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Post by YFWE on Sept 12, 2006 8:42:37 GMT -5
....I want to try something here. Haven't updated in forever (dreadfully sorry ), and I have the feeling that some of you forget I even write fanfics (And I do kinda need to show why I won Best Fanfic Writer at the awards, don't I? XD), so I'm gonna try to update more often. However, although this is the final chapter, it's not finished yet. So what I'm going to start doing is just updating what I have on these days at school when I have nothing to do. I'll upload an entire chapter to Fanfiction.net when I'm actually done. So... it ain't much yet, but here's the beginning of the end of Ordinary. Ordinary YFWE Ch.... 13, Maybe? I dunno... Darkness. Complete and absolute darkness. Where was she? No sight... ...nor sound. Wait. A clanging noise. Chains? A groan. She knew that voice. "...Jake? Is that you?" Silence. Rose grunted as she struggled to sit herself up. Yes, she was on the floor. Chained to the ground, perhaps? Rummaging her hands along the darkened ground, she found the chain- yes, it was around her left leg. She sighed. It didn't change much. She still didn't know where she was, and she knew that Jake was somewhere around where she was. She had to find him. She noticed that the chain that binded her was not only rather lightweight, but it actually was chained to another part of the floor. In other words, she was still able to move about the room... but how far? Could she find Jake? Rose began to crawl away from where her chain was. She couldn't see a thing still; even though her eyes had adjusted slightly to he darkness, there was ABSOLUTELY no light, not even the tiniest ray could make its' way into the black that seemed to spread and cover the room as if it was a dense fog. She continued to crawl. Crawl. Further, further. Another clang. She couldn't move. Rose tugged at the chain around her leg. Still no movement. This was as far as she was going to go. "Dammit," she cursed at herself and at the situation that presented itself. She couldn't move any further. And she still hadn't found Jake. But, of course, she hadn't heard his voice, let alone any other unidentified noises, since that initial groan. Was it possible she imagined it? END Kinda awkward place to end, but that's all I have so far. Be looking for another update in the coming days, possibly tomorrow. I'm actually gonna try and get at least halfway done with the chapter by tonight. We'll see what happens. Well... tell me what you think!
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Post by YFWE on Aug 6, 2008 13:42:30 GMT -5
First of all, ignore that last update.
Second of all...
OMG HOLY CRAP IT'S FINALLY DONE! THREE YEARS, PEOPLE, THREE YEARSSSSS.
I was a freaking freshman when I began writing this. And now... I'm a freshman in college.
DAYUM.
Oh well, enjoy. =]
Ordinary: Ch. 14 YFWE
Jake opened his eyes with the thought that, surely, he had died and had gone to heaven. He blinked. Twice. And again…
I didn’t think heaven would be this dark, he thought to himself. He could barely, in fact, see his hand in front of his face—unless, of course, the Huntsclan had had it cut off or something. Given the lack of pain he was feeling in that area, however, he concluded that either it was still there, or he was simply on too many painkillers for it to even matter.
But that couldn’t be—his head hurt like the devil.
He had not been awake long, and yet already Jake had realized two things: one, he was not dead, or at least not in heaven; and two, all his limbs were still attached to his body.
Now it was time to figure out where he truly was.
He had been laying flat on his side, arm outstretched in front of him as if he had been tossed into that position, a mere afterthought. He rose to a sitting pose, his head pulsating rhythmically, his eyes still adjusting to the darkness. It was not pitch black wherever he was, but it was damn well near to it—there was a doorway close to Jake, and bright light was streaming in through the cracks between the door and the wall.
And finally, Jake realized that he could see his hands in front of him, his eyesight now slightly accustomed to the dark. But it was not enough. No, not nearly enough.
“Eye of the dragon.”
Nothing.
Jake cursed his ignorance. What a fool he was!—in this world, he had no dragon powers! He was not the American Dragon, he was Jake Long: skateboarding prodigy, winner of the Inter-City championships two years running!
It finally hit him. And hard, harder even than the headspltting pain in his head when he had first awakened. Dan, the American Dragon—and more importantly (to him, anyway), Grandpa—were still trapped, captives of the Huntsmaster. And now, it seemed, so was he.
And then, another thought hit him, even harder than the last—Rose!
She had been taken too, he was sure of it. In fact, she could very well be in that room at that exact moment….
“Rose?”
Jake had whispered—rather, breathed—this word, unsure of whether or not someone else was listening in on the room, to determine if its captives had awakened….
There was a noise at the door, a distinct sliding noise, as if some object was being slid down some part of the door. Jake winced; when he had whispered Rose’s name, someone surely had heard him, and now they were coming for him.
A click, followed by a creaking sound, indicated that the door had been unlocked, and whatever was outside was now coming in. Light flowed copiously into the room, and nearby Jake saw another body on the floor—Rose’s.
“Kid, you in here?” said a gruff voice from the doorway that Jake immediately recognized as Fu’s. Instead of providing an answer, however, Jake had rushed to the side of Rose’s limp body, now that the newfound light permitted him a good glimpse of her.
Ignoring another searing pain in his head, Jake grabbed Rose’s shoulder and began to shake it gently. “Rose. Rose!”
“She still out?” Fu walked to Rose’s side as well, staring down at her in interest. “Must’ve been a pretty strong net they caught you two in… although hers must have been somewhat stronger. How’s your head?”
Jake paused momentarily from his attempt to awaken Rose. “Think of the worst migraine you’ve ever gotten and multiply that about twenty times.”
“Kid, if you knew the hangovers I’ve accrued over the years, you’d know that a headache that strong would probably kill just about anyone.” Fu’s eyes widened. “Yep, gotta long gash on your forehead, from the looks of it. If we can make it out of this alive, you’re definitely gonna want to clean that thing out.”
Resisting an urge to reach up and touch his abrasion, Jake instead asked, “Um, so how exactly did you find us? Without the Huntsclan seeing you, I mean.”
“It’s a wonder they haven’t seen me yet, to be honest, so I really can’t explain much. Let’s just say that I was often in the right place at the right time and I was able to avoid them… plus, I saw them stuff you two in here. I’ve been hiding out in the lovely restrooms they have for the last hour or two.”
“Okay, what about the door? It was locked, wasn’t it?”
“Well, of course it was! You didn’t think they were just gonna let you wander outta here once you came to, did you? Nah, it was locked. And before you ask how I unlocked it without a key, lemme tell ya—credit cards really can come in handy for more than putting yourself in the largest debt imaginable. Which reminds me—”
“Later, Fu!” exclaimed Jake. He had gone back to lightly shaking Rose’s shoulder. “Where’s the Huntsmaster now? Is the key with him?”
“Are you gonna keep asking stupid questions like this? Yes, the Huntsmaster still has the key. Either he or one of his goons has it, that is… either way, they’re definitely not just sitting out in the middle of the floor, so you can rule that out now.”
Fu glanced down at Rose, who was still unconscious. “Y’know, as much help as I’m sure she’d be, we’re running out of time. The Huntsman’s gonna push the big red button anytime now, and—pardon the tasteless joke I’m about to make—if we don’t act soon, Gramps and the American Dragon are gonna be in specially marked boxes of Kibbles and Bits within the hour.”
Jake gave Fu a blank look.
“Oh, come on... they’re gonna be chopped into bits and… good God, ANY OTHER DAY, you would’ve laughed at that. Anyway, leave the girl, we gotta go!”
Fu snuck around the corner, Jake in tow, watching both ways to see if anyone was coming down the hallway. There was no one, but they would still need to act fast—very fast, in fact, for Jake swore he could hear voices coming from the large open room…
They had broken into a slight jog upon leaving the room, but just before reaching the entrance to the warehouse-like room, Fu stopped, and Jake had barely enough time to do the same before stepping out into the open.
Fu jerked his head towards the middle of the room, where the cage holding Grandpa and Dan hung from the ceiling and where the machine of razorblades sat beneath. Two Huntsclan guards stood side by side facing the cage on the upper platform, their backs to the entranceway where Jake and Fu stood. Glinting in the light, hanging from the left guard’s pocket, was the key—now on a keyring. There appeared to be no one else in the room—no one else in plain view, at least.
“Any plan?” Jake whispered to Fu.
“Not really… come to think of it, it would’ve made much more sense to wake up Huntsgirl,” sighed Fu.
“We can always go back…”
“No, here’s the plan. Neither one of us gets spotted, and you go steal the key from the guards. I’m gonna go work on the death machine underneath.” Fu reached into his skinfolds and produced a tiny vial. “This stuff is three years old and there’s barely any left, but it’ll turn you invisible. I’d been saving it for an occasion like this, or for whenever Big Ernie’s debt collectors came by again, whichever came first. If we split it between the two of us, it’ll last us about five minutes each, so really get a move-on, huh?”
Jake assented silently, gulping slightly at the notion of what he was about to do—or, at least, try to do. He, of no dragon powers—let alone any other power, save for a brief state of invisibility—was to not only steal a very visible key from two men with weaponry that might intimidate any national army, but was to carry said key off undetected—
“What do you want me to do with the key once I’ve got it?” Jake asked with uncertainty.
“Er…” it was obvious that Fu had not yet considered this. “Well, you certainly can’t unlock the cage while they’re looking right at it and all. Just… I dunno, you’ll think of somethin’, I’m sure.”
“Gee, you’re helpful,” whispered Jake disgustedly. “If I die—”
“They’ll take you hostage again before they kill ya,” interrupted Fu. “You’re not of magical blood, no matter how confusing it is—your grandfather being a dragon and all. (Jake opened his mouth as if to explain, but once again decided to forge the details.) They aren’t gonna kill some innocent human, even if you are acting rather suspiciously, trespassing on their secret base while a couple of dragons are about to be killed,” explained Fu.
“And you?”
“We’ll worry about that when the time comes. Ready?”
Jake nodded. Fu handed him the vial. “Just half,” he breathed as Jake pressed the liquid to his lips. As there was not much left, only a few droplets trickled down his throat, but already Jake could feel a tingling sensation that encompassed his entire body. Soon, he stared down to see only the vial floating in midair. “Quickly, go!” hissed Fu, snatching the vial from his invisible, yet quite tangible, grip.
Leaving Fu behind, Jake walked out into the open room, his eyes scanning about for other possible adversaries; so far, though, it appeared that the two guards were the only threats, although he swore he could hear voices coming from the entranceway out of which the Huntsmaster had stepped before… and then, of course, there was the impending peril of his invisibility ceasing.
A gleaming metallic stairway nearby would lead him to the catwalk where the guards stood. Jake stepped briskly toward it, all the time listening in on what was a conversation between the two Huntsclan guards.
“So, Mark, while we’re up here…”
“I told you, Harry, I’m not into guys.”
“C’mon man, I just wanted to tell you a joke… it’ll pass the time.”
“Harry, your jokes are insolent and incredibly lame. I’d rather pass the time staring at this spot on the wall, as I had been doing for the past hour before you interrupted me.”
“Just one.”
“Fine.”
A creaking sound caused Mark, the right guard, to turn quickly and stare at the space that Jake occupied, who in turn cursed the middle of step of the staircase that he was standing on.
“What’s wrong?” asked Harry. “Y’still wanna hear it?”
“Sorry, thought I heard something over there,” Mark replied, his eyes narrowed as he reluctantly returned to his spot facing the cage.
“Right, so—Mark, did you ever see Helen Keller’s playhouse?”
“Can’t say that I have.”
Jake reached the head of the stairs, his gaze turning to the two guards and the cage. He had been lucky enough to avoid any other creaking stairs; it was his sincere hope, now, that the catwalk would not fail him….
“You didn’t?”
“No, I didn’t, is there a point to this joke?”
“It’s okay, I never saw it either. In fact… you know, come to think of it, neither did she.”
Jake was so close to the left guard now that the guard could have easily reached out with his left hand and touched him. Just inches ahead of him was the key, dangling lazily out of the guard’s pocket. It occurred to Jake suddenly that not only would the guard likely feel the key being lifted from his person, but once out of the pocket, keeping it from bumping into anything and making noise would be another battle.
“Like I said, insolent…”
“Oh, Mark—you have to admit—”
Jake reached with both hands, both of which were shaking—or so, of course, he thought, as he could not actually see them. Finally, he grasped something cold and clammy—the keyring. He began to lift slowly, closing one hand on the key so that it would not clang against anything once freely moving…
A feeling of exuberance tugged at his heart—the key was out; he’d done it! And, as the guards were still having a rather animated discussion about what deems a joke tasteless and what does not, his theft had thankfully been overlooked. As he could not dream of unlocking the cage while the guards were present, Jake began back towards the stairway, where perhaps he might find Fu, and concoct their next plan of action.
“Whatever your opinion,” Mark said, “it appears as if our bickering has actually put the dragons to sleep.” He peered into the cage, with Harry following suit. “We can turn back around now, then…”
“Yeah, so—let me know what you think of this one,” spoke Harry as the two of them turned around. “What’s the best thing about having sex with twenty-eight year olds?”
Mark did not answer; rather, his eyes widened as he stared, bemused, at a key floating away from their position. “Say, Harry… where’d you put the key to the cage?”
“My pocket. It’s right—” he froze, his eyes falling on the floating key, just as his hand reached his empty pocket. They turned to each other, mouths agape.
Jake turned onto the stairway, his gaze flickering back momentarily to the cage and the two guards. He froze: they were staring straight at him.
“Damn,” growled Jake under his breath. Without another glance back at them, he flung himself down the stairs, the sound of his feet clanking against the metallic stairs reverberating throughout the room. From above him, he could hear the guards beginning to give chase.
Jake darted towards the machine below the cage, hoping that he would somehow find Fu. “Got the key,” he whispered in random places around the machine, in optimism that Fu would hear him and understand that at least part of their plan had gone well. But he heard nothing in response.
He paused, and pressed himself against the walls of the machine. The key, of course, was still visible ahead of him. From either side of the machine came the two guards. Both of them appeared to see the key at the same time, and both began to descend upon Jake’s position from both sides. Soon they were both feet away from the key… but just as both lunged, Jake dove out of the way, causing them to headbutt each other, sending them sprawling to the ground.
Jake ran back towards the staircase, seeing this as his supreme chance to get a chance at the cage. He sprinted up the stairs, turned, and soon was standing in front of the cage. The guards had been right—Grandpa and Dan, it seemed, were asleep on the floor of the cage. Jake’s gaze darted around, looking for the lock. Suddenly, he spotted it. At the far right side of the front of the cage.
Unfortunately, however, the moment he had discovered the lock, before he could even plunge the key into the lock, his five minutes had expired and his invisibility was gone. And the second he found out this, he knew he was condemned.
“I can see you.”
The guards were at his side, having leapt up effortlessly from the ground floor. But it was not they who had spoken.
The guards grabbed Jake’s shoulders and spun him around. Jake stared up into the deprecating gaze of the Huntsman, standing a ways away at the second floor entranceway.
And in a second he was there, directly in front of Jake. “You have not been truthful with us,” he snarled. “No mere human could’ve turned invisible as you just have exemplified.”
Jake stared angrily into the Huntsmaster’s pale eyes.
“And yet if you were a dragon, you would surely have already transformed,” continued the Huntsman. “So tell me, where do your allegiances lie?”
“Not with you,” growled Jake.
“I thought that would be the state of affairs. In that case, you may witness your dragon friends die first… and then I shall kill you in the same way.”
The Huntsman took out the red-buttoned device. He first pressed the top button, which Jake knew as the button that activated the razorblades.
The half-cylinder below the cage opened… and yet, the razorblades merely sat there, unmoving.
“What?!” the Huntsmaster began to press the button repeatedly.
“Chewing gum has far more uses than the obvious, Huntsman,” laughed Fu, who had appeared at the top of the stairs. “Those gears of yours, for instance… stick some in there, and boom—no dragons dying today.”
The Huntsmaster spun to look at Fu. Jake felt the guards’ grip on his shoulders slacken in surprise. Without hesitation, he elbowed one guard in the stomach and shoved the other to the ground. He whirled around, thrust the key into the lock, and turned it.
The door swung open with a creak, and Jake ducked to the side, joining Fu’s side. The Huntsmaster’s eyes widened, and slowly he turned back around to the cage.
A figure appeared at the door—Grandpa. “I was sleeping,” said he, “when I was rudely interrupted by a mass commotion out here. Have you come to your senses and decided to release us, then, Huntsmaster?”
Grandpa stared around, grinning at Fu, and then pausing on Jake. He did not seem to know what to say… and, it appeared, decided as if later would be the better time for explanations.
Another figure joined Grandpa at the door—Dan. He had a large grin on his face.
“I order you,” growled the Huntsman, “to return to the cage, or you shall suffer the consequences.”
Grandpa shrugged. “I will take these ‘consequences.’” He lunged at the Huntsman, a dark blue blur. Dan leapt out of the cage and was engulfed in a yellow flame—soon after, he was a tall yellow and blue dragon.
The guards had begun to advance on Jake and Fu once more, but were sent sprawling off the side of the catwalk by Dan’s airborne dragon form. “Get on,” he ordered, lowering his back. “I’ll take you two outside… I’m sure Master Shi will not be long at all…”
As much as Jake wished to get in the fight, he obeyed, slinging Fu onto Dan’s back with him. As they tore along towards the exit, Jake stole one last look at Grandpa, who had the Huntsman pinned to the ground with his tail….
Without even the slightest flinch, Dan broke through the wall that Jake and Fu had come through to get inside the base (which had been resealed.) The bricks fell away as if they were nothing; Jake wondered if it would’ve been that easy when they had come through earlier.
Soon they were out of the trap door and into the abandoned Ellis Island building that housed the secret entrance to the base. Dan once again lowered his back, allowing them to dismount him. “Wait here,” he said. “I’m going to go get Master Shi…”
“Not necessary.”
The dragon form of Lao Shi had, too, climbed from the trap door. He dusted himself off and reverted to human form. “I lessened my grip on him for one second and he took off… but it gave me enough time to escape as well.”
“Shall we be heading back in?” asked Dan.
“No, I do not think so. Jake needs to go home.” Grandpa turned to his grandson. “You can explain to me what is going on on the way back.”
Jake nodded, and Grandpa returned to his dragon form, allowing Jake to climb on his back. And with this, they took off into the night.
“Did Fu explain everything to you, and force you to help him find me?” asked Grandpa in interest.
“No. Gramps, this is gonna sound crazy…”
“Then it was Chiang, wasn’t it?”
Jake paused. “Yeah, how did you—”
“Then I shall have to shift my focus so I can explain myself.”
They were very high in the air now, the outline of the skyscrapers of New York ablaze with many-colored lights. It was extremely peaceful out. Jake had always loved this about the city.
“When you became the American Dragon,” started Grandpa, “I knew that maybe, just maybe, you would at some point have second thoughts about your destiny and your duty. In short, there could come a time when you would not want to be the American Dragon anymore. So I spoke to my old mentor, my dragon master—Chiang Minh.”
“Chiang Minh was your dragon master? No wonder Fu recognized him!”
“Chiang has powers far beyond my own,” continued Grandpa. “I knew of his ability to transcend the fabrics of different worlds, and thus I asked him to do me a favor.
“I asked him if he could, when the time came that you were questioning your duty as the American Dragon, pull you into one of these worlds—a world in which you were not the American Dragon. Obviously, what I feared has occurred, am I right?”
“You are,” said Jake. “But if you’re from another world… how did you know that this would happen?”
“Despite what world I am in, I have always had Chiang Minh as a dragon master. He came to me—and, I’m sure, all other alternate versions of myself—and explained the situation.”
“I see.”
The rooftop of Grandpa’s shop was nearing. The two dragons and their passengers touched down lightly, and Dan and Fu headed back inside.
“So, let me ask, Jake: what was it that caused you to have these second thoughts?”
“Well…” sighed Jake. “This girl.”
“Huntsgirl, yes?”
“…exactly…”
“You wanted to relinquish your duties so that you could be with her.”
“How do you know so much?”
“Let’s just say I had the same problem once.”
The grandson and his grandfather stared at each other for a few moments.
“So what have you concluded?” asked Grandpa.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, shall you be staying here, or shall you be returning to your own world?”
Jake stared at the ground. “I think,” he said, “that it is my duty as the American Dragon to return to my own world. As much as I would love to stay here.”
“That is precisely what I hoped you would say,” Grandpa smiled warmly.
Jake smiled back, and glanced at the sky. “Chiang?”
“Right here, Jake.” the old man was suddenly beside him.
“Chiang,” nodded Grandpa curtly.
“Hello, my old friend.”
Grandpa grinned. “Thank you… thank you very much.” He nodded to Jake, and followed Dan and Fu back inside. “I see you have made your choice,” Chiang said, turning to Jake.
“I have.”
“I congratulate you, then,” Chiang set his hand on Jake’s shoulder. “If you ever need anything, do not hesitate to call me.”
Before Jake could respond, he began to feel as if he was being lifted into the air. The scene dissolved around him, and soon he was standing in the street outside the house in which his last battle with the Huntsclan had occurred. The rain was still coming down rather hard, which caught him off guard. But truthfully, he could not have been happier.
He stared down at his hands, and with a grin, whispered, “Dragon up.” His hands, as well as the rest of his body, were engulfed in the familiar red flame, and soon he felt the power and strength of his dragon form coursing through every fiber of his body.
With one fierce beat of his wings, he rose into the air, heading back towards Grandpa’s shop. In what seemed like mere minutes, he was standing back on the roof of Grandpa’s shop, once more in his human form.
His cell phone rang. Half-surprised, Jake took it from his pocket and stared down at it. Rose was calling.
“Hello?”
“Jake! Hi!”
“Hey there.”
“I just really, really wanted to apologize again for having to leave our date early… something came up.”
“Like I said before, it’s okay,” said Jake.
“Well, anyway, wasn’t there something you wanted to tell me?”
“Oh!” Jake had forgotten about his fervent desire to tell Rose his secret. Part of him, even after that night, wanted to… wanted to tell her what he was, and that he knew what she was…
But instead, Jake smiled broadly.
“Oh, it was nothing. Listen, I gotta go hang with my Grandpa for a while. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
END STORY
Glad that's finally over =]
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