323Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.
Many special thanks to my guest reviewer Matt in my other story, Out of the Corner of the Eye; for reminding me of this little idea that I had forgotten.
Author Notes/Story Introduction: As many people in this website, my first encounter with both this shows was as a child. To say that they are probably the two cartoon shows that I identify most with my childhood would be an understatement. They had… something. In the case of JCA it was action and that 'adventure' vibe going on, and truth be told, I'm quite a fan of oriental folklore and seeing how that show run with it instead of the usual and more well-known European (ergo, mainly Christian) mythos was quite interesting. With WITCH it was mostly due to the well-made fantasy storytelling and how the show evolved within itself. Compare both seasons with each other, or just the first half of season one with its other half, and you'll know what I'm speaking about. And what the heck, I love Greg Weisman as a show-writer, and he being in the second season was and made the show awesome. And the funny thing is that… both of them could work pretty well together, and I don't even know why. Maybe it's the characters? Maybe the magic that both have in common? And that's how this little crossover came to existence. Read and enjoy, and for more notes, wait till the end of the chapter. Let's go.
Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters
Episode One
It Begins with a Bang
Hey. Hey, you! Yes, you there, I'm speaking to you! Don't look at me like that, I'm speaking to you, really. Hey, do you know what causality is? It's how you refer to the law of cause-effect, the thing what humans normally simplify by calling it 'fate'. It goes deeper than simple 'fate', though. Causality is the thing that keeps things together, the law that maintains reality as constant. Let me explain, it's ratter easy, I promise. Fingers not crossed!
Causality normally runs in a normal way that any human being can understand. Let's say that we have two rocks and put another two together with the previous ones. Then we would have four rocks! That, is causality. Cause: the addition, Effect: the result. And reality keeps itself together.
But what if there was the possibility to alter causality? What if we put four rocks together... and we obtained a fish? That would mean that the thread of causality has been changed, transformed, corrupted. And that would mean that reality has been warped, that something has transformed spontaneously and it's not the same anymore. This is what humans simplify with the phrase 'Fate is not written.' This can affect the smallest ends as it can affect the biggest ones. And transforming the quartet of rocks into a fish can develop into bringing beings to life, erasing and creating timelines, shaping worlds in your image, or merging entire universes. But you may be wondering, how is that possible? The answer comes as rather simple; just five letters and one simple word.
Magic
The life of Jade Chan had never been normal, and frankly she didn't want it in any other way. Her life in Hong Kong was fine, but boring. Her life with Jackie, in the other hand, had turned out to be incredible! Secret agencies, criminal organizations, magic, demons... she even knew kung-fu now! But everything had almost gone crashing down when, taking what must have been the easiest way to win in the history of good against evil; her family's arch-nemesis, Shendu (who Jade always referred to as 'old dragon breath') had possessed her uncle Jackie, travelled to Australia and used something called The Book of Ages in order to turn the world into his and his siblings' domain. Fortunately, she had escaped that fate by ripping a part of the page Shendu was rewriting, a part that contained her name. And now, as Shendu and his remaining brethren were being sucked to the Netherworld by a Portal conjured by a super-powered Uncle, the only thing needed to set everything right again was for Jade to stick the piece of paper where it was before.
In that moment, as she approached the altar, many things passed over Jade's mind. Over Shendu's however, who currently was being pulled towards the Portal, only one thing passed, and that was the fact that he was going lo lose again, to a child no less! As he used all the strength he was able to gather to hang over the border of the Portal, only one thought crossed his dark mind.
If I can't have the world, nobody will!, Shendu thought with hatred as he shot a pair of eye-beams by tapping into the power of the Pig Talisman inside of him. As soon as the beams were shot from his eyes and he was confident that they went in the right direction, Shendu put in a cruel smile and let the sealing spell to pull him completely into the Netherworld, which as a separated dimension from Earth, would remain unscratched. I have won, Chan; the dragon thought. After so many battles, I have won the war!
Jade reached the gigantic book, piece of paper in hand in order to finally return reality to its rightful form. She was so concentrated in her task that the little girl didn't notice the demonic dragon's attack coming right at her.
"Jade, be careful!" she heard her uncle Jackie, or more precisely Jackie's alternative counterpart who now was gigantic, calling for her. Jade turned around and was met by the pair of eye beams coming directly at her, and she heard herself scream in both surprise and terror. Her instincts kicked in and helped by Jackie's lessons in martial arts, they made her jump in order to dodge the attack… which instead struck the Book of Ages, leaving a fuming hole in its center, with the borders scorched.
Jade's face turned into one of horror, and she looked at Jackie just to find that he had the same expression as her. Everyone of the presents were looking at the results of Shendu's last act of pettiness, and were understandably shocked; more because they didn't know what was going to happen than because they knew that this was bad, really bad.
All of them gathered around the now broken book, and for several minutes, nothing happened. The tension that was building up was much worse than anything else.
"Maybe we should… I don't know put more paper on it?" the little Mexican boy asked.
"What do you think this is; a printer?" Jade asked with disdain, just for Paco to raise an eyebrow in confusion.
"What's a printer?" he asked sincerely.
Right, new timeline without technology…; Jade thought, but as soon as she was preparing for an explanation, she heard a noise that made the structure around them to tremble, and their ears hurt so bad that they were forced to cover them with their hands, albeit that did very little in order to help them. The sound was like a shriek of anger, sorrow and pain, like the desperate cry for help of a wounded animal. At first, Jade had thought that the book was the one screaming, but it wasn't just the book. it was the ground under her feet, the air around her… it were, space, time, gravity and electromagnetism. The one shrieking in pain and despair was reality, for reality was the one dying; it's heart, represented by the Book of Ages, gone after the backstab of a treacherous demon.
The remains of the book exploded into a cacophony of sounds and a mix of colors that Jade hadn't seen in her whole life. The fortress and the whole planet started to disintegrate, and Jackie, Uncle, Tohru, El Toro, Viper and little Paco started to lose and gain mass, color and body parts at random; their madness-induced screams and laughs were deafening. Space bended over itself while vomiting living planets, and time twisted as its insides were torn apart by a cosmic vulture with three heads and the lower body of an octopus. And as up became down, past became future, and the present started to make out with left and right into a depraved orgy of chaos; Jade's attention was turned to the remaining piece of paper, still clenched in her hand. As her name still remained in that little piece she was still bound to the old laws of physics. Horrified by the macabre show she was witnessing, Jade bit her own fingers and as soon as blood started to pour out from her self-inflected wound, she started to wrote in the tiny piece of paper, hoping that the situation could be helped by that.
As her family and friends contorted and distorted into abominations, Jade's vision became blurry with tears, but that didn't stop it from finishing a sentence. Now, accompanying her name in the paper was just a single phrase: 'Bring us all to a safe place.' It was a good phrase, well written considering the circumstances. The piece of paper started to glow in golden light, and it floated in front of Jade.
"Please, please work; please bring everything to normal again…" Jade pleaded to the piece of paper. The little fragment of the heart of their reality glowed then more intensely, and it emitted a wave of energy that knocked Jade out, and that effectively brought an end to the orgy of chaos and abominations that had taken over the reality. Now only the unconscious child remained alongside the piece of paper; both of them floating across an emptied Void; a clean canvas into which a new universe could be painted. But the piece of paper wasn't enough o bring a new Book… and yet the orders given by the writer were to bring them all to a safe place… Yes, the piece of paper could work with that, and so it took the child, and with her both her allies and enemies, both known and unknown alike; and started to search for a place that was safe.
Jade woke up with the strange and pleasant feeling of being inside a warm and tender tank of water, floating calm and pleased. As she opened her eyes, however, she was proven wrong. She was floating in a space of both white and golden, into what seemed to be a place without any direction or gravity. At first she had thought that she was again in the Netherworld, but this place was too peaceful and beautiful to be that.
"Where the heck am I?" Jade asked aloud. Then, recalling her previous situation, a grim shadow came over this beautiful place. "Is this Heaven? Am I dead?"
"Dead is a very relative term, don't you agree?" a sweet, womanly, yet timeless voice said then.
Making efforts to turn her face into the voice's direction; Jade was greeted with something she could have described as impossible if not for everything that she had seen in the past two years in Jackie's company.
A woman was sitting in the air (how this was possible, Jade didn't know), sporting a mother-like smile. She had dark hair tied into a topknot and very pale skin, her features clearly identifying her as an asian; her lips painted with the color of a fresh peach. She was dressed into what appeared to be a White kimono, and there was a pink jewel hanging from her neck. The jewel was emitting beats, as if it was a heart of some kind, and with every beat the golden and white space around them beat too. But what surprised Jade much more than the Chinese woman was her company. Circling around her, flying above, were a quartet of dragons; one of them green, another red, another deep blue, and the last one of a light blue that looked almost white.
Jade looked at the quintet of strangers in front of her, a bit scared due t her previous experiences with dragons and the like. The woman noticed this, and smiling fondly waved a hand in the air as if wanting to rest importance to that.
"Fear not, child. My name is Xin Jing, and you are safe here;" the woman said. Her voice was as if someone was playing a lullaby in a lute. "The Four Dragons would never harm an innocent."
"However, we could still mess with you a bit!" the deep blue dragon remarked jokingly, just for the red one to smack him in the nose with the tail. "Auch! That was unnecessary!"
"That little girl has seen her entire reality reduced to dust, and you judge this as the appropriate moment to laugh at her," the red dragon retorted. "Well yes, I find my action necessary."
"My reality is gone?"
The Four Dragons and the woman turned their attention back to Jade, who continued to look at them, this time with teary eyes. The light-blue dragon distanced from the other three and approached Jade, mounting her on his back and travelling back to his companions.
"Yes child, I'm sorry, but your reality is gone, reduced to a cavalcade of horrors;" the woman answered. "Sealed away so its new contains cannot harm any other universes."
Jade started to cry. The woman didn't seem like lying, and she remembered perfectly what she had been witness to back when the Book of Ages had exploded. Xin Jing cleaned a couple of tears that were running over the girl's cheeks, putting her hand under her chin and making her to make eye contact with the woman.
"Ah, but haven't you learnt that nothing is lost until the last combatant falls? Look," Xin Jing pointed behind Jade, and the girl turned around to see shards of glass floating around, all of them with multiple images. Images of Jackie, Uncle, Tohru… but also of Valmont and his Enforcers; an old man garbed in dark clothes and holding a twisted root pouring with dark energy, nine ogre-like monsters commanding an army of shadows that marched behind a monster with a red face and feline features, a humanoid dragon-like being, snarling viciously while flames poured from his mouth. Noticing the girl's confusion, Xin Jing caressed her hair and talked almost in a whisper.
"When you wrote in that paper to bring all of you to a safe place, the paper really brought all of you. That means good and evil, old and young, alive and long time dead;" the woman explained. "Which means that you shouldn't be sad, child; you did save an entire universe full of lives, you should be proud."
Jade dried her tears in her sleeve, and looked back at Xin Jing. "Then where am I?" she asked.
"In another universe, in its Heart, to be precise;" the woman explained. "I suppose it's the safest place the paper found."
"Oh!" Jade said, finally understanding that not only her, but her family had been saved. "Oh…" she whispered after that. "Sorry for…"
"Bringing evil to this universe?" Xin Jing laughed. "Don't be silly, there always has been evil in this universe, and there always will be. And besides, you brought heroes too, didn't you?" Xin Jing raised Jade in the air and put her forehead against hers. "Oh yes, you are all going to make this so much interesting…"
"Xin Jing, you shouldn't look at it as if it wasn't a problem," the green dragon spoke. "This enormous causality alteration will surely provide with new variables in the constants of fate."
"I won't let a whole universe to be destroyed by the actions of a petty madman!" Xin Jing yelled to the dragon. "And fate is always in constant change, what are a few more? As the living will of the Heart of Kandrakar, Center of the Universe, I Nymph of Quintessence, agree to this merging."
Upon hearing the woman's words, the space around started to twirled, and the shards started to mix in the current of white and gold. After several moments, the shards had completely fused with it, and Xin Jing eyed Jade. You have a lot of hard trials ahead of you, be prepared." Xin Jing kissed Jae I the forehead and let her go floating, as white and gold enveloped her.
"Wait, I still haven't thank you!" Jade said in the last second.
"Don't worry about it, child;" Xin Jing said. "You won't be able to remember me, not yet; it could be dangerous to you and the ones you care about. For now, let's think this has been nothing but a dream, and you are just going to wake up."
A road under the rain…
Jade Chan woke up with a start. She was in the backseat of a van that her family had rented in order to travel to the some weird town in the coast Uncle had received a call from. How was it named? Heather… something related to heathers; that was for sure. Jade looked around, in the front seat Jackie was driving while Uncle gave him indications from time to time. At her side in the backseat, and actually serving her as a pillow, was Tohru, reading a book of chi spells in order to study. If Jade hadn't been so tired, she would have been reading alongside him, but Uncle always had the habit of waking up at 6:00 AM in order to travel without 'roads being full of aaaaangry drivers!'. Good thing that her school had agreed to let her spent some time away for family reasons; otherwise she was certain that Jackie would have forced her to stay back in San Francisco. Well, not that Jackie's words had stopped her in the past.
She mumbled a little before returning to her sleep. The last weeks had been really tiresome, with all the demon sealing, and she being trapped in the Netherworld for a while, and Jackie being possessed by Shendu… Good thing that they had been able to stop the possessed Jackie before he left Hong Kong, otherwise who would have known what old dragon breath may have done. As her eyes closed, Jade remembered Xin Jing's face and words for the last time before forgetting them. Weirdest dream ever, she thought.
Across the Veil. World of Meridian
In a complete different world than Earth, was the Kingdom of Meridian; a vast civilization that included humans, a scaly humanoid beings of great physical might called Galhot, and other less numerous species that weren't very well received by the other main two. Since millennia ago, Meridian had been ruled by the Royal House of Escanor, in a no much different way than Medieval Earth. However, the main difference was that in Meridian, it were the Queens who ruled, each female member of the Royal Family inheriting the Heart of Meridian, the source of mystical energy of the planet and that made each one of the Queens as mighty as a goddess. Meridian usually was a Kingdom of light, glory and peace… but for the last thirteen years it had been nothing but a horrid sell of its former glory, a dark barren that put the Dark Ages of Earth to shame.
In this dark Meridian, a young boy with dark brown hair, green eyes, and a complexion that denoted too much physical activity for his age; jumped from roof to roof of a grim and dark castle. He was clad into a pair of plain trousers and a long, worn-out brown jacket. His name? Caleb. His current occupation? Leader of the Rebellion against the tyrant that ruled this world with an iron fist, let the commoners die of hunger after imposing incredibly high taxes, and that sucked their land's life-force away to increase his own magical power; Prince Phobos Escanor, nicknamed as The Usurper by the commoners.
Caleb had to admit, this was a very risky move. But it was necessary, the Rebellion needed to be better armed; Phobos' forces were already vastly superior in number, and let's not forget the aid of the Lurdens, abominations like Tracker, or the Shapeshifters. That was the reason he had decided to take Aldarn and go in a stealth mission with him, in order to take as much powder barrels as they could.
And yet, the risk was still huge. It wasn't that he had to climb to the rooftops of the castle; it wasn't that the armory was always heavily protected, or that he didn't carry any weapon with him in order to not be slowed down. No, the risk was of being captured; of facing beings like the Snake, Tracker, a Gargoyle... or perhaps Raythor. Thinking about the man made Caleb lose a bit of concentration and almost trip with one of the castle's architectonic ornamentations. The rebel leader remained his composure as fast as he had lost it. He leaned over the border of the rooftop and looked at the shore of the lake below. Good, Aldarn was in position.
Let's hope Vathek has made sure that there are as less guards as possible; Caleb thought. Using a rope, he entered the armory. Barrels of powder lied around, with several lances and swords too. Something caught Caleb's eye then, and he lowered his arm to catch it. He inspected the new weapon in his hands, and decided to take it.
"Nice bow..." he muttered. He then passed to inspect the swords. He had recognized the craftsmanship, and also the mark that identified them as a particular blacksmith's work. He frowned upon seeing them, his hand gripping angrily around the hilt of one of them. "Aldarn's father makes these..." he said bitterly. Phobos didn't have enough with killing them; he had to do so with their own weaponry.
He shook his head and left the sword aside. The powder was the only thing that was important now. Caleb started to throw the powder barrels out to the lake so Aldarn could catch them.
Perfect, the plan's going fine, Caleb thought as he smiled. Nothing can go wrong at this point.
Ten minutes later
Caleb and Aldarn were now running away from the shadow of the castle as a storm of arrows fell over them, powder barrels left behind and only the bow the rebel leader had attached to his back as prize of their incursion.
"How did you blow up the entire armory?!" Aldarn demanded to know from his best friend.
"I needed an escape route," Caleb explained as he ran. "So I made one."
"By blowing the wall up…" Aldarn said to his leader as he turned his head over his shoulder and saw how smoke still darkened the hole that Caleb's actions had caused. Horns of alarm blew across the castle, alerting of their presence. They would last a little until organizing any platoon to go after them, but when they did… better put as more distance as possible between the guards and them. "You really aren't someone for subtlety, are you?"
Caleb snickered and dedicated one last glance at the fuming armory. "Well, look at the bright side, Phobos won't be able to use that armory anymore."
As the two friends ran into the Meridian Plains, the smoke in the armory started to dissipate, and between the coughs and laments of wounded guards, two figures that had shortly before arrived at the scene looked at the ruckus that the rebels had caused.
One of them approached the hole that had resulted of the explosion, and looked at the distance. He could still see the two troublemakers, running into the Plains as nothing but dots. Still, it wasn't a very large distance, not for cavalry. The man cracked his neck in annoyance; age in this world wasn't very kind, not even for men like him. He was a middle aged Half-breed, a man born of the union of a human and a Galhot; and so, he had yellowish skin and a prominent physical might, but no scales into his body. This middle aged man was named Raythor, Captain of Phobos' guards, nothing but a cape and a helmet differencing his outfit from the average soldier's.
Behind him was a younger soldier, not older from twenty-eight or twenty-nine. He had grayish-green hair, and slightly-pointed ears. He was wearing a well designed bronze colored Meridian military armor, with a red cape at his back. Like many meridianites he had light yellowish skin too, indicating that he had mixed ancestry, probably the son of a couple formed by a Galhot and a human too. His name was Lothar, currently a Lieutenant under Raythor's direct command, and he was kneeling over a coughing soldier in the ground.
"Speak to me, soldier;" he demanded calmly. "Who did this?"
"One of the… *cough* rebels… A young boy, their leader I think *cough*;" the soldier answered as best as he could.
"The rebel leader?" Lothar asked aloud. "Here?"
"Son of Julian…" Raythor whispered as one of his hands raised to touch the scar that was under his left eye and adorned his cheek. "We cannot let him escape; if captured he could provide us with an enormous advantage in this war."
"I'll organize a platoon, and…" Lothar started to say, but Raythor silenced him by raising a hand.
"No. Search for Frost, and order him to go after the rebel scum with the Rhinoceros Cavalry;" Raythor turned around and started to leave, his cape waving after him, moving smoke and dust out of the way. "And take the survivors of the explosion to the infirmary, Lieutenant. I will inform the Prince of this situation myself."
Across the Veil; the Silver Dragon
Wilhelmina Vandom; usually referred to as Will for abbreviation; was seriously considering to label this day as the worst day of her life. Not only did her first day in Heatherfield look like the second coming of Noah's Flood, but her first day at Sheffield Institute had been disastrous. Even when that bumbling girl named Hay Lin, who seemed like cuteness and energy incarnated as a person, had invited her to her family's restaurant for what seemed like a private reunion; it had felt bad when that blonde chick had instantaneously labeled her as 'New Girl'. Yeah, 'cause she wasn't nervous enough in her first day not only in a new school, but also in a new city; Miss. Alpha Bitch had to come and add more wood to the fire. At least the other three girls seemed nice. Hay Lin was like if someone had given life to a bunch of candy, the Taranee girl seemed calm and rational, and Irma… Irma was Irma, and Will was thankful that she had seemed to take a liking to her. It was good to have the only person that seemed able to counteract Cornelia's jerkiness on your side. However, these facts didn't make their current state less awkward. It was clear that the four girls had been friends for a long time, (hell, there was a rumor that Irma and Hay Lin had known each other since being preschoolers) and Will was the new addition. And so, the only thing that reigned over the room as they sat around a table in the Chinese restaurant was silence. Not even Irma's snarky commentary pointing the obvious did anything to improve the situation.
Fortunately, Will's salvation came in the form of a group of voices, talking at the other side of a door. Will was expecting for Hay Lin's grandmother Yan to show up; but surprisingly she didn't do alone. Accompanying her were and old, wrinkled Chinese man wearing glasses and sporting the craziest hairdo that Will had ever seen; a middle-aged man with a cute face, dark hair, and a pair of khaki pants and a blue pullover, followed by a girl with black hair that dropped in bangs to her shoulders, with golden eyes, and sporting an orange hoodie; and closing the line was what seemed to be one of those sumo fighters that Will had only seem in television. The troupe of four persons was so bizarre that Will thought that she was dreaming, so she pinched her right hand with her left. It hurt, so not a dream.
"So… who's this Kadma?" the little girl asked of Yan Lin, continuing with their previous conversation.
"Oh, Kadma is a stubborn woman who used to be a stubborn girl," Yan Lin answered. "Wasn't she, cousin?"
"Bah!" the old man spited. "Kadma was too headstrong to my liking, I mean… her own wellbeing."
"Wait, she was your girlfriend, wasn't she?" the girl asked again. "Jackie, Uncle had a girlfriend!" she told the pullover-wearing man. "And silly me here thinking that you were one of those celibates…"
That commentary earned a repressed laugh from Irma, which in turn turned into a chuckle that made the quintet of girls to gain the four newcomers' attention. Yan Lin repressed a chuckle too, almost as she had forgotten their presence. Or maybe she was laughing at the old man's expense too. She had a strange trickster aura around her, this old woman.
"Sorry to keep you wanting girls," Yan Lin said as she put a box she had been carrying over the table and distributed typical luck cookies to the five of them. Will opened and ate hers, reading aloud the paper inside.
"You will find a new best friend today," Will read in a low tone, just to see Irma looking directly at her in the very same moment the brunette winked at her. That made Will smile.
"Erh… Grandma, who're these people?" Hay Lin asked to Yan. So that mean that Hay Lin didn't know the three strangers either? That was weird.
"Oh right, presentations;" Yan Lin said as she smirked. "These are my dear first cousin, Uncle; his nephew, Jackie" she said gesturing to the old man and the middle-aged one in that order. "Jackie's own niece Jade, and their assistant and friend, Tohru;" Yan Lin told them gesturing to the girl and the sumo, but none of the girls needed to think a lot to know who was each one.
"Hi there," Jade greeted the quintet of girls, while Jackie and Tohru answered with a normal and gentle "Hello." The old man that Yan Lin called Uncle didn't even bother to greet them, instead remaining there, just standing. Ah, so he was one of those old people that were aware that being old made them automatically able to be rude if they wanted. Great…
"Can we get this over with?" the old man asked. "Uncle needs to sleep to regain energy."
"Well, maybe if someone hadn't made us left San Francisco at those hours in the morning, he wouldn't be tired," the girl, Jade, remarked. Wait, did she…
"Did you say San Francisco?" Taranee stepped in the conversation. "That's… pretty fair away from Heatherfield."
"And I don't know it, girl;" Jade remarked in a deadpan tone. She then approached the table, and for some reason, Will stepped a little aside to let her enough room to sit. Maybe Will could make two new best friends today.
"Why did you come here from San Francisco, anyway?" Cornelia asked in a maybe too bitter tone. Jade raised an eyebrow to her commentary but if she was offended, she didn't show it.
"Dunno, ask the old timer, but careful with which words do you choose, blondie;" Jade answered, making Cornelia scowl a little to her.
I think I've found someone enjoyable; Irma thought.
"Well, then why are you here?" Cornelia asked to Uncle. "In fact, why are we all here? Is this some kind of prank, or… ouch!" Cornelia said s she took a hand to her head, into the same spot Uncle had just hit her with one of his famous dope slaps. "Did… did you just hit me?"
"Blondie-girl was being disrespectful to Uncle," the old man explained. "You should talk nicely to your elders; it's a sign of good educatiooooon!"
"Told ya' to choose your words," Jade remarked again, which made Cornelia to put on the face someone must have when suffering an aneurism.
"I like this one," Irma remarked as she smiled teasingly to Cornelia and pointed to Jade, which drove the blonde to the verge of hyperventilation.
"But, Cornelia made a good question," Taranee said again. "Why are we here? Why are them here?"
"I want to know that myself," Jackie said too. "Uncle, you just told us that we needed to come to this town just when we were back from Hong Kong. I have a work too."
"I will take care of the explanation," Yan Lin said, as she moved to one side. "Now, pick a good seat, because I'm about to tell you a very long tale."
Noticing Cornelia's scowl at her back, Hay Lin tried to reach her grandmother. "Wait, grandma, I don't think this is the best time for stories…"
However, Yan Lin paid her niece no attention, as she walked in front of all the presents so they could see. She moved her right hand out of the sleeves of her greenish kimono and touched a point in the air. Yellowish waves started to fluctuate then from that very same spot, and in an instant, an image depicting several stars, planets and moons appeared in front of them. And now, the one in the verge of having an aneurism was Will.
"Whoa, cool mojo," she heard Jade saying at her side. "I never saw you doing that, Uncle."
"Bah! Simple projection spell! Very easy to cast," the old man answered.
Wait, mojo, spell? What are they talking about?, Will thought, but then she was caught by Yan Lin's words.
"Long ago, the whole universe was nothing but a peaceful realm in which the Known Worlds, each one populated by its own creatures and people, lived in harmony." Yan Lin said as the planets in the image started to move. "But soon, Evil started to take root in the universe. To fight and contain that Evil, a congregation formed by sages of all the Known Worlds was formed, a Council of Light in the brilliant world of Kandrakar. In order to fight the Evil, Kandrakar gave to worthy chosen of their worlds access to the power of their world's Heart, every world's source of mystical energy, or in other words, magic."
Magic? Seriously?; Will thought skeptically, but then again, this display was either magic or an incredibly elaborated hologram, and she doubted that Hay Lin's grandma had enough money for that.
"Magic? Seriously?; Cornelia said aloud what Will had only thought. "Magic's not real."
"Of course it is," Jade told the blonde. "Uncle and Tohru here are both wizards."
Before Cornelia could retort by saying how stupid that sounded, Uncle clenched his fist, opened it and made a little ball of green chi energy to fly from it to in front of Cornelia's face. There, the ball took the form of a mini-Uncle, who proceeded to dance in front of Cornelia and then dope slap her again before poofing into green smoke.
"Yes blondie-girl, magic is real;" Uncle told her. "Now, shut your mouth and let cousin continue with her explanation."
"Thank you. As I was saying, each world, and before you ask, yes, there a lot of more worlds with intelligent life aside from Earth, Taranee and Jade; has its own Heart since then, and both Kandrakar and the worlds' own authorities kept the Evil in check," Yan Lin continued. "But thirteen years ago, a new Evil rose up in Earth's nearest neighbor in the cosmos, the world of Meridian. This Evil is no other than Prince Phobos, a man of the royal line of Escanor, the bloodline that has been ruling Meridian and owning its Heart since generations ago. Only Queens rule in Meridian, and only women are meant to control the Heart of that world. Phobos is a male heir, and thus not recognized by the Heart of Meridian. His mother, the late Queen Weira, years after Phobos' own birth; gave birth to a female heir, and the Prince, thinking that he was being stolen of a right he thought only his, murdered his own parents and seized control of Meridian by force. In order to prevent his Evil to extent to the nearest world, which is ours, Kandrakar put a Veil around Meridian, in order to put it in quarantine."
Overkill much?; Jade thought. True, she didn't like how this Phobos seemed to threaten Earth, but quarantining a whole world? That seemed to not play in a lot of favor of the people living there.
"What happened to the little sister?" Hay Lin asked, a little concerned by the girl, or maybe it was that she was too invested into the story.
"The true heir, and holder of the Heart of Meridian, was sent here, to Earth, hidden from her brother. Meanwhile, a Rebellion has flourished in Meridian, and holes known as Portals started to break into the Veil since, permitting the people from Earth to stumble into Meridian… or Phobos' legions to cross here."
"Uhm… question?" Irma said raising her hand as if she was in class. "How do we exactly fit into all this?"
"I was waiting for someone to make that question," Yan Lin remarked and approached the box she had left over the table. "Have none of you wondered how Kandrakar fought against Evil?" Yan Lin opened the box, and took something out of it. Something resembling a spherical pink pendant with metal adornment that hanged from a little and thin chain. The pendant was glowing, and beating. It seemed alive.
"This is the Heart of Kandrakar, shaped as a jewel so its power can be transferred from one holder to another. From time to time, a group of five women from Earth are picked by the Heart, and given power in order to fight against any Evil across the stars, or protect and guard the Veil. Each Guardian is given control over an element they can wield at her disposal. As you all may guess as of now," Yan Lin said dispelling the image she had conjured earlier. "You, girls, are the new Guardian generation."
For a few minutes no one said anything, every person opting for remaining in silence. As Irma had done before her, Jade raised her hand in order to make a question.
"So this… Kandrakar," she said, putting effort into not mispronouncing it. "It's like some sort of intergalactic police-force?"
See? It sounds completely stupid; Will thought. Maybe this is really a dream…
"Yes, it is;" Yan Lin answered.
"Then where the heck were they when we were facing against the family composed by EIGHT demon warlords wanting to conquer the world?!" Jade asked, a bit offended.
And there goes the last straw of rationality…; Taranee thought sadly.
"Niece should be more forgiving," Uncle said. "Until now, cousin Yan Lin was the only remaining member of her generation."
"Wait, you fought demons?" Irma asked Jade, who just nodded. "Awesome!"
"Duh! Even went to space once to defeat one of them," Jade said proudly. "Scary dude wanted to use the moon to shape Earth into chaos."
"Really?" Irma asked, amazed.
"Please Irma, don't tell me that you believe her," Cornelia said, but Irma just smiled at her.
"Do I need to ask the nice old man to slap you with his mini-me again, Corny?" Irma said.
"Don't. Call me. Corny. Like, never again;" Cornelia said in a threatening tone, annoyed by her friend's obsession of nicknaming everyone.
Before a real discussion could erupt, Yan Lin stepped in, putting a plant in front of Cornelia. "Perhaps you need a more physical proof. Cornelia, you may have noted that plants and anything earth-related behaves strangely around you."
Cornelia looked doubtful for a moment, but then she made a movement towards the plant in front of her, which proceeded to grow and then fell from its flowerpot.
"Cool," Jade remarked, this time without wanting to criticize Cornelia.
"And Irma," Yan Lin said as she put a glass of water in front of the brunette. "You hold a strange connection to water," the old woman said as Irma made the liquid inside the glass to be lifted and dance in her palm.
"Taranee," Yan Lin adrssed the glasses wearing girl, positioning a candle over the table, near a little basket of fruits. "Your element is the most alive of all, the one of Fire. Even if it can bring destruction sometimes, it can also bring light and protection against harm;" Taranee pointed nervously a finger towards the candle and a little flame, no bigger than her fingertip, shot towards it. However, it ended igniting the tip of a banana instead of the candle.
"As for my little Hay Lin, you seem to have inherited my position, and be free as the air;" Yan Lin said, and in cue, hay Lin moved her hand and a current of air hit every present, making their hair move.
"This. Is. Awesome!" Irma yelled.
"So… they're like good counterparts of the Demon Sorcerers?" Jade asked.
"Just because the Sorcerers used elemental magic, doesn't mean that it belonged to them from the beginning, Jade;" Tohru said, his deep voice as collected and polite as ever. "These forms of magic seem more primal, purer, if you asked me."
"Excuse me, didn't you mention five Guardians?" Will asked then, and Yan Lin's gaze fell over her. The old woman approached her then, and put the jewel around her neck.
"This is for you. The Guardians are nothing without a leader, and that role, the role of Keeper of the Heart, befalls on you, Wilhelmina Vandom."
Will looked at the old lady. Then she looked at the other four girls, especially at how Cornelia was looking at her, the fact that she wasn't the one in control clearly discomforting the blonde. Will then looked at Jade and her family, and her head started to spin.
"I… we… I can't! It's too much! I…" Will sat up, left the jewel over the table and felt her stomach hurl. "Ugh… Where… Where's the bathroom?"
"In that direction, second door for the girls;" Yan Lin said, pointing to a spot in the restaurant. Will rushed to that spot, and even at such a distance, everyone could hear her vomiting.
"She took it better than I thought," Yan Lin remarked. "Normally, people faint after discovering all this."
"Can I make a question now?" Jackie said, having remained quite silent until now. "you have explained how they fit in this, but how do we fit here?"
"Training." Yan Lin answered plainly.
"Training?" Jackie asked confused.
"Becoming a Guardian doesn't incorporate a user's guide; and it's clear that my granddaughter and her companions don't have time to hone their skills before fighting the enemy," Yan Lin took a seat at Jade's side. "That's the reason I called for cousin and all of you. Counting with experienced wizards and trained hand to hand combatants will make things much easier."
"Hand to hand combat?" Taranee asked.
"Jackie and I know Kung-fu;" Jade declared. "He taught me, and now I'm an unstoppable machine of kicking butt."
I seriously doubt that, Cornelia thought, but she didn't open her mouth, fearing retaliation once again. Man, this wasn't her day.
"What about Will?" Irma asked, and sighing, Jackie stood up from his seat and headed towards the bathroom.
"I'll handle it."
Will had stopped vomiting a few moments ago, now panting as she sat down over the toilet. This was nuts, completely nuts! She just arrived in town, hoping for a tranquil and nice way of adjusting to her new life after her parents' divorce, and then BOOM! Magic was real, fairy tales were real! BOOM! She was some sort of… magical maiden, or something! What the hell was going on? She pinched at her arms several more times, but she didn't wake up.
Shit, this real; she thought. This is very, very real.
Someone knocked at the door then, and as Will raised her head a male voice came from the other side. "May I come in?" her interlocutor asked.
Will breathed deeply. "Sure."
The door opened slightly, revealing the pullover-wearing man behind it. He made only his head to enter, looking at Will with a worried expression.
"Are you feeling better?" Jackie asked her.
Will looked sideways. "My stomach feels better."
God, she's just a teenager; Jackie thought as he entered the bathroom and closed the door behind him. This must be hitting her pretty hard not everyone is like Jade.
Upon entering, Will realized that the man was holding the pendant in his hand. The redhead frowned upon seeing the little jewel. "Why did you bring that here?" she asked. "I don't like it."
Jackie looked at his hand, and carefully put the Heart inside his pocket. Even there he could still feel the beating of the jewel, the unbelievable mass of power inside it. "Yes, it seems like a very heavy amulet for something so small."
"You've no idea, eh... sorry, your name was?" Will asked awkwardly.
"Jackie, Jackie Chan;" the man said. "Will, right?" The redhead nodded. "Listen Will, I know exactly how you feel right now..."
"How could you?" Will said, sounding more angered than she intended. "You didn't turn into some sort of champion of goodness from night to morning!"
"Do you know what my work is, Will?" Jackie asked her.
Will shook her head; of course she didn't know. Jackie leaned against the bathroom's wall. "I'm an archeologist. And before you say that it sounds cool, it normally isn't. Sure, you have to go on the search of a treasure from time to time, but mostly it's just investigation and paperwork. Lots of paperwork."
Will smiled a bit after that. Jackie continued to speak. "So my life was fairly normal, until one day I came back from Bavaria with a shield and it resulted to have a magic talisman in it... and then everything went out of control. The thing is, it doesn't matter if you try to run or negate this, it will come back at you." Jackie pulled the Heart out of his pocket. "So instead of running from it, why not face it head on? I know all this sounds like crazy, but at least you have people around that will walk the same path as you. So, what do you say?"
Will looked at the glowing jewel and then at the man holding it. She breathed deeply again, calming down. "I'll give it a try," Will said, and took the jewel from Jackie, putting it around her neck again. At her touch, the beat intensified.
Across the Veil; World of Meridian; Throne Room
Under the guide and rule of Queen Weira and many other Light Queens before her, the castle of Escanor had been a thing of beauty, light and marvelous halls. Once her son had taken over, however, the castle had been twisted into a dark mockery of what it used to be, with thorns running through its whole structure into the city. These thorns nailed themselves in the ground and were connected to Prince Phobos' throne room, where they converged under the seat from where the tyrant governed and drained this world. Many people called it the Thorn Throne due to this, but never in front of the Prince, of course.
Prince Phobos had always been a man of beauty, even as a child. Many had identified his long, platinum-blond hair and his choice of clothing with the desire to accentuate that beauty. He view himself as a man that possessed some kind of effeminate aura, something that he interpreted as the fact that he was the first male ruler of Meridian, the Androgynous. But he wasn't really the ruler, was he? No matter that he was the oldest child, no matter that he had been educated to rule since his birth, a little girl was shot from in between his mother's legs and she was the ruler, she was the one bestowed with god-like power! And oh how much had boasted those wastes of flesh that dared to call themselves his mother's courtiers, how much had they falsely lamented that he wasn't going to be the First King… Well, where were those now? Dead, dead all of them, even his very own mother and father. All of them gone… except for his little sister, who had been exiled to that 'Earth' world, carrying his destined power within her. Now he had to limit himself to be satisfied with the life-force of Meridian, and albeit the energy he absorbed raised him above the most skilled sorcerer's level, it wasn't enough to get rid of Heart-wielders. His failure of an attack over Zamballa years ago was proof of that. That's the reason he needed his sister back, he couldn't maintain his rightful position without power to backup it.
But I will have power, I will have her power. My Power; Phobos thought as his gaze fell over Raythor, the dutiful and loyal soldier kneeling before him. Ah yes, there had been an explosion not even half an hour ago. Well, this seemed something worthy of his time. "Report, Captain."
"My liege," Raythor spoke, bowing his head. "The Rebel Leader has attacked and blew up the west armory. He has escaped, but Frost and the Rhinoceros Cavalry are already after him."
Phobos raised an eyebrow. "The leader of the Rebellion was here? In my palace, and was able to perpetrate an attack?!" Phobos' voice returned to normal. "I want security doubled until we have repaired the damage done to the armory, and I want that boy delivered in my presence."
"My liege, I'm sure Frost will be able to catch him. He's not Tracker, but his skills…" Raythor argued, but Phobos held a hand that silenced him.
"This is too important to let to simpleton guards; or a mere brute like Frost!" Phobos spoke, and made a signal to a figure standing in the shadows behind his throne.
Stepping into the light a man of green robes, brilliant blond hair and potent blue eyes appeared. He had a smug smile in his face, an air of superiority surrounding him. This man was the Prince's right hand man, advisor, and from time to time, private assassin. He was Lord Cedric, nicknamed the Snake of Cavigor; the Prince having recruited him from that hell-hole years ago in exchange of his services.
"Are you sure Raythor shouldn't be the one taking care of this situation, my Prince?" Cedric asked of Phobos, his voice melodious and sweet, yet horribly cold. As poison enveloped in honey, that was the Snake. "He proved himself quite effective against rebellious leaders in the past."
Raythor shot a glare at the Lord. Their mutual animosity was well known in the court; even more considering that they held equal power within it. Phobos, however, didn't pay attention to these matters. Rivalry always kept the skills honed to their peak, and he needed skilled subalterns.
"No Cedric, Raythor may be a great soldier, warrior, and strategist in large battles, but until Tracker returns from his latest hunt, you are the best suited man to this job," Phobos declared. "Now go and bring me that brat!"
Cedric smiled, and then his pupils became the ones of a reptile, the color changing from blue to yellow. In an angry roar, his body became enveloped by lightning and his form shifted from the flamboyant blond man to the one of an enormous Naga with green and red scales, a white mane of hair adorning his head and falling to half his back.
Raythor repressed the temptation to role his eyes. Shapeshifters and their flashy shows… at least the spider girl isn't as exaggerated as him; the Captain thought.
"It ssssshall be done, my liege;" Cedric hissed before opening a window and jumping straight from it to the outside. Phobos contemplated this with a pleased smile. Good, if there was someone who could capture the rebel boy; that was his Cedric.
"You are dismissed now, Captain Raythor;" Phobos told his loyal and honorable follower. "Go and return to your usual duties."
Raythor bowed and left the room. As soon as the soldier was gone, Phobos closed his eyes and started to drain energy from his kingdom. He had felt something earlier, like a change in the status quo. He didn't know what it meant, but he was certain of one thing… he needed more power in order to take care of it. Oh sister, where are you?
Meridian Plains, twenty minutes later
Caleb and Aldarn had left the capital and the castle way behind, and now were almost getting out of the Meridian Plains… that's it, if their Hoogongs weren't so tired. As soon as they dismounted, the two animals fell to the ground, exhausted and needed a rest. Caleb patted one of them in the head. "You did a good job," he told the animal.
"The nearest entrance to the Infinite City is still pretty far away," Aldarn told Caleb. "I don't know if we can keep the distance between us and Frost and his men for much longer."
"Not we, I;" Caleb said, lending Aldarn the stolen bow. "You return to the Infinite City with this one, I need to find a Portal as we planned, the Mage told me that there was a one opening from time to time around here. If the true heir was really sent to Earth, then…"
"Caleb, please don't be stupid," Aldarn told him. "We both can return to the Infinite city. If you need a Portal, we can use the stabilized one."
"And pay a fortune for its use to that manipulative, double-crosser and greedy excuse of a man that is Charles Ludmoore?" Caleb inquired. "No, thanks, I'll take my chance with this Portal."
"If you insist…" Aldarn said before shaking Caleb's hand for what could eb the last time. "Let the Light of Meridian to guide you, my commander."
"Good luck to you to, my friend;" Caleb answered, and they parted separate ways.
As soon as Aldarn was gone, the ground started to tremble, and Caleb saw how Frost and the other Rhinoceros riders appeared in the horizon. Caleb looked around and saw a small hill of stone that he immediately started to climb. The high ground will make him to gain advantage, and maybe mislead them out of his trail. However upon finishing climbing, he gasped in horror upon noticing that he wasn't alone in the top of the hill.
Cedric had been there, waiting for him the entire time. The Snake of Cavigor looked down at the rebel, his expression one full of uninterested despise.
"How can someone so small be so troublesome?" the Lord asked in a neutral tone.
Across the Veil; Heatherfield
After Will's acceptance of the role as the Keeper of the Heart, even if Jackie had just being able to convince her to 'give a try'; the girls had moved to a spot under Heatherfield's main bridge in the company of the four members of the Chan Clan. While Jade chatted enthusiastically with Irma and Taranee; Hay Lin seemed more focused into having a friendly chat with Tohru, the gentle sumo answering politely to any question the Chinese living mass of energy had about their adventures. Trailing behind them, Jackie walked alongside Uncle.
"Uncle, can I ask you something?" the archeologist asked of his elder. "Why didn't you tell any of us about this Kandrakar, or the Veil, or any of this before?"
Uncle guarded silence, looking at the girls I front of him. For a moment, the image in front of him shifted, and the girls weren't themselves, but a complete different quintet of young women, all of them walking to another adventure. "Uncle has his reasons to… dislike Kandrakar. They do a good job of fighting Evil, but their methods… sometimes they do as much harm as they heal."
Jackie pondered this for a moment as the group reached their destination. It was a place far enough of any attention, the perfect spot to practice whatever was going to happen. The five girls positioned themselves away from the Chan Clan, and Will held out the Heart. Minutes passed without anything happened, and both the girls and the Chans were confused.
"Maybe it has a switch, or something?" Taranee asked.
Will started to inspect the Heart, but Uncle approached her, and made her stop with a dope slap. Rubbing her head, the redhead scowled at the old man, who took her hand into his and looked at her seriously.
"This is not a machine, this is a Heart, this is magic, and it operates in its own rules;" uncle spoke. "You must feel the power within the crystal, and you must feel the power inside of you and your companions. Oly then you will be able to unlock the power of a Heart."
For someone that dislikes Kandrakar, he knows a lot about how their magic works; Jackie thought.
Will stared at the heart then, doing as the elder had told her to do. This is useless, Will thought. Concentration, feel the power, what a bunch of… wait, now I'm feeling something. And indeed, she was feeling something. At first it came small, a pulse from the jewel. Then it became stronger, and the pulse divided into five pulses going at unison. The jewel started to glow strongly, and Will started to float in the air, the streams of light that came from the jewel becoming as thick as pillars.
"What's going on?!" Jade shouted as she and her family were pushed backwards by the power radiating from the Heart.
"We must find cover! Being near first transformation always a bad idea!" Uncle yelled.
Wait, did he said transformation?; Jade thought, but then she looked into the redhead's direction and saw how the other four girls were being lifted in the air too. And then, Jade Chan heard the words that would change her life forever, the words that would immerse her into a universe of new surprises and perils.
Guardians, Unite!
From the Heart, four streams of different colors shot themselves, each one from Irma, Taranee, Cornelia and Hay Lin. Will was also was took by one stream of energy, and the Chan Clan (except for Uncle) looked in amazement at how the five girls were enveloped in spherical masses of energy. As they looked, they were certain that see things moving inside of the spheres, as if the girls were being transformed.
"Uncle! What's happening?!" Jackie yelled.
"Wait and see…" Uncle said as he eyed the transformation stoically. Ah, this brought back memories, when he had passed a summer here, with Yan's family. He couldn't fight back a nostalgic smile on his face. Ah, memories.
The five sphere started to dispel, and what emerged from them were the same five girls than before… except that calling them 'the same' wouldn't be correct.
Air!
Earth!
Fire!
Water!
The Heart!
Now standing in front of the Chan Clan were five women. Emphasis in the word women; not girls. The five teenagers had experienced a sudden jump from puberty straight into adulthood, looking now like women in their twenties. To add to the weirdness of the new image, they were all clad in the strangest outfits every member of the Chan Clan had never seen, all of them composed of different styled tops showing their midriffs, and skirts that went from long like Hay Lin's and Cornelia's, to shorts like Taranee's; passing from the normal looking ones of both Will and Irma. All of them were wearing blue and green colored stripped tights; and most surprising of it all, they had wings at their backs.
"Whoa, what just happened?" Jade asked aloud, staring with her mouth wide open to the quintet of winged women in front of her.
"These are the forms that the Guardians of Kandrakar use in battle, the Heart empowering their bodies and magical abilities to their fullest;" Uncle explained. "The uniforms are different from the ones of Yan's generation, though."
Jackie and Tohru, meanwhile, were more concerned by the fact that the girls seemed strangely quiet right now. Looking at each other, the sumo and the martial artist approached the quintet. "Are you alright?" Jackie inquired.
Will's eyes were staring blankly at the ground, the feeling of the transformation still fresh in her mind. It had felt… it was indescribable how it had felt. She tried to explain the feeling in her head, but she couldn't find any appropriate words. Instead, the only thing leaving her mouth was…
"Holy cow!" Will yelled. "Did anyone else feel that?!"
"You bet I did!" Irma answered.
"Somehow, I can't imagine your grandma wearing these things…" Taranee spoke next, focusing in their change of outfits.
"What do we have behind us?" Hay Lin said, looking back at her new wings.
"What do we have in front of us?" Cornelia remarked proudly, her mind more interested in the fact that all of them had become way bigger.
Of course she would focus in that; Irma thought, just for her attention to fall over her own breasts. Then again, I think I'm bigger than her.
"Wings! We got wings!" Hay Lin cheered, still amazed by their new appendages.
"They can't be wings, if they were, by doing this…" Will said, just to start flapping her wings and start floating in the air. Seeing this, Hay Lin flapped her own, and then skyrocketed into the air.
"They can fly too?!" Jade asked, amazed to the extreme. "Oh my god, how much cool is that?"
Meanwhile, as Taranee complained about her dizziness in high heights, Irma was literally creating water around her hands. She pointed her palms to the ground and shot a little blast of water against it. "Cool… Now you do something!" she said, pointing to Taranee, who with a bit of fear pointed her finger to the ground as if it was a gun, shooting a little flame to it.
Cornelia, meanwhile, was laughing at her friends' display, just for her to stumble, fall in the Earth and produce an overly grown cactus out of it. Landing in her hands, she saw how the ground opened slightly under her palms, revealing a worm cuddling in the mud; a worm that went straight to make contact with her. Cornelia shouted in discomfort and stumbled backwards.
"I think that the coolness has decreased a bit…" Jade commented, just to see how Will, who continued floating in the air without control, fell directly over Cornelia. "I was wrong, it has disappeared."
"Sensei I can understand why they need help with their use of magic from you, but why is Jackie's need required?" Tohru asked of his mentor in the ways of chi magic.
"Being a Guardian doesn't just mean that you have power over an element, it means that your strength, resistance, agility and speed are enhanced to a limit beyond the ones of humanity. They not only need guidance in the world of magic, but also control, discipline, training;" Uncle explained with a serious face that matched his tone of voice. "For that nephew is a very good option. And I fear that now that Shendu and his brethren are gone, a new Evil will also raise to fill that vacuum of power. Phobos and his delusions of conquest could very much be that."
"So we got ourselves into a new adventure," Jade remarked, quite thrilled by the prospect of fighting another set of bad guys.
Jackie looked at his niece, and the quintet of girls. Somehow, he felt that he had been entrusted with five more Jades. Ah… it seems I can't catch a break; he thought.
Across the Veil; Meridian
As the Guardians finished their first flight lesson, Caleb ended his fall from the top of the hill to its bottom, where he landed in his back, his body aching with pain. Augh… I think I broke something there…; he thought. Then he felt a change of density in the air, and he saw how something luminous appeared behind him. Finally!
Cedric arrived minutes later, coiling down the hill of rocks. He had enjoyed playing with his prey, but now it was time to finish the job. But then he saw the Portal, and the boy rushing to it. Realizing that the possibility of losing the boy was now over y real, Cedric roared in anger and rushed in pursue of Caleb, both of them entering the hole in the Veil into Earth.
Back on Earth…
"Okay, I think we destroyed enough property for today… ugh!" Will protested as she took one of her hands to her head. The other four girls and the Chans approached her, Hay Lin landing perfectly and putting a hand over the redhead's shoulders.
"You okay?" the Air Guardian asked of the Keeper.
"Yes… it's just, like a feeling in my head;" Will explained. "Something… something is going to happen."
She has her own willies!; Jade thought in amazement.
"What do you mean with some-" Cornelia started to ask, but her question was cut short when the swirling, bluish form of a Portal opened in front of them all.
"Whoa!" Taranee exclaimed, jumped slightly.
"So that's a Portal?" Jade asked. "It's prettier than the ones I've seen."
"Something's coming," Will muttered.
"What?! Something's coming from the big, scary hole in the fabric of reality?" Irma asked in a joking tone, albeit she did so to cover her own fear.
Jackie took Jade by her shoulder and put her at his back. "Jade, stay behind me," he told her as he readied himself for whatever may come from the Portal in the air. His own experiences with this kind of situation had taught him that nothing good uses to come from Portals. At his sides, Tohru and Uncle readied their old dried lizard and blowfish, respectively.
Imagine his surprise when a boy no older than fifteen years old appeared from the Portal, landing badly in the ground. Imagine the boy's surprise when he raised his head and saw not only three strangers obviously ready to battle, but also five women that, considering all the stories his father used to tell him, couldn't be no other than the Guardians of Kandrakar.
"Is a… boy?" Taranee asked, not giving credit to what she was seeing.
"A cute boy;" Cornelia remarked.
"We… we have to run!" Caleb yelled.
"Something more is coming!" Will said, but both statements came too late.
Cedric's upper half body crossed the Portal, arriving in Earth with all its scaled glory, roaring angrily. The deafening sound of the roar took all the girls by surprise. It didn't do the same for any of the Chan Clan, though. But the Snake of Cavigor didn't trouble himself with that, instead focusing in Caleb and graving him with one of his claws. The boy struggled, but Cedric had caught him in a strong grip, and once a snake caught a prey, they hardly let it go.
"Do something!" Cornelia demanded of Will, who kept staring at the gigantic monster in front of her. She was terrorized, it felt as if she was a child again, and she couldn't do a thing. She wanted her mother, now.
Hay Lin flew into the air, and trying to be useful, she shot a current of air towards Cedric, who just swung his free claw towards her, dispelling the air attack and striking Hay Lin down. The Air Guardian fell over Taranee and Irma, sending them to the ground in the process. Seeing this, Cedric was confident of an easy victory… until a blue blur flew from the ground and hit him in the chin, making his head to stumble back and hurt. Landing in front of the Guardians, Cedric was met by the sight of Jackie Chan, who kept himself ready to battle against him.
What, who is he?; the Lord thought, but as he readied another attack, he was met with a green blast of green energy that hurt a lot, leaving the scales over which it had impacted slightly burned. The blast was followed by another; and another one after that. Looking behind the man and the Guardians, he saw both Tohru and Uncle shooting chi blasts at him, alongside Jade, who kept staring at him strangely. Wizards?! They have Wizards?!; the Snake thought with anger. He couldn't keep up if they were really experienced sorcerers, so he decided to retire. He had his prize, after all.
"Keeper must close Portal with the Heart!" Uncle yelled.
Will raised the Heart, who instantaneously started to shot pink energy to the Portal, making it to start closing, but not before Cedric could went back in it… with Caleb in hand. The Portal close and the five Guardians of Kandrakar were left there, panting and not knowing exactly if what they had seen was real, or a very horrible nightmare.
"You lost him!" Cornelia blamed Will, but then Uncle approached them and dope slapped Cornelia one more time.
The Chinese elder looked a t the spot where the Portal had been just seconds ago, Jackie still maintaining a combat position, just in the case the hole in the Veil returned. "Uncle thinks the training session has ended."
The Silver Dragon
The Guardians, now returned to human, Jade and Jackie were sitting at a table in the restaurant, Hay Lin drawing in sketch book; night falling over Heatherfield already. Yan Lin, Uncle and Tohru were reading through several books, trying to identify the monster.
"I think that I found something, sensei;" Tohru spoke, pointing to a page in a book. "Here, Shapeshifters, a native species of Meridian; also known as Changelings or the Fair Folk here on Earth. They are described as beings with the ability to alternate between a human form and an animalistic one."
"The monster looked like this," Hay Lin said, handing her sketchbook to her grandmother, with her depiction of the beast in it.
"Lord Cedric…" Yan Lin muttered, remembering the time in which she, Kadma and Halinor had travelled to aid Zamballa. Cedric was already a member of Phobos' court back then, and fearsome to say the least.
"They have very low knighting standards in Meridian," Irma remarked drily.
"I can't believe we lost that boy like that…" Cornelia said.
"Don't blame yourself Cornelia," Taranee told her friend, who in return changed from sorrow to anger as if she had pressed a switch.
"I'm not blaming myself, I'm blaming her!" the blonde yelled towards Will, who in return seemed to sullen in her seat. "She was the one that didn't close the Portal in time!"
"Didn't see you doing anything either," Jade remarked, which only added wood to the fire that was Cornelia's anger. "In fact, my family did all the work."
"Why you little…!" Cornelia started to protest, but Jackie put an end to that.
"Fighting between yourselves; trying to blame one another won't solve anything," Jackie said. "And Jade, the only reason we could answer so fast was just because we are used to fight these kind of threats."
"Whatever…" Jade and Cornelia both said in unison, closing their arms at the same time.
"He is right, you must focus into the enemy ahead of you," Yan Lin spoke. "In-fighting can only lead to…" the image of a green eyed brunette laughing maniacally behind the energy bars of a prison crossed her mind for a moment; "very ugly consequences. I'm certain that Phobos knows about your existence as by now, and that he will try to take you all out of the equation as soon as he is presented with an opportunity."
"Great…" Will said ironically. Why had she accepted this thing about being the Keeper of the Heart to begin with? Now there was some kind homicidal maniac out there, hoping to gut her. What if he went after her mom? What if…? Oh, too many possibilities… each one more horrible than the previous. The Heart, still hanging from her neck, now weighted more than ever.
Something pulled then from the redhead's sleeve, and looking to the person the hand belonged to, Will saw Jade looking at her, the orange hoodie wearing girl having noticed her bad mood. "Hey c'mon, don't give me that face. Everything's going to turn out okay, My family has been up against international criminals, shadow ninjas, dragons, and demons, and it turned out fine; and we don't even have superpowers like you, A bit of training and you will be as tough as Jackie and me, and uncle and Tohru can teach you all to control your powers. Besides, you're the good guys, and good guys always win. Okay?"
Will noted how her lips turned into a smile, and how the Heart seemed to lose a lot of its previous weight. She didn't know if it was the girl's choice of words, or the sheer strength the redhead could see in her golden-like eyes, but Will felt more confidant after Jade spoke to her. The redhead's smile widened. "Okay. You're right, Jade, Good always triumphs against Evil," Will remarked, remembering the fairy tales her mother used to tell her. And yet, little she knew, little none of them knew that the line that separates Good from Evil can be blurry sometimes, or not exist at all. And maybe what you call Good can be Evil in another man's eyes, and his Good be Evil in yours. Maybe there aren't Good and Evil at all. And these five girls and this family… these Guardians, Wizards and Kung-fu fighters… they were going to learn that lesson very soon.
In my life I've been certain of a lot of things, and dubious of other ones. Sometimes I became dubious of the ones I was certain, or certain of the ones I was dubious about. But if there is one thing I'll always be certain of is that you can always trust and count in Jade Chan. Wilhelmina 'Will' Vandom.
Authors Notes: That was a massive chapter for the first one… but considering I don't know if I will be updating this in a long time, I suppose is good to let all of you with enough material to read. I hope the others don't fill so much space… Now for a little explanation… the reason I decided to immerse the JCA characters (both heroes and villains) into the WITCH universe and not to do the exact opposite was because I feel that, after five seasons, the main plot of JCA doesn't have anything else to offer or develop. The main characters were developed, and the myth arc of the show ended around the fourth season, having to repeat itself in the fifth one. The WITCH plot, however, has a lot more of potential to explore and a lot of question to answer that never were in the show, mainly because it was cancelled before the third season could air. And so, I have decided to rewrite the entire two seasons adding the Chans to the mix. And albeit the first three chapters of the first season will develop more or less exactly the same as they were in the cartoon, by the start of the fourth chapter, this story will start diverging from canon. The main plot of the first season, finding Elyon and preventing her power to be absorbed, will be still the main line, but there will be other plots, other antagonists showing up in the conflict… and other things. I must admit I enjoyed rewriting the episode It Begins into this chapter, It Begins with a Bang; and I'm quite excited to see how the Chans are going to change the WITCH universe, for better or worse. Also, if you have read my other WITCH fanfic, you may know that I don't like that the WITCH show always played into Black and White morality, so as this story advances, the tone of the war in Meridian will become more and more grey, albeit not in a unbelievable extreme that isn't plausible, like I think I did by overexagerating in 'A different story'.
That was all. I hope you enjoyed this one, and if you have any idea, comment, or counsel for the story; leave me a review or send me a PM.
Bye, Bye!