As the Chans fled from the black-clad, blue-skinned ninjas, Jade looked up at Jackie in confusion. "Aren't you gonna whomp 'em?" she demanded, somewhere between confusion and irritation.
"Ancient proverb," Jackie responded. "Do not fight when you can run!"
"We're outnumbered at least 50 to 1," Sweetie Belle pointed out after a quick count. "And it looks like they keep getting reinforcements out of every shadow."
"I do not know what they are, but they are made of Dark Magic!" Uncle warned. "Apple Bloom! Sweetie Belle! Scootaloo! Do not touch them if you can avoid it. Your magic has not yet fully stabilized in development, and until it does touching these beings will be as painful to you as it will be to them!"
"Also that," Scootaloo added as she pushed Cumulo for all he had.
"Then why haven't we taken to the air?" Jade demanded. "It's not like they can fly!"
"Too much weight on Cumulo!" Scootaloo explained. "Uncle and Jackie each weigh as much as the four of us combined, and Audrey's really dense!" Seeing Audrey's offended look, Scootaloo added, "Physically."
"Then we should split up!" Jackie insisted as they passed an intersection, leaping off the cloud. Uncle followed suit. "You four go that way, and stick together!" he insisted. "Uncle and I will go this way. You'll be safer away from me!"
"Aiyah..." Uncle groaned as he hopped off, letting Cumulo shoot off down the other road. "Uncle is getting too old for this..."
"We have to give them time to get away!" Jackie insisted as he raced ahead, Uncle behind him. However, before long he paused, noticing an absence of the sounds of pursuit. Turning back, he saw the ninjas were nowhere in sight. Rushing back, he saw they were in pursuit of Cumulo. "Uh oh."
"Aiyah!" Uncle cried out. "They must be tracking magic, and fillies have much! We must protect the girls!" He immediately raced after them, Jackie close behind.
Scootaloo glanced back over her shoulder and frowned, not happy with what she was seeing. "We've still got ninjas after us!" she called out.
"Keep your eyes on the road ahead!" Sweetie warned. "We don't have a clear sky!"
Looking forward, Scootaloo began maneuvering between vehicles as they raced ahead and down the upcoming steep hill, the downward slope allowing her to pick up speed. "Will one of you keep yours eyes on the ninjas, then?" she demanded angrily.
Jade kept her eyes back, watching. "Looks like they've grabbed onto...two vehicles, only one following us? Why would they do that?"
"Jackie and Uncle must have noticed they were following us!" Sweetie gasped out. "They must have split up to try and put them on the wrong path!"
"Then we need ta make sure they can see us!" Apple Bloom called out. "Scoot! Can Cumulo get us higher?"
Scootaloo urged Cumulo upward, but the cloud barely moved. "Still too much weight!" Scootaloo shouted out.
"Well we gotta do something!" Jade screamed out, gripping Cumulo with both hands. "Come on! Come on!"
Without warning, Cumulo shot upward into the air.
"Whaaa!" Apple Bloom screamed out as Cumulo started swerving amongst the upper reaches of the Golden Gate.
"The hay?" Scootaloo demanded, stunned.
Sweetie's eyes widened as her horn blazed. "The Talisman! I can feel its magic! It must be countering our weight somehow to let Cumulo get much higher!"
"Wait, we have it?" Jade asked in confusion. "But where?" She took her hands off Cumulo, and he began to drop again.
"You have it!" Sweetie pointed out. "Did you slip it into your pockets or something?"
"No!" Jade countered. "I haven't seen it! The bad guys must-AHHH!"
As the four were distracted with their arguing, a group of ninjas that had taken shape in the shadows of the Golden Gate's peak had hurled a smoke bomb into Cumulo, its specific composition on explosion causing the cloud to erupt, sending the group flying. Scootaloo spread her wings, managing to catch hold of Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, landing them on one of the bridge's supporting pylons. Looking up, she breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Cumulo slowly stabilizing. "You girls okay?" she asked worriedly.
"I'm alright," Sweetie admitted as she shook slightly, trying to dispel her fear.
"Ah'm okay, but ah don't see Jade or Audrey!" Apple Bloom pointed out.
High above, Audrey III gripped the cables holding up the suspension bridge as he stared down at where the large enforcer had hold of Jade and was carrying her away, along with a small statuette with four dragon heads, one pointed in each direction. Audrey thought about the situation. He was supposed to serve Apple Bloom, the one who brought him to life, in return for feeding on her magic, that was the arrangement. At the same time, Apple Bloom obeyed the wizard, which told Audrey that she was an apprentice, and the familiar of an apprentice was supposed to obey the apprentice's master unless the apprentice ordered otherwise.
His senses showed that Apple Bloom and the other two with similar magic he could not eat were together. However, no one was with the girl. No one was presently with him. Logic dictated that he should, therefor, be with the girl, doing what was necessary to carry out the 'stay safe' directive. As such, as the large one carried the girl off, Audrey extended his vines and swung from cable to cable, following him towards the docks.
After securing the girl, Tohru went into the other room to communicate the conundrum he'd encountered to his boss. "Master," he said into his communicator, "the tracker points to the girl, but she does not have the Talisman."
"Well it must be hidden on her somewhere, Tohru!" Valmont insisted. "I'm sure she didn't eat it!" He then paused, his expression changing as he gave the idea some serious consideration.
"Man is much the wiser when he looks within," the voice of the statue 'client' echoed over the line.
Tohru flinched internally. He knew an order when he received it, even if it was couched in metaphor. "I...understand." Closing the line, he sighed. Schooling his expression, he walked into the other room. There, he saw where he'd strapped the girl to a table. She was writhing against the bonds and screaming defiantly, but he blocked out her words, not wanting to face what he was surely going to have to do. Holding the tracker over her, he watched as it blazed from all four points as he held it over her stomach, identifying the location of the Talisman. "A ha," he stated firmly, not letting his emotions show in his voice.
Once more ignoring the girl, he pulled out the cutlass he had with him to retrieve the Talisman. He knew the methods of The Dark Hand, and he would be ordered to leave the girl's body for Jackie Chan to find, as a warning to him to stay out of their business. He would now have to cross the line he'd hoped never to face...and cut the girl open and leave her to die.
Glancing at the edge of the cutlass, he took it over to a nearby grinding wheel and held the blade against it as it spun, bringing the edge to razor sharpness so he could try to minimize the pain she would be in before shock blocked it out entirely. As he worked at sharpening the blade, he thought to himself, trying to determine how he would bring himself to live with what he was about to do.
He remembered the Tanto amongst his possessions, a blade passed down through generations of his family, along with the traditions of their heritage. When he realized why his mind went to the Tanto, he found a measure of peace. Idly, he wondered who he could ask to be his kaishakunin, and wield the katana...
Putting those thoughts from his mind, he lifted the blade as he saw it had achieved a razor's edge. He then turned towards the girl, who stared up at him in fear. "Hold still," he instructed, lifting the sword high...
...only to feel a thick, thorny vine wrap around his wrist as it punched through the roof of the building. "What the-?"
He got out no more as he was promptly ripped out of the building through the roof, and lifted up until he was face to tooth with a giant plant monstrosity straight out of a B horror movie. As he stared as the massive jaw opened wide, he thought to himself, I wonder if anyone else was ever this happy to be kaiju food?
The creature hesitated, then lifted him up towards the base of the top half of the bulb. He felt wind being pulled past him as a loud snorting noise could be heard. The bulbous mouth closed...and the plant kaiju hurled him away, sending him flying straight for Valmont's building.
That was different- Tohru's thoughts were cut off as he slammed through the wall, crashing into Valmont's desk and losing consciousness.