looked at the grinning girl from above. Then she proceeded to rub the small child's head in a friendly manner, making her chuckle.
"I can't get angry at you, can I?" Jade told her. This was exactly the kind of thing she needed, a distraction. "So, what especial mission are you up to this time?"
"Oh! Oh! Oh! I'm giving these out!" the child answered, pointing to her backpack. "Pamphlets for big brother Barnabas' wedding!"
"Someone is really excited," Jade commented, and the girl smiled and started to make small jumps.
"Of course I am!" Lily answered. "Brother will marry with politic sister, who's very nice and takes me to swim in the ocean! And they will be happy, and I will go swimming with both of them! And then I will have nephews and nieces!"
"Hey, mind if I help you a little with those pamphlets?" Jade asked her. Because I really could use some time with a cute ball of energy like you in order to forget that my uncle's an idiot.
Lily's face lighted in delight. "Sure! Especial mission with Miss Jade! Father and Mother are going to be so happy! Can I take you to bro-bro's wedding too?"
"I don't know, kiddo. Maybe? Are you sure your parents will be okay with that?" Jade said while little Lily took her hand and started to drag her across the seaside town's streets, giving one pamphlet with strange runes to all the bystanders they encountered. The girl didn't seem to give much thought to the teen's response. She somehow missed that, the years when she had been just a small kid, without secret agencies, when it was just her wanting to go into a mission partially to live an adventure, partially to mess with Jackie. But this sure seems like a nice place, if they decide to invite the whole town to a wedding…
Room 214
"I... put your clothes in that side of the closet," Jackie told Viper as he pointed towards the piece of furniture. They had unpacked almost everything needed for a single night. Even if Jackie didn't want to spend much time in this town, if they needed it to find the Necronomicon, so be it. But to be so close to Viper again was...
"Thank you," Viper muttered in a neutral tone while she checked the bathroom they both were supposed to share. She exited it shortly afterwards,
Awkward. This was incredibly awkward. For Viper, on top of that, this situation was clearly frustrating. She hated the fact that they had spent fifteen minutes in the same room after Jade had called him out for what he did and he hadn't been able to say a thing in the matter. As always, she was the one that needed to give the first step. Yeah, because that didn't backfire last time.
Okay, here we go. "Why?" Viper asked to Jackie, who looked at her. "Why did you say 'No'? Back in Rome?"
"Ah..." Jackie whispered as he sat down in the bed. He didn't want to answer that question. He didn't know how. He knew why he didn't want to answer, but not how to phrase it. "It's difficult to explain, Viper."
"Then don't make it difficult," Viper said, maintaining the neutral form. I need to keep calm; I did enough of a show before.
Jackie hesitated if explain himself or not. Damn, this wasn't the time for these things. And yet he supposed that if this wasn't going to be the time, it would never be.
"I was... afraid."
Viper stared at him for a handful of seconds. Then she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the room's door. She chuckled sarcastically. "If you say that you broke up with me after three years because you were afraid of compromise..."
"It has nothing to do with that," Jackie said while rising up and walking towards the other side of the room, looking out the window to the sight of Innsmouth, the sun starting to get high in the sky, a sign that dawn was starting to pass and that they were starting to get in the morning. "I was scared of…;" Jackie said while using his arms to gesticulate to the whole room. "Of all this;" he finally said, and albeit someone else could get confused, Viper understood him perfectly.
She chuckled dryly again, and sat down in the bed just like he had done moments ago. "At that point? Three years of being in a relationship, plus all the others you fought dragons, and ninjas… and you thought of it at that point?"
Jackie approached the bed and sat beside Viper. "When you showed me that ring, I saw a lot of things. I saw a wedding, and a new life, and even a little kid… and then what? How much time until some… High Apostle of Hades, or some Fallen Angel... or these Great Old Ones show up and destroy everything! Or kill me! What could happen when…?"
"How old were you when your parents died?" Viper asked suddenly, making Jackie realize of what he was talking about. Of what he really was afraid of.
"Four, I think;" Jackie said. "I don't remember it very well. One day my parents and I travelled to San Francisco. That was the first time I met with Uncle, his shop wasn't dedicated to shelling antiques yet. Then one day the three of them got out… and only Uncle came back. That day I cried until I fell asleep, that's the only thing I remember perfectly. I can't even remember my mother's face clearly, either my father's. When I saw you with that ring, the first thing that came to my mind was that 'That's really like her, to be the decisive one!'. Next thing was: 'I don't want any kid to pass for what I passed'; not in a million years."
"You could have told me that instead of running," Viper said, as both of them remained in the bed, looking at the floor.
"Being rational wasn't exactly my priority in that moment," Jackie confessed.
"Want to know something funny?" Viper asked after chuckling slightly to that last sentence. "I think that sixteen years old niece of you is more mature than both of us together."
"Probably," Jackie admitted. If not for Jade, none of them would be talking about this. "I'm sorry, Viper. For leaving you, disappointing you, and hurting you. I really am."
They remained there, sat in the double bed for a while, looking at the floor, at their feet. None of them said a thing after Jackie's apology… except for their stomachs. Right, no food to take to their mouths since that meal at Arkham.
"Do you think this hotel serves breakfasts?" Viper asked as she stood up from the bed.
"Let's find out," Jackie answered, getting up too and heading to the door.
"Right behind you," Viper said as a sincere smile appeared in her face. A smile her muscles had almost forgotten how to make, but that now they welcomed with opened arms.
"Tiger."
Esoteric Order of Dagon
Near the shores of Innsmouth, a church built during the town's first years of existence erected over the rest of the locality's buildings. In the past it had belonged to a small Christian community operating in Innsmouth, and it had been like that until Obed Marsh returned from his travels; bringing with him a new cult: The Cult of the Deep. With time, those new cultist took the place that the Christians had left, and with the passing of the years the Cult became Innsmouth's only religious order, changing its name to Order of Dagon after a decade, and then became the Esoteric order of Dagon; the name it had carried until today.
The church had been of course remodeled to suit the necessities of the new practitioners and cultists; and now, as Tohru, Uncle and Ratso approached it; the once small and partially mediocre Christian church had become a large building full of decorative ornaments, statues of idols run over its façade and ceiling all the way until the top of the bell-tower; a gothic church adapted to the new worshipping.
"It's exactly like Miskatonic," Tohru said aloud. "Only older." He was right in that; the imagery used in the ornaments was the same as in Miskatonic University, with the same strange looking creatures being represented in the façade. "Sensei, are you sure we should be doing this without Jackie and the others?"
"Bah! Nephew, niece and thief can take care of themselves! Sooner we find book, the better!" the elder said, albeit Tohru wasn't worried that Jade, Jackie and Viper were the ones in the need of help. Las time he had entered in a building in the company of Uncle and Ratso, it hadn't turned out well. "We must hurry and discover secrets behind this town! Uncle has a very bad feeling about this…"
We have been having a bad feeling since the beginning, Tohru thought. And I'm starting to think, sensei; that there is something you aren't telling us.
Jie Chan. That had been the name, and Boggs had said that sensei reminded him of that man. Could it be a coincidence? Or could it be a relation? Were the answers in that church, that sinister cathedral? Uncle seemed eager beyond control to enter there, but even if he said that they must search the Necronomicon, there was something else motivating him. Jie Chan. It could be a common surname… but he had learned to not believe a lot in coincidences.
"So what do we do?" Ratso asked when they reached the church's doors. "Just knock and come in?"
Tohru shrugged. "We won't lose anything by trying." Except our lives, he added in his thoughts; maybe.
The mountain of man knocked three times at the church's gate, and after several minutes of waiting, they heard steps behind, and the gates opened slightly, revealing the face of a woman in her forties inside, with short bluish hair falling in a disorganized and bad way over her pale and somehow greenish toned skin. She looked at them as if they were the strangest things in the universe, and then opened the gate completely. Now able to see her completely the trio of men saw that she was a thin woman dressed in what looked to be a deep, dark blue version of a nun's gown; looking at them with wary eyes. She even could have looked afraid to any other person.
"Outsiders? Who are you? What do you want?" her voice was like a whisper, and if listened carefully one could note that she had some problems with phrasing, as if she wasn't accustomed to talking at all.
"I'm sorry for troubling you, ma'am;" Tohru said in his usual polite tone. His mother always said that politeness opened all doors. "But my friends and I are tourists here in Innsmouth. We would like to know a bit more about your order."
The woman tilted her head, and she seemed deep in her thoughts for a second, as if considering letting them in or not. "Tourist? Guests?"
"Yes, ma'am;" Tohru answered.
"Enter," she said in an emotionless tone, and she stepped aside from the entrance, letting the three men in. "But please, keep your voices down, we are in the middle of a rite."
The insides of the cathedral were dark, incredibly dark. They entered to the main hall of the building, where lines and lines of benches made of wood were lined in front of an altar. Candles projected a dim light that badly illuminated the place, and complete silence dominated, making the steps of the men to resonate across the hall. The woman's steps didn't make any noise, accustomed as she was to walk without disturbing anyone.
However, what took the trio of men's attention more than anything else was the group of six figures clad in scarlet hooded robes that were in front of the altar… and the altar itself. It depicted a large being with draconic features, such as wings and large, scaly limbs. But the head seemed like an overgrowth octopus, tentacles falling down as if emulating a beard. It somehow reminded Tohru of the form that Drago had took after absorbing all eight fragments of the Demon Sorcerers' chi; except that the being this statue seemed to represent felt… unnatural. It was such a bizarre sight, yet none of them seemed to be able to get their eyes off of it.
"Who's… what's that thing?" Ratso asked in a whisper.
"That's mighty Lord Cthulhu;" the nun explained. "The Order of Dagon is dedicated to its worship. Please, don't call him a thing or a what; I beg you."
"And Dagon?" Tohru asked then.
"Lord Dagon is our High Priest, and other of the deities of the sea alongside Mother Hydra;" the woman answered. "Lord Cthulhu's mouth and eyes until he wakes up from his slumber. And mighty Lord Cthulhu is the High Priest of the otherworldly and glorious Outer Gods too;" the woman explained with a hint of pride in her voice. She must have studied those words day after day.
"Iä, Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!" the group of six members yelled in unison as they kneeled in front of the statue and started to bend, their heads literally smashing against the ground. "Y'kher ghe'rrikha, pa'thuss b'eah!"
"What was that?" Ratso asked, a bit scared by the sudden yell that had cut the silence of the cathedral.
"The language of Aklo," the nun explained. "Those six are the choir of the Order; the ones that take care after the High Priest. They are asking lord Cthulhu to bless the coming wedding."
"Iä, Iä! Iä, Shub-Niggurath, the'shil ookalt'shelem!" the choir yelled once more.
"Now they ask Shub-Niggurath to bless the union with many children," the nun translated. "I think… I'm not as good as them with the Aklo."
"Ph´nglui mglw´nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah´nagi fhtagn!" the choir yelled once more. "Fhtagn! Fhtagn!"
"In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu awaits dreaming;" the nun translated. This one was very easy; it was typical for them to end a rite with that phrase. "Dream! Dream! That's what they have said."
Tohru doubted if remaining where he was, running, or wield his blowfish and fire a combination of chi beams and eye-beams towards the six members of the choir. Cthulhu, Shub-Niggurath… Jackie and Jade had told them about those names, they had read them in that copy of the Necronomicon. This wasn't an ordinary church and order, this was a cult worshipping those beings… beings that, considering everything that had happened, were as real as him. And also, how was possible to be dead and dream at the same time? 'With strange aeons even death may die'; had said Mr. Banski. "Where are the other members of the Order?" the sumo whispered to the nun.
"Oh, they went to prepare things for the wedding," she explained. "You know, this is a very important day. It's not very normal for a member of the Marsh family to marry an outsider."
"Aiyah…" Uncle whispered then, making Tohru and Ratso to look at him. The elder seemed to had lost all the energy he had when coming towards the cathedral, and now he just looked in disbelief and pure horror at the rite going on in front of him. That language, those words! He had heard them before! Oh, how could he had been so stupid?! How was he unable to make the connection sooner?!
"You!" the elder yelled towards the choir as he approached them in big steps. The six men rose up from the floor, and looked at Uncle, their faces covered in golden masks that mimicked emotionless faces. "Who are you?! Answer me, what do you worship?! What are you all planning?! Explain to Uncle for what are those words used for!"
"Sensei!" Tohru yelled, this time drawing out his blowfish for real.
"They won't speak!" the nun explained, apparently fearing the fact that Uncle had spoken to them so disrespectfully. "They made a bow to only speak in Aklo!"
However, nothing happened, and the six figures remained in silence, looking at Uncle as if trying to identify who he was and what he wanted. One of them extended an arm and pointed towards uncle with a finger. A finger that belonged to a scaly, grayish webbed hand; a fact that the three fake tourists noticed. The hand pointed to Uncle and then pointed to a door in the side of the hall, indicating to Uncle to go there.
Uncle looked at the door and then walked towards it, and Ratso and Tohru followed reluctantly. Opening the small door, the three of them accessed to an equally small room, an office of sorts. And there they found photographs, dozens of photographs filling shelves. And behind the small desk that they supposed belonged to one of the members of the choir, there was a big picture, hanged to the wall. In that photograph, eight men were lined up in front of the cathedral, smiling to the camera. Tohru was able to recognize the old man with his white hair in a ponytail and the black haired man that he had seen in that photograph under Miskatonic, with that girl. They were JW and RC, if he remembered correctly. The photograph had a small badge in the lower part of its frame, titled as 'Jeremiah Marsh and the members of Whateley Project.'
But Uncle wasn't looking to them, oh no. His eyes were fixated in the man standing most to the left of the group, at the side of a redhead man that the sumo identified a Francis White and another man with glasses, tanned skin and golden eyes that he didn't know about. The man, the young man (especially in comparison with the others) that Uncle was looking at with a horrified expression was a handsome Chinese in his early twenties or so, with black hair and a devilish smirk in his face. Even Tohru had to admit that he looked pretty… but the most troublesome thing was that he looked familiar.
"We must go out of this town," Uncle declared, turned around. "We must search nephew and the others and go back to San Francisco."
"But what about that book you came here searching for?" Ratso asked. "I didn't bring you all here from Arkham for nothing."
"Sensei," Tohru called.
"Book is not important! Our survival is! Uncle needs time to think, time to put all the clues…!"
"Sensei!" Tohru yelled, his face contorting into an angry expression. "Sensei, that man in the photograph; is Jie, isn't he?"
"How do you know that name?" Uncle asked in a raspy voice, which denoted both surprise at Tohru's question and the sound of that name.
"Boggs said that you reminded him of a man that used to come to his hotel years ago," Tohru explained. "A man named Jie Chan. Explain what is going on, sensei. I know that you know more than what you say. Who is Jie?"
Silence. Uncle didn't mutter a single word.
"Who?!"
Uncle breathed deeply in. He looked back at the photograph. Then he looked back at Tohru, and sighed in defeat. "Jie was the eldest son of Shin and Yu Chan; a couple of farmers that used to live in China before the revolution." Uncle made a pause that seemed to last an eternity. "He was my elder brother."
"And Jade's grandfather."
With Jade
Man, I can't remember last time I had such a fun time, Jade thought while she and Lily walked across Innsmouth, the little girl holding her hand and giving small jumps from time to time, giggling each time she did so. It's hard to find places like this, especially when you live in a city as big as San Francisco.
All over the morning, Jade had been helping little Lily with her personal 'mission' of giving the pamphlets to every Innsmouthian around. Everyone they had gone to visit had received them with a smile and politeness, and the best thing was that everyone seemed to know everyone. Every person they had given a pamphlet to knew that Lily was the youngest child of the Marsh family, and even if they didn't have to, they were incredibly cordial with Jade. She and Lily had even been invited to cookies in the last house they went to, and the old, big and fatty lady that lived here had even been joking with Jade!
I can't believe that something as bad as the Necronomicon is supposed to be can be in a town full of so many good people; Jade thought as she and Lily reached a grocery store that belonged to a man called Dominic Olmstead, a big man with black hair and a thick, short beard that reminded Jade of some interpretations of the pirate Blackbeard she had seen in films. After giving out the last pamphlet, Lily had decided to take Jade to meet with her soon-to-be politic sister. At first, the teenage secret agent had argued that that would be rude, but Lily had insisted, using that 'puppy-eyes' stare every children was able to do and that she couldn't resist. Kids really were her weak spot, weren't they?"
After a quick meeting with Mr. Olmstead, who seemed a tad more serious that the rest of the Innsmouth population, Lily guided Jade to some stairs that descended into a cave underground, which have an enormous lake of water in it; probably formed from the water that came from the sea. The walls were all covered in luminescent crystals that casted a beautiful yet eerie greenish light over the cave.
"Whoa!" Jade said in genuine surprise. "Who could imagine a place like this is under the town?"
"It's pretty, right?" Lily asked. "Children learn to swim in these, so when we met the sea we don't get hit by the strong waves. They're always connected to the sea, and you can go in and out of Innsmouth using them."
"You really seem close to the sea, eh?" Jade asked as little Lily let her hand go and approached the small lake.
"Mom taught me that every child of Innsmouth is a child of the sea," Lily said. "And I love the sea! Politic sister!" Lily called. "Where are you?! I know you are here!"
Suddenly, Lily took off her shoes and jumped straight into the lake, surprising Jade to the extreme.
"What the hell?!" Jade shrieked, worry in her heart as she saw the child disappearing between the waves. "Lily!"
"What?" the little girl asked as she emerged from the water up to her neck.
"Oh god, you scared me!" Jade told her.
"But Miss Jade, haven't I just told you?" Lily said as she swam towards the border of the lake, putting her palms over the stone to make impulse and come out. "That every child of Innsmouth is a child of the sea?"
Lily took impulse and exited the lake. Her upper half got out of the water just fine, same as when it had gone in. Then her lower half came out of the water. And Jade saw a tentacle, and another one, and another one... all the way up to eight tentacles. And Lily stood up over the ground of stone, her lower half basically the one of an octopus.
"Do you like my tentacles, Miss Jade? They're slippery!" Lily declared; struggling a bit to maintain her balance in the land. "They said I should be able to leave land in a year or so..."
Shit...; was the only thing Jade could think about. "You're... you're a mermaid?"
Lily giggled innocently. "No silly! I'm a Deep One hy... hee..." the child seemed confused for a second, rubbing her head a bit. "Something that starts with 'H'."
"Hybrid," said then a guttural voice that spoke from the water. "Deep One Hybrid, little sister."
"Big brother!" Lily cheered, and Jade felt as if she had lost the ability to speak.
From the lake rose another individual, that came to the border of the extension of water in the same being Lily had done. However, in contrast to Lily, this one was completely fish-like. Standing over two powerful legs with webbed fingers was a muscled individual that, had he been human, would have been basket player material. For a face he had a lipless, sunken-eyed visage, looking like nothing so much as a humanoid coelacanth. At his back there was a huge and spiked dorsal fin, gills adorned his neck, and his mouth was full of pointy teeth no different than the ones Jade had seen in some fishes. The worst part was that he wasn't wearing any clothing from the waist down much to Jade's chagrin.
"Good morning sister," the 'brother', for lack of a better term, greeted Lilly while ruffling her hair. He then looked at Jade and sniffed the air. He then proceeded to make a small reverence. "And good morning to you too, my lady."
"I found her, I found her!" Lily cheered, her tentacles clapping against the floor. "Isn't she magnificent? Wait! Politic sister should be here, I can feel her!" Lily took her hands to her cheeks, making a silly smile. "Where you two kissing each other?"
"Yes... kissing;" Barnabas answered while rolling his eyes and smirking.
Not knowing exactly what was going on, but knowing that it was surely a bad thing, Jade clenched her fists and engulfed them in fire, prepared to fight.
"Okay, don't know exactly what's going on," Jade said as she readied her stance. "But I'm sure it's not a good thing. Who are you?! Why are you naked?!"
"Why shouldn't I be naked?" the fish-man asked. "And the name's Barnabas Marsh the second, for your information."
"If you make a single move, I swear I'll burn you two to ashes!" Jade yelled.
"C'mon Miss Jade, you're supposed to be in bro-bro's wedding," Lily protested. "Don't be a party pooper!"
"There's no need for violence," Barnabas said.
"I beg to differ," said then another, raspy voice coming from the water, making Lily's face to light up in more enthusiasm. The water in the lake twirled, and then a small amount of it shot from the lake and landed in the ground.
The amount of water started to condense then, forming a long, serpentine form. A long tail, two thin arms that ended in four fingered claws… A feminine form resembling a more stereotypical mermaid with tentacles instead of hair took shape, stretching her limbs and looking at Jade.
Ah, you've to be kidding me!; Jade thought in anger. "Bai Tza?!" the teen asked in shock.
The Water Demon narrowed her eyes at Jade, inspecting her from head to toes. Then she chuckled. "My, my; the little Princess of the Chan family."
"How much have you grown."
A/N: And… cliffhanger again! Man, this chapter was... shorter than I imagined, but I have decided to let some scenes out. I suppose I did enough with dropping the small bombs in this one. And yeah, Bai Tza is in Innsmouth. If you remember from previous chapters, when the Mi-Go handled that list of the Demon Sorcerers to White, he took interest in three. One was Hsi Wu inside Paco, other was the one infiltrated in the Compound; and the last one was Bai Tza, who had decided to play for the winner team… and marry a Deep One.
To my dear and usual Guest Reviewer Matt, I suppose this chapter should be an answer to your question. Actually, I have very complicated weeks this month, and that's not counting the coming ones., sso updates of this story should be less regular.
So, hope you all enjoyed; next chapter will be dedicated to a fight, a wedding, the first encounter of the Chan Clan with a Great Old One… and the Necronomicon, of course. Bye, Bye!