Chan let out a roar of rage, slamming his clenched fist into the wall hard enough to dent metal. "That bastard!" he snarled. "He dared..."
Jackie sank to his knees, sobbing. "The girls...I...what am I going to do now?"
Both remained where they were, lost in their own turmoil. Jackie desperately wanted to save the girls, but every plan he came up with presented so many risks he didn't dare try them, and he knew he couldn't wait too long or the Dark Hand would find the Talisman half Jade had, and then something really bad would happen. Chan, on the other hand, was filled with uncontrollable rage, and wanted to march right down to the Dark Hand's building and rip out the white-haired man's heart...but if they saw him coming, the girls could get hurt. And all they'd have to do is send those shadow ninjas at them, since their Dark Magic nature would hurt the fillies just from touching. He had no plan.
Jackie was finally the one who broke the silence. "...this is all my fault..."
"Your fault?" Chan snapped in confusion. "I'm the one who tried to trade the Talismans for cash-"
"I'm the one who made you," Jackie interrupted. "You were right. I was so determined to try and stay happy I refused to face the pain and anger. Everything I felt made me a bad person...I balled it up into you. Because I couldn't face the world for what it really is...they're gone..."
Chan stared at him for a time. Finally, he spoke up as well. "We're both to blame for this," he said simply. "I was so focused on finally making you pay for lumping all your suffering onto me that I lost sight of my real job: keeping them safe. I was happy to take risks I shouldn't have."
"I don't know what to do..." Jackie murmured softly.
"Duh," Chan responded. "We save them."
"But how?" Jackie demanded despairingly.
"Together."
Jackie jerked his head up in response.
Chan snorted. "I may be strong enough to protect them, but I also plainly can't do that on my own. And even if I could...I can't raise them healthy. For their sake, I need you."
Jackie lowered his gaze. "I'm not strong enough to save them. I'll hesitate, show too much caution, and all will be lost. I can't save them..." He lifted his gaze to look back at Chan. "...without you."
Chan nodded. "Then we're in agreement. I know where their base is. What's the plan?"
"What sort of building?" Jackie asked quickly.
"Tall, lots of floors, elevator in the back," Chan detailed swiftly.
Jackie rubbed his chin. "Room for plenty of troops...and they'll see us coming in. We'll need to find a way to keep them from threatening the girls to stop us-"
"I'm on it," Chan stated quickly as he turned and grabbed Captain Black's security pass card. "How do we know where to find the girls?"
"Top floor," Jackie responded immediately. "Even if they won't have them there initially, once they see us coming they'll run there. Only logical."
Chan nodded and left the room. Before long, he came back with two technological looking swords. He passed one hilt first to Jackie. "We go in swinging these," he stated firmly, gripping the hilt of his. It instantly began to vibrate, energy humming along the edge. To demonstrate what it did, he swung it at one of the broken pieces of furniture from their earlier fight. The blade sheared through effortlessly.
"Wha!" Jackie yelped, leaping back. "We can't use these! They're killing weapons!"
"The shadow ninjas are magic constructs, not really alive," Chan stated bluntly. "As for the humans, they either know to get out of our way, or are willing to threaten children to get what they want. Either way, I won't hesitate to swing...and if you want to save the girls, you can't either."
Unable to find fault with this, Jackie nodded sadly.
Valmont was not happy as he placed the Talismans from out of the tackle box into the slots on Shendu's stone body. On the one hand, it seemed they had all the Talismans they needed, and he'd soon get the promised reward. On the other hand, Hak Foo had captured the four girls, which meant that he'd soon have two Chans out for his blood. On top of that, Tohru actively showed signs of mutiny over the situation, much as Valmont expected he would.
Admittedly, if Valmont had his way, Tohru would have taken the girl, the ponies, a huge check, and an apology letter and made straight for Uncle's Rare Finds. However, as soon as he'd laid eyes on them, Shendu had insisted the fillies be chained up close to the wall, stating flat out that he'd take care of things personally. Valmont had worked too long in the criminal world to have any doubts about what that meant.
Still, he silently counted out the Talismans. He kept telling himself he had come too far. The treasure of Shin Shi Wa would give him more than enough to retire, and never touch any enterprise ever again. He'd buy his own island and never think about any of this. He was through messing with magic if he could at all avoid it.
When the tackle box was empty, however, he had only inserted...eleven and a half Talismans. "Where is the other half?" Shendu demanded angrily.
"If it please you, I shall find it," Hak Foo offered eagerly, plainly trying to redeem himself in the eyes of both employer and client.
"By what method?" Shendu inquired carefully.
Grinning, Hak Foo walked over to the girls. Shendu's Dark Magic aura had weakened the fillies' magic to the point they couldn't get themselves free this close, and with eleven and a half Talismans installed they were completely powerless. He then bent over Jade. "You will tell me of your own free will where the remaining Talisman half is quickly, or one of these three will tell me slowly." He cracked his knuckles. "Your choice."
Jade whimpered, looking down at her shoe. She hoped Jackie - either of them - found them soon.
As Chan had predicted, the sight of two Jackie Chan's with angry expressions cutting their way through the front door with vibrating swords that cut through glass without it shattering, wood without splintering, and stone without stopping resulted in every human guard running in any direction but the one they were approaching from, leading the path clear for them. "Let's go," Chan stated gruffly as they made their way to the elevator.
"Ooh! Express!" Jackie pointed out with a grin. "Only one floor to go to!"
"Then that's the floor we're going to," Chan stated firmly as the door closed around them.
Technological swords? A Metal Gear Rising Reference? Noice!
7837067 Maybe. I'd assume these swords were of similar make to the ones the Enforcers used throughout the first season.
Anyway, comments! Valmont's right on the money, though it's a shame the Crusaders are already overpowered by Shendu's magic. Hak Foo, alas, continues to play with fire...the fool.
Looks like Hak is gonna suffer soon. I suggest a Pulverising Pancake from Tohru.
Well, looks like my guess was PARTLY right. Jackie DID make peace with himself. The other guesses are probably going to come later.
Hak Foo...
I hope your medical insurance would cover what's about to transpire on you...
66.media.tumblr.com/a490c56527df8fdb881ff1f45d56c066/tumblr_mto5qxSoIs1sd5847o3_250.gif
The music makes it downright forbidding
Aiya this is not going to end well for bad guys. Also perfect song to accompany the chapter.
7837088
Personally, I forsee Kitten/Jackie being the one who puts a sword through Hak Foo's heart, rather than Tiger/Chan. There is a spot of light in the dark, and vice versa, after all.
Holy Mary Mother of God, that song made this creepy as all hell. Awesome!... but creepy.
Rin. Pyou. Tou. Sha. Kai. Jin. Retsu. Sai. Zen.
Don' mind me human. Lad were a bit more'n gobsmacked at th' chap, so he's tryin' t' calm 'imself afore he goes an' does sommat thick.
Kangaeru nai... kanjiru... ... ... kangaeru nai... kanjiru...
Th' chap's a good one, an' it's bound t' get be'er. Keep doin' th' bang-up job ye been doin'. In th' mean, I'mma be helpin' me human calm 'imself. Sometimes 'e jus' needs a lad t' spar with, an' I go' me ways. 'Til next time, lads. Oi! C'mere, ye plonker! Quit yer chantin' an' let's get millin'!
I really like this. It presents a good moral about how we all have our dark sides, but entirely suppressing them isn't good in the long run. To have yang you must have yin. But if you can get both sides fully in balance, you can do amazing things that neither side could do on their own.
Hmm... Jackie Chan at complete peace with himself, basically having a moment of absolute clarity...
This comes to mind.
Interesting, so even Valmont knows full well that he done screwed up, and big time at that. Should be interesting to see whether he manages to escape with his life; pretty sure Shendo's not going to.
And then shit got real.
Shendu, Hak Foo.....
You dead
7837067 exactly what I was going to say!
Shit hits the fan in 3, 2, 1...
7837230 I know. Sometimes, I forget how good he is as a recurring antagonist in the series.
And so the Endgame begins...
Chapter Seventy Six
"Aiyah!"
Chapter Count: 0
Total Count: 39
"One More Thing!"
Chapter Count: 0
Total Count: 70
Valmont smiled coolly at Hak Foo. "Actually, I think I have a better job in mind for you then finding the other half of the talisman." He began, causing Hak Foo to look at him.
"Really? What?" Hak Foo asked curiously.
"Why a sacrifice to the Chans of course! After all it WAS YOU who took the girls, despite my EXPRESS ORDERS to leave them the hell alone." Valmont replied, then casually added "Oh and Tohru has requested that he is allowed to have what ever is left of you after the Chans are done with you."
It was then the Dapper man from earlier walked in carrying a casket "I told you, you would be needing this" he stated cheerfully then asked "What would you like on your tombstone?"
"How about here Lies, Hak Fool, the Idiot who pissed off the Chans?" Valmont Suggested.
7837088
Maxim 25: If the [insurance] covers the damage you did, you didn't do enough damage.
Yeaaah... not feeling the puns with the girls left hanging.
7837217
thx for showing me this. lol i played this song when i read this chapter
I've got a good song for this coming fight:
BATTLE!!!!
Heh, those swords sounded like the vibro-blades from star wars knights of the old republic. I'm sure they are from other places, but that is the only one I can remember them from right now. I always thought they were incredibly complicated ideas just so you could try to find another way to make swords relevant in that universe, but hey, it was star wars, not like they have an abundance of logic.
Chans tearing apart the Dark hand using techno-practically-magic-swords.
I like it.
The but kicking Hak Foo is about to receive will be glorious.
Make sure to point out to the rescue party and say it was the client's idea to keep the girls imprisoned.
If Shendu mentions he hasn't tasted Pegasus, Unicorn, or virgin maiden in ages, I think Tohru will go for a killing blow on him, same for both versions of Jackie.
This sort of fits the two Jackie Chans.
7837561 meanwhile across the street a man dressed in a black and red bodysuit sat looking through the scope of a anti-material rifle. casualy he took out a cell phones.
"death? honey? listen i'm going to need a favor, i'm wondering if you can hold off on letting one 'hak-foo' die for a couple, days? you know what lets just say two months
Could Valmont be having a change of heart, how much of these event changes in the finale affect the next season.
Sounds like trouble....
7839831 Make it double.
7838688 It could be done currently, actually. The only problem is the frequency and the size. Bunch of small cylinoids (spelling?) in the hilt moving at different times rapidly in a sequence would be all that is needed to make the high frequency blade from MGR: Revengeance, which is basically the same thing as the vibrosword from Star Wars.
7841345
While you could probably make a sword that vibrates, I doubt it would actually impart much, if any, extra cutting power to the blade. I could maaaaybe see it being implemented on a scalpel level, but a full blade? Nah.
I would be fascinated to read an article or see a video that proves me wrong, tho.
EDIT:
Actually it appears that cast saws already use something close to it. Which I totally didn't remember until I looked it up. So: scalpel size on hard, but not too hard, material that has little to no give.
But yes, I saw you say frequency and size are the problems, though it's not what I would consider anything close to the in-fiction thing if you can't use it bigger than a inch on anything harder than paper-mache outside of perfect lab conditions.
7841364 A partial demonstration can be found in chainsaw versus handsaw. Though the only real world application I have seen would be a saws-all. Theoretically, the best demonstration would be from a monomolecular edged blade vibrating at about a thousand a second vibrations. You can see why it would be impractically expensive to make currently, yes?
7841384
I can see how it would be impossible to create, currently, which was my point.
I agree that the idea of vibration imparting cutting capabilities is plausible, even proven in certain settings. I'm not arguing that. I didn't mean to give that impression.
7841416 Ah, then most of my points are redundant.
7841449
7841416
... Funny thing, vibrating blades have existed for years now.
Doctors use them to cut casts off of patents, because they will cut through the hard plaster, but not damage the flexible skin and tissue beneath.
In other words, such weapons sound nice on paper, but in reality are likely to be less effective then normal blades against living tissue.
Now, a rapidly spinning, rasping "blade", on the other hand..
7842196
Not to mention shavers are essentially multiple, angled, vibrating blades.
7842196 If I recall correctly, those are usually modified saws-alls. I am probably wrong on that though.
Teamwork!
Hak Foo gonna be in pain.
7877024 pain? Hes going to be dead!
The Jackies entering Dark Hand HQ part had me imagining it being similar to Alucard leaving the hotel in Hellsing Ultimate Abridged.
Dark Hand troops watches the Jackies enter.
Chan: "Hey guys, how's your health plan?"
Troops aim and cock their guns
Jackie: (gulps) "Apparently, it's great."
Jackies ready swords
7983770
Goat falls limp!
Started listening to Monster by Skillet here, and through the whole next chapter... So epic!