Post by SoCalDrag on Jan 1, 2011 2:02:20 GMT -5
--Century High School, Financial District, 2011 Sept 2, 12:40 PM
“So how’s everything today?” Jake asked his new tutor.
“OK, just still not really used to the idea of having Gov on the 7th floor of a skyscraper,” Josh recalled, “and the escalators in the school are AWSOME!!! But let’s get started.”
“OK,” Jake opened his textbook to page three, which was filled with vocabulary, “I just need to know all this crap by next period, but I only crammed half of it. But the rest are just impossible.”
“Hmmm…” Josh thought for a few seconds or so and gave his anecdote, “I think what you need to do is to picture all of these characters as pictures. You see that last term on the page, the first character for key, 鑰, you just have to remember that a key is made of metal, hence the 金radical. Then just picture a castle gate with three squarish locks for the right side.”
“Oh yeah, this does help!!!” Jake claimed as he careened his head sideways and back to see the character.
The two spent the rest of the time breaking up characters and drawing pictures. By the end of lunch, when Josh gave him a mock dictation test, Jake felt more confident.
“Thanks for the help,” Jake said gratefully, as Josh graded his exam.
“Thank YOU for making me welcome here,” Josh replied as the lunch bell rang, “Good luck on that test next period.”
--Canal Street Electronics, Chinatown, 2011 Sept 2, 9 PM
“Jake, you are about to meet your new partner in battle. Remember to give a good first impression,” Gramps reminded.
“I’m supposed to respect the punk that’s gonna strip me of my territory? No way, G!” Jake dictated.
“Come on Jakie, you’re gonna meet a new sidekick. Didn’t enjoy having a sidekick when Spud was a mutated Frog?” Trixie recalled.
Before Jake could rebut, the front door squeaked open slowly and the greeting-bell gave the all familiar ring. Spud, Trixie, and Jake were all speechless as the figure walked in the door. It was Josh.
“Hey guys, you guys are buying electronics too? How nice…” Josh greeted innocently, as he grabbed an item off the shelf, “These earphones could use a discount though…”
“Wait, I thought this store never had customers, or sales,” Spud exclaimed as he walked towards and out the door, “Maybe I’m in the wrong shop and Trixie is actually, ummm, Tricia, or something.” Trixie, sensing the rising tension in the room, began to slither towards the shop’s door.
“Um, I’m just gonna rotate out to catch Spud. And see y’all Monday at school, okay?” Trixie said meekly, as she “rotated” out of the store.
“All right, man, time to cut the crap. I know why you’re here,” Jake seethed, just as Gramps walked in from the backroom. Josh quickly greeted Gramps in Cantonese.
“Ah, I see you already met each other,” Gramps pronounced, gliding over to the boys, “Jake, this is Josh, and Josh, this is Jake.”
“Yeah yeah yeah, I know who he is. It’s just a disappointment to see that he is my…” Jake paused, and then continued, “I had hoped it wasn’t you, so I would have more reason to hate my new sidekick.”
“JAKE!!! How can you treat our guest this way? Or I should say my new tenant. Wait. But I’m not charging him any money to stay here. Whatever. Ai-ya! Do not question your dragon master!!!” Gramps literally screamed.
Suddenly, there was a loud KABOOM from the kitchen. Seconds later, Fu emerged from the back, holding a one pint Erlenmeyer flask filled with a light blue liquid.
“Hey Lao, the potion is done!!!” Fu Dog exclaimed. Both younger males looked rather confused.
--Central Park, 2 Sept 2011, 11 PM –
The four of them rode the subway to 59th Street, and then walked the rest of the way to Central Park. They were silent the entire way; Jake and Josh weren’t the best of friends, and Gramps and Fu didn’t want to instigate a fight. The city truly never slept; Midtown was still bustling as it had during rush hour five, six hours ago. They discreetly entered Central Park and approached a tall tree near the entrance. Here, Gramps punched in a code, and they were all immediately transported to a magical parallel universe, one where it was geographically and topographically the same as the human world, but without the humans. Once inside a quiet and human free zone, Gramps gave instructions on the training exercise.
“Since you are both new to one another, you will both fight each other to get to know each other’s special powers and abilities.
This knowledge will help you both in future battles. Then, we can truly call this a mutual relationship. Fu Dog has prepared a revival potion, meaning that you may seriously injure your opponent without the consequences.”
“Finally, some time to give the guy who’s stealing my territory a beat down!!!” Jake cheered, while glaring evilly at Josh, “Dragon
UP!!!” Jake transformed with a ring of fire into the American dragon, complete with wings, increased height to 6 feet, enlarged limbs etc...
“Now that’s just showing off,” Fu remarked, “Like I always say, you just want to show off your dragon six-pack to… everyone!!!”
“Impressive, Jake,” Josh complimented sarcastically, “but can do that without talking.” With that, Josh transformed with an aura of black and blue light into a graceful, but distinctly masculine phoenix. Like Jake, Josh had a pair of wings and grew to 5’ 10”. He also had a set of talons, which were comparable to Jake’s claws; however, while Jake had four limbs, hence four sets of razor sharp claws, Josh’s human arms became his wings.
“HA!!! I got arms, but you don’t. How you gonna fight me in the air? Huh? Huh?!!!” Jake laughed mockingly.
“Oh, you’ll see, oversized lizard,” Josh replied.
“BEGIN!!!”
Both the dragon and the phoenix leaped into the air simultaneously. Jake pushed Josh with all his strength, causing Josh to fly twenty feet in the opposite direction.
“Haaaa. Who the man now, chump?” Jake cheered, as a swung his tail at Josh to finish the job. Much to his surprise, his tail became stuck mid-air; Josh had caught it with his talons and drilled them into his scales, “MOTHER…”
“Watch your language now,” Josh interrupted, as he flew in a circular motion and flung Jake on the grass 50 feet below. At this point, Fu reached into his wrinkles for his cell phone and phoned Big Ernie.
“Hey… Big Ernie, I need to make a bet. Twenty biscuits on the kid, twenty on other kid,” Fu directed, “NO!!! Twenty on Jake, twenty on Josh!!! Got it?!!!”
Meanwhile, back in the air, the battle was growing bitter. Jake attacked with punches, but Josh evaded a good 75% of them. Tail whips were proving to be useless. Sore from all the blows, Josh knew he had to use his other powers in order to defeat Jake; talons just weren’t enough. He tore off a thick branch from a tree and was holding it with the tip of his wings, which served as hands, and levitated into the air. Jake was relatively shocked, as he thought it was impossible to fly without wings. Apparently, he completely forgot about Gramps. Josh snickered and sought to explain.
“Dark matter serves as a useful power source. Levitating myself is just one of them. There is a least one other way I can use it,” Josh explained as he wacked Jake over the head with the branch.
“Your stick trick ain’t gonna work… taste my dragon breath!!!” Jake raged as he incinerated Josh’s club with his dragon fire,
“Catch me if you can!!!” Jake flew off, confident that Josh would never catch up. After all, all the magical almanacs proclaimed dragons as the fastest flying magical creatures, at 180 miles per hour. Much to Jake’s astonishment, Josh propelled four times faster while leaving behind a slight black trace. Josh U-turned 100 meters in front of Jake, headed back, and slammed into Jake. Both teenagers hit a park bench, and futilely clawed one another. Jake roared in agony as Josh inflicted, with his talons, twelve open wounds to Jake’s underside. As a natural instinct, Jake bit Josh’s left wing and flung him towards an open grass field.
Josh landed with a sickening thud on the grass, and struggled to get up. Jake decided it was time to give his famous “knockout punch” to Josh, it would ensure that Josh would stay unconscious for the next hour. As Jake zoomed through the air to deliver this half-fatal blow, Josh, still in phoenix form, stood up and painfully raised his wings upward. He had 26 wounds on his wings, all of which had blood flowing out of them like water. Traces of gaseous dark matter began to emerge at Josh’s talons as he concentrated, and in three seconds, the gas rose to form a semi-clear dome five feet around Josh. In another three seconds, there was a spherical concentration of visible dark matter over Josh. In a swift motion, Josh spread open his wings and the dark matter dispersed in all directions. Everything within a 50 meter radius of Josh was subjected to a gigantic blast wave that ripped through the terrain. Jake was forcefully thrown backwards into a tree 500 meters away.
“Hmmm,” Gramps analyzed as he and Fu glided towards Josh,
“Very impressive, Fong Chai (鳳仔). I did not know you had such… powers.” The observers were thoroughly frizzled; Gramp’s hair was all over the place, and Fu’s wrinkles were slightly deformed. Fu poured half the blue potion over Jake and lathered it on his wings. Josh felt as if he was absorbing power from an outside source; the potion had completely healed his ugliest wounds.
“Come, we have to go check on Jake!”
“Ughh…” Jake groaned as he struggled to get up, but to no avail. It was the pain. Every time he moved, the wounds would send shots through his entire system. Fortunately, it would not last long… Fu had already used the other half of the liquid on Jake’s tail. There was only one problem. Jake’s underside had not been healed, and he was losing blood fast. Gramps and Fu stared at one another. They knew if this were to continue bleeding, Jake would die from excessive bleeding.
Josh stood plainly on the sidelines, gazing on the pool of blood dyeing the grass red. Jake entered a state of regret. Suddenly, without reason, Josh ran over to Jake, and placed his hand on his forehead. Josh’s body abruptly glowed with intense light, and the light ran through his hand into Jake. As fast as it happened, Josh stopped glowing and collapsed where he kneeled. The world was silent once again.
“So how’s everything today?” Jake asked his new tutor.
“OK, just still not really used to the idea of having Gov on the 7th floor of a skyscraper,” Josh recalled, “and the escalators in the school are AWSOME!!! But let’s get started.”
“OK,” Jake opened his textbook to page three, which was filled with vocabulary, “I just need to know all this crap by next period, but I only crammed half of it. But the rest are just impossible.”
“Hmmm…” Josh thought for a few seconds or so and gave his anecdote, “I think what you need to do is to picture all of these characters as pictures. You see that last term on the page, the first character for key, 鑰, you just have to remember that a key is made of metal, hence the 金radical. Then just picture a castle gate with three squarish locks for the right side.”
“Oh yeah, this does help!!!” Jake claimed as he careened his head sideways and back to see the character.
The two spent the rest of the time breaking up characters and drawing pictures. By the end of lunch, when Josh gave him a mock dictation test, Jake felt more confident.
“Thanks for the help,” Jake said gratefully, as Josh graded his exam.
“Thank YOU for making me welcome here,” Josh replied as the lunch bell rang, “Good luck on that test next period.”
--Canal Street Electronics, Chinatown, 2011 Sept 2, 9 PM
“Jake, you are about to meet your new partner in battle. Remember to give a good first impression,” Gramps reminded.
“I’m supposed to respect the punk that’s gonna strip me of my territory? No way, G!” Jake dictated.
“Come on Jakie, you’re gonna meet a new sidekick. Didn’t enjoy having a sidekick when Spud was a mutated Frog?” Trixie recalled.
Before Jake could rebut, the front door squeaked open slowly and the greeting-bell gave the all familiar ring. Spud, Trixie, and Jake were all speechless as the figure walked in the door. It was Josh.
“Hey guys, you guys are buying electronics too? How nice…” Josh greeted innocently, as he grabbed an item off the shelf, “These earphones could use a discount though…”
“Wait, I thought this store never had customers, or sales,” Spud exclaimed as he walked towards and out the door, “Maybe I’m in the wrong shop and Trixie is actually, ummm, Tricia, or something.” Trixie, sensing the rising tension in the room, began to slither towards the shop’s door.
“Um, I’m just gonna rotate out to catch Spud. And see y’all Monday at school, okay?” Trixie said meekly, as she “rotated” out of the store.
“All right, man, time to cut the crap. I know why you’re here,” Jake seethed, just as Gramps walked in from the backroom. Josh quickly greeted Gramps in Cantonese.
“Ah, I see you already met each other,” Gramps pronounced, gliding over to the boys, “Jake, this is Josh, and Josh, this is Jake.”
“Yeah yeah yeah, I know who he is. It’s just a disappointment to see that he is my…” Jake paused, and then continued, “I had hoped it wasn’t you, so I would have more reason to hate my new sidekick.”
“JAKE!!! How can you treat our guest this way? Or I should say my new tenant. Wait. But I’m not charging him any money to stay here. Whatever. Ai-ya! Do not question your dragon master!!!” Gramps literally screamed.
Suddenly, there was a loud KABOOM from the kitchen. Seconds later, Fu emerged from the back, holding a one pint Erlenmeyer flask filled with a light blue liquid.
“Hey Lao, the potion is done!!!” Fu Dog exclaimed. Both younger males looked rather confused.
--Central Park, 2 Sept 2011, 11 PM –
The four of them rode the subway to 59th Street, and then walked the rest of the way to Central Park. They were silent the entire way; Jake and Josh weren’t the best of friends, and Gramps and Fu didn’t want to instigate a fight. The city truly never slept; Midtown was still bustling as it had during rush hour five, six hours ago. They discreetly entered Central Park and approached a tall tree near the entrance. Here, Gramps punched in a code, and they were all immediately transported to a magical parallel universe, one where it was geographically and topographically the same as the human world, but without the humans. Once inside a quiet and human free zone, Gramps gave instructions on the training exercise.
“Since you are both new to one another, you will both fight each other to get to know each other’s special powers and abilities.
This knowledge will help you both in future battles. Then, we can truly call this a mutual relationship. Fu Dog has prepared a revival potion, meaning that you may seriously injure your opponent without the consequences.”
“Finally, some time to give the guy who’s stealing my territory a beat down!!!” Jake cheered, while glaring evilly at Josh, “Dragon
UP!!!” Jake transformed with a ring of fire into the American dragon, complete with wings, increased height to 6 feet, enlarged limbs etc...
“Now that’s just showing off,” Fu remarked, “Like I always say, you just want to show off your dragon six-pack to… everyone!!!”
“Impressive, Jake,” Josh complimented sarcastically, “but can do that without talking.” With that, Josh transformed with an aura of black and blue light into a graceful, but distinctly masculine phoenix. Like Jake, Josh had a pair of wings and grew to 5’ 10”. He also had a set of talons, which were comparable to Jake’s claws; however, while Jake had four limbs, hence four sets of razor sharp claws, Josh’s human arms became his wings.
“HA!!! I got arms, but you don’t. How you gonna fight me in the air? Huh? Huh?!!!” Jake laughed mockingly.
“Oh, you’ll see, oversized lizard,” Josh replied.
“BEGIN!!!”
Both the dragon and the phoenix leaped into the air simultaneously. Jake pushed Josh with all his strength, causing Josh to fly twenty feet in the opposite direction.
“Haaaa. Who the man now, chump?” Jake cheered, as a swung his tail at Josh to finish the job. Much to his surprise, his tail became stuck mid-air; Josh had caught it with his talons and drilled them into his scales, “MOTHER…”
“Watch your language now,” Josh interrupted, as he flew in a circular motion and flung Jake on the grass 50 feet below. At this point, Fu reached into his wrinkles for his cell phone and phoned Big Ernie.
“Hey… Big Ernie, I need to make a bet. Twenty biscuits on the kid, twenty on other kid,” Fu directed, “NO!!! Twenty on Jake, twenty on Josh!!! Got it?!!!”
Meanwhile, back in the air, the battle was growing bitter. Jake attacked with punches, but Josh evaded a good 75% of them. Tail whips were proving to be useless. Sore from all the blows, Josh knew he had to use his other powers in order to defeat Jake; talons just weren’t enough. He tore off a thick branch from a tree and was holding it with the tip of his wings, which served as hands, and levitated into the air. Jake was relatively shocked, as he thought it was impossible to fly without wings. Apparently, he completely forgot about Gramps. Josh snickered and sought to explain.
“Dark matter serves as a useful power source. Levitating myself is just one of them. There is a least one other way I can use it,” Josh explained as he wacked Jake over the head with the branch.
“Your stick trick ain’t gonna work… taste my dragon breath!!!” Jake raged as he incinerated Josh’s club with his dragon fire,
“Catch me if you can!!!” Jake flew off, confident that Josh would never catch up. After all, all the magical almanacs proclaimed dragons as the fastest flying magical creatures, at 180 miles per hour. Much to Jake’s astonishment, Josh propelled four times faster while leaving behind a slight black trace. Josh U-turned 100 meters in front of Jake, headed back, and slammed into Jake. Both teenagers hit a park bench, and futilely clawed one another. Jake roared in agony as Josh inflicted, with his talons, twelve open wounds to Jake’s underside. As a natural instinct, Jake bit Josh’s left wing and flung him towards an open grass field.
Josh landed with a sickening thud on the grass, and struggled to get up. Jake decided it was time to give his famous “knockout punch” to Josh, it would ensure that Josh would stay unconscious for the next hour. As Jake zoomed through the air to deliver this half-fatal blow, Josh, still in phoenix form, stood up and painfully raised his wings upward. He had 26 wounds on his wings, all of which had blood flowing out of them like water. Traces of gaseous dark matter began to emerge at Josh’s talons as he concentrated, and in three seconds, the gas rose to form a semi-clear dome five feet around Josh. In another three seconds, there was a spherical concentration of visible dark matter over Josh. In a swift motion, Josh spread open his wings and the dark matter dispersed in all directions. Everything within a 50 meter radius of Josh was subjected to a gigantic blast wave that ripped through the terrain. Jake was forcefully thrown backwards into a tree 500 meters away.
“Hmmm,” Gramps analyzed as he and Fu glided towards Josh,
“Very impressive, Fong Chai (鳳仔). I did not know you had such… powers.” The observers were thoroughly frizzled; Gramp’s hair was all over the place, and Fu’s wrinkles were slightly deformed. Fu poured half the blue potion over Jake and lathered it on his wings. Josh felt as if he was absorbing power from an outside source; the potion had completely healed his ugliest wounds.
“Come, we have to go check on Jake!”
“Ughh…” Jake groaned as he struggled to get up, but to no avail. It was the pain. Every time he moved, the wounds would send shots through his entire system. Fortunately, it would not last long… Fu had already used the other half of the liquid on Jake’s tail. There was only one problem. Jake’s underside had not been healed, and he was losing blood fast. Gramps and Fu stared at one another. They knew if this were to continue bleeding, Jake would die from excessive bleeding.
Josh stood plainly on the sidelines, gazing on the pool of blood dyeing the grass red. Jake entered a state of regret. Suddenly, without reason, Josh ran over to Jake, and placed his hand on his forehead. Josh’s body abruptly glowed with intense light, and the light ran through his hand into Jake. As fast as it happened, Josh stopped glowing and collapsed where he kneeled. The world was silent once again.