The next pinpointed Talisman was in Micronesia, at the bottom of the ocean. As such, the first hurdle Jackie had to deal with as far as acquiring the Talisman occurred before the trip even began. "How am I supposed to get proper deep diving gear for you three?" he asked of Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, staring around the shop as they packed. "I walk you into the store, they will see ordinary children, and give suits to match Jade's, which you can't wear. Only way to avoid that would be to walk into the store without your Normalcy Pendants, and the consequences for that could be disastrous."
"Couldn't you take us in and ask for a custom fitting?" Sweetie Belle asked curiously. "Maybe they won't even realize what they're making for us as they get the measurements?"
"That's...probably stretching things a bit," Jade offered worriedly. "I'd actually be worried about how powerful the pendants are if they pulled that off."
"Well, none of us know enough about sewing or fabric or engineering to make our own scuba suits!" Scootaloo complained. "So what are we supposed to do?"
"Wait until Tohru finds out Valmont's sending him to Micronesia, come to the conclusion we'll be there too, and get suits in our sizes without questions asked through sheer intimidation factor just to make sure we don't drown if we end up fighting?" Apple Bloom suggested diffidently.
Jackie rolled his eyes. "Apple Bloom, I know you have this...odd bond with Tohru, but I seriously doubt that could happen. What even made you suggest it?"
"Because he's at the door with a large package in his arms," Apple Bloom explained, pointing.
Tohru gave Apple Bloom a brief smile, then dropped the box in Jackie's arms with his usual scowl. "I was never here," he stated bluntly before turning and stalking away.
Jackie blinked in shock for a time. Setting the box down, he opened it up to find three filly-sized scuba suits. All three had flippers on all four hooves, one had an extra bulge to the helmet for Sweetie's horn, and one had extra flaps for Scootaloo's wings that would buzz with her movements, letting her speed herself along as she did on her scooter. "...that's going to take some getting used to," he stated finally.
"Well, if he's that worried about them, he can't be all bad, right?" Jade offered hopefully. "Maybe we can even flip him to our side-"
"Nuh uh," Apple Bloom interrupted. "He's honor bound to serve Valmont until that honor is betrayed, or he's dismissed. He won't change sides. Pretty sure the only reason he can do this much is because Valmont didn't order him not to act to keep us out of environmental danger." As everyone stared at her, she shrugged. "What? Mind link, remember? Ah don't know his thoughts, but Ah know how he thinks."
"You gotta be kidding me..." Jackie groaned. However, he wasn't about to turn his nose up at this...once he'd had Captain Black scan the suits for bugs. Maybe it would even make Captain Black realize that talking candy-colored ponies were magical.
...he wasn't holding his breath on that, though.
Fortunately, there had been no tracking devices of any sort in the filly-sized scuba suits. Unfortunately, Captain Black didn't notice anything else unusual about the suit configurations. As such, the group of five made their way to the designated location, ready to dive for the Talisman.
Jade had the camera, snapping pictures of everything as they swam down to an underwater ruin nearly overrun with coral, seemingly frozen in time. Seeing how the four youngsters were marveling at the sight, Jackie could only smile indulgently, letting them enjoy it. They had several hours of air, and they weren't deep enough to worry about decompression, so he could let them enjoy themselves, as long as they were careful.
Once they were at the bottom, he directed each of them to take a different area. "Remember, you must be careful shifting the silt and soil aside when searching for artifacts." Sweetie Belle and Jade nodded, each of them pulling out their little brushes, Sweetie in her magical aura and Jade in her hand. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, however, had greater difficulties as they lacked either method of holding the tool. "Umm...Apple Bloom, you stay close to Jade, Scootaloo stay close with Sweetie Belle. You should be using the buddy system anyway."
Nodding, the two pairs swam off while Jackie focused on the hill he'd decided to start with. Much to his frustration, Jade found the Monkey Talisman before he'd even begun to dig. Still, he didn't want to discourage the happy children, so he smiled and led the way back to the boat. If the Dark Hand didn't show up, they could always look for more artifacts...
Unfortunately, as they swam for the surface, Ratso, Finn, and Chao came into view swimming towards them. "Go, go!" Jackie ordered. "Split up! Stick to the buddy system!" The two pairs of children immediately split off from each other while he went straight for the thugs.
As they swam for the surface, Apple Bloom got an idea. Closing her eyes and clinging to Jade, she focused her magic into the water around her, unsure how well it would work. Sudden screams from below caused her to look down, where Ratso, Finn, and Chao were now fleeing from attacking seaweed. "...not what Ah was goin' for, but Ah'll take it."
Before long, the four kids reached the boat, with Jackie hanging behind to make sure the thugs didn't catch up to them. As they climbed aboard and shed their helmets and flippers, Jade pulled out the Monkey Talisman. "One more for the good guys-" Her voice died at the sound of familiar heavy footsteps.
Tohru held out his large hand. "The Talisman," he offered, his voice sounding almost bored.
At that point, Finn and Chow leapt out of the water and onto the boat. "Here's this song and dance again," Finn groaned.
"How many more times are we going to have to do this?" Chao grumbled.
"At least four," Scootaloo offered. "Three more Talismans, and then once when we clash somehow to determine who ends up with all 12, since you guys have two to our seven."
"Let's make it three to six," Tohru stated flatly. "That way, no one has to get hurt."
The girls glanced at each other, trying to come up with a plan.
It seems to me that there should be more to this chapter.
Pure awesome. And I bet they meet up on his days off to just hang out in the park or something.
I really hope Ratso isn't stuck fighting a shark, caught by a giant squid, or in some other form of danger.
have the fight somewhere else besides their only way of getting home??? Like a nice little island instead so the loosers get some beach time as a consolation?????
Chapter Fifty Eight
"Aiyah!"
Chapter Count: 0
Total Count: 34
"One More Thing!"
Chapter Count: 0
Total Count: 63
First person to start reading this chapter, but far from the first to either finish or comment. I am fine with this.
What, was she trying for Killer Algae? ...on second thought, yes, yes she was.
And now I have a strange tought... The Monkey Talismas give the reflexes of a monkey and if you use too much time, give a tail and monkey features... What if one of the Crusaders use it? Could they become a Anthro version of themselves?
Also, it's not a surprise that Tohru know the sizes of the CMC (horn and wings included)? Or he just guessed using the size of AB?
7676524
That's...not what the Monkey Talisman does...
The last part reminds me of that one episode of Samurai Jack where Aku challenges Jack and then they act all chummy with their banter
I like how they lampshade their blatantly repetitive struggle.
7676524 You're thinking of the Monkey Staff from Xaolin Showdown. The Monkey Talisman has animal shapeshifting, either you or anyone/thing you aim it at.
7676524
That would be the Monkey Staff, from Xiaolin Showdown. A show that was remarkable similar to JCA in several ways.
Kinda sad that they never crossed over.
7676524 You're confusing your monkey-related artifacts. That's the Monkey Staff from Xiaolin Showdown. The Monkey Talisman grants the user the power of metamorphosis - they can turn into any animal they please.
...holy crap, the CMCs can use it to turn into humans. Lyra will be so jealous!
7676562 Question, since the CMC are from a place where dragons are real, could this be an option?
i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/106/652/29c.png
7676524 like the monkey staff from xiolen showdown?.....yes!
Soothers sans? Any puns for chapter or our all washed out? No seriously how have you not run out yet?
7676575 Dunno. In the world of Jackie Chan Adventures, dragons did exist at one point but were stated to have gone extinct (close to the end of Season Three, hence requiring Dao Lon Wong to resurrect Shendu in order to obtain the power of the Dragon Talisman). Maybe in story someone could try turning into an extinct animal and see how that works out. If it does, then why not a dragon?
7676587 What? The pressure is getting pretty high, and he might have to wet his lips. Or maybe even go to the spa and get a seaweed wrap.
Nah, he's just monkeying around with wetsuits.
7676668 Of course, if Our Dragons Are Different applies, that might change things... would they turn into JCA dragons, or MLP? Can they choose? How old would they be physically when changed? Can they choose that too? If they're unfortunate enough, this COULD lock them to Spike's size and abilities...
7676674 ....okay I laughed. You win. I bow to the master of puns.
And now this story's gonna become even MORE of a zoo.
If affecting the seaweed wasn't her intended result, just what was Applebloom trying to do? Grow a swarm of giant phytoplankton?
quick one of you scream "dragon!"
7676832 Aw, I'm glad I made someone laugh! Not sure if I'm a master though...
7677020 no you are. In fact check out Twilight lays an egg. I would love to see what you come uo with for that
Here's where things get interesting. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the great work. Deus tecum.
7677020
7677052
Trust me, they're not in the deep end just yet but of course we would have to wait and sea on that provided Tohru doesn't just manage to somehow brush off their attempts.
7677083 you two should have a pun off!
While I'll wait until after this episode for round 2, I'll leave with a query. If the monkey talisman turns humans into animals can it turn the CMC into humans? If it can then their worries of being exposed are over, though would they still have their magic?
Yes, sorry, even I can get wrong, Monkey Staff, Monkey Talisman, They are similar. So I confunded the powers...
7676976 I "seea pony"! aw, shucks.
7677119 Welp, I know I'm too lazy for one of those. Besides, his puns are sansational while mine can get quite grim.
7676668 And by extinct animal do you mean
cdn.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/jurassic-park-t-rex.jpg
7677880 Potentially.
7677751 ....you couldn't resist using that pun...could you
Question, could the CMC use the monkey talisman to turn human or Jade use it to turn pony?
7677602 Shoo be doo, Shoo shoo be doo!
7678038 OK. So. Here's the deal.
img10.deviantart.net/46dd/i/2013/345/7/1/cgd64_s_big_alignment_chart_jca_by_crazygamerdragon64-d6xjznb.png
Got it, worm? (I'm just kiddin' dude. This makes no sense together.)
7678180 Its so wrong that in that clip its Applejack when applebloom was trying to summon something
7677280 Humans ARE animals after all so I don't see why not. Though I suppose many people, including most ancient civilizations, either fail to realize that or refuse to admit it.
I'd like to be, under the sea, in a octopuses garden, in the shade...
7676885
Maybe she was attempting to become a waterbender in addition to her plantbender status?
If you want these fillies, ya gotta beat Jackie first!
With the fur, ponies could not use a regular mask and they would have to have custom gear similar to what dogs use. Toru just shelled out at least 13+ thousand for the ponies.
Being a scuba diver, the only way for them do be down hours is if the depth never exceeded 32 ft. You have 188 min at that depth. At 60 ft the time is down to 54 min. 100 ft is 19 min. This is no decompression diving and I doubt that the ponies have training for decompression dives. Anyways it is just best to ignore this for a smoother story. Just don't have them flying for 24 hrs. Poor Scootaloo.
7686778
I admit, I know nothing about scuba diving, or other forms.
However, the suits used in the episode looked like this.
pre09.deviantart.net/644b/th/pre/i/2015/351/f/c/jade_chan_scuba__fde____color_commission_by_bluehedgehog25-d9kch8u.png
7686778
7686788
Cartoons have been using full helmet diving suits that allow characters to talk to each other for decades.... despite the fact that such heavy, clunky gear has been considered obsolete since at least the 1960's, and required an air feed from the surface to work. Mostly so the characters can easily talk to each other, despite how horrible the gear is in real life.
It's been many years since I looked into real gear and tech, but back when I did, a single large compressed air tank was good for about 30 min. on average, and practically no one tried to use more then 2 tanks on any given dive. Also, a major limiting factor for divers isn't the pressure on a shallow dive (as described here), nor is it the available air supply. It's heat loss. Even in the tropics, it's possible on a long enough dive to suffer from hypothermia relatively near the surface, and the temperature generally drops as depth increases.
Naturally, cartoons tend to gloss over or outright ignore such things, so feel free to do the same. Such things should not get in the way of the story.
7882289 Well, I got my Padi last year, a normal air tank can atleast hold to an hour and thirty minutes in relatively shallow waters (4,5 m), of course it's going to drop every 10 m (33 f), but in the case of the gear there are some new full face masks that you can talk in, but they don't seem that good or practical.
7679859 ...You enjoy scaring people, don't you?
7686778
7882289
To be fair, when I said "hours of air", I meant that they had several reserve tanks up on the boat that they could switch to each time they deposited artifacts on the boat.
Ah yes the barbarian stealth method one of my favourites