"..."
Jackie Chan opened his mouth, feeling a wave of powerlessness wash over him.
He remembered the dedicated elevator to Section 13's underground vault, which required fingerprint, iris, and voiceprint verification, plus manual authorization from Captain Black...
Taking the stairs? This answer was even more ridiculous than the talismans growing legs and running out by themselves!
But he wisely decided not to delve any further.
After all, incidents like "how Jade bypassed layers of security to appear somewhere she absolutely shouldn't be"—
Happened so frequently that he was a bit numb to it.
"Alright..."
Jackie took a deep breath, accepting the Rabbit Talisman imbued with the power of super speed from Jade's hand. He clenched it tightly in his palm, a tragic expression of "if not me, then who" appearing on his face.
"Let me do it. Children stealing... is wrong after all."
He tried to hold onto the last bit of his bottom line as an elder before the impending "immoral act."
Jade immediately crossed her arms in dissatisfaction, her small mouth pouting enough to hang an oil bottle, firing a question that struck straight at the soul:
"Hey! That's not fair! So it's right for adults to steal?"
"I..."
Jackie was rendered speechless by the question, his face flushing red instantly. He felt his already precarious moral high ground crumbling under Jade's logical bombardment.
He stammered, trying to justify himself:
"This is different! I'm doing this to... to prevent worse things from happening! This is... necessary..."
"Necessary theft?" Jade followed up with a precise strike, the meaning in her eyes making Jackie want to find a hole to crawl into.
"Okay, okay! Time is tight!"
Jackie decided to abandon this debate destined for failure and forcefully changed the subject.
He gripped the Rabbit Talisman, feeling the power of speed, which seemed capable of tearing through space, flowing in his palm.
He took one last look at Vic across the street, who was oblivious to the impending "light-speed pickpocketing" and still happily enjoying his ice cream, and gritted his teeth.
"Rabbit Talisman, bless me with success... and please don't let Captain Black find out!"
After silently reciting this prayer lacking in confidence, Jackie's gaze hardened, his body leaning forward slightly like an arrow about to leave the string—
In the next second, the Rabbit Talisman flashed faintly. Jackie's figure blurred instantly, turning into a blue afterimage almost imperceptible to the naked eye, shooting towards Vic with a faint airflow!
The speed was so extreme it conversely gave a weird sense of stillness.
Just before Jackie activated the Rabbit Talisman, a strange gust of wind blew without warning.
Vic only felt his hand lighten. His precious ice cream fell to the ground with a "splat" in a graceful parabola.
The ice cream turned into a sticky brown stain on the ground, leaving only a lonely cone in his hand.
"My ice cream!"
Vic looked at the "remains" on the ground. Before his howl of annoyance could escape his mouth, a stronger gust of wind whistled past him.
Accompanied by a muffled "bang," as if a heavy object had slammed hard into a nearby wall.
Vic, holding the empty cone in his mouth, turned his head in confusion.
On the mottled brick wall opposite, a human-shaped depression was clearly visible, with fresh cracks around the edges.
Jackie Chan was embedded in it in an extremely twisted posture worthy of performance art, his eyes rolled back, obviously temporarily unconscious.
And the soles of his iconic cloth shoes were impartially covered with Vic's just-martyred ice cream.
"Hey!" Vic was instantly unhappy, pointing at the "evidence" on Jackie's soles. "You guy, using my ice cream as brake pads?"
Just then, "clatter clatter"—
A smooth stone carved with a rabbit pattern slipped from Jackie's loosened palm and rolled to Vic's feet.
"No—!"
A little girl's exclaim came from the street corner.
Vic bent down to pick up the Rabbit Talisman, looked at the unconscious Jackie on the wall, and then glanced at the little girl Jade in an orange hoodie at the corner, who was stomping her feet anxiously.
He weighed this fourth accidentally obtained talisman in his hand, a mixture of absurdity and schadenfreude appearing on his face.
"What is this? A gift from God?"
Vic muttered, recalling a proverb from an ancient Eastern country.
"This is truly... going for wool and coming home shorn, little girl."
He walked slowly to Jade, whose eyes were red, ignoring her baring teeth and threatening expression. He reached out with his big hand and unceremoniously messed up her neatly combed hair into a bird's nest.
"However~"
Vic squatted down to be at eye level with Jade, wearing that signature brilliant smile that Wednesday and Enid loved and hated.
"When children do something wrong, they always have to be punished a little, right?"
"What do you want? Bad guy! Give me back the talisman!"
Jade was like a riled-up kitten, trying to kill Vic with her eyes.
Vic chuckled, his gaze landing on the Super Moose plushie Jade was hugging tightly in her arms.
Five minutes later, Jackie woke up leisurely, rubbing his waist that felt like it was falling apart.
The first thing he saw was Jade sitting by the roadside hugging her knees, her small shoulders twitching, eyes red, and her arms empty.
"Jade? What's wrong? Are you okay?" Jackie's heart tightened. Ignoring his own pain, he asked hurriedly, "Where's the Rabbit Talisman?"
Jade looked up, her mouth pouted, and tears fell instantly, crying heartbreakingly:
"Wah—Uncle Jackie! That bad guy! He not only snatched the Rabbit Talisman but also... also snatched Super Moose! Said it counts as my meeting gift for Sister Enid."
"Boo hoo hoo... I don't even know any sister."
"That's a limited edition! I saved my pocket money for a long time to buy it! Boo hoo hoo... Big bad guy! Super big bad guy!"
Meanwhile, Vic, who had returned to the hotel where he was staying, was triumphantly weighing the fluffy Super Moose plushie in his hand.
He imagined Enid's surprised expression when receiving this gift, a heartfelt smile of pleasure appearing on his face.
"Hehe, this wave is not a loss. Four talismans, plus a gift to make the girlfriend happy."
On the other side, in the top-floor office of the Dark Hand headquarters, the atmosphere was as oppressive as the sea before a storm.
"You mean..."
Shendu's voice finally sounded, carrying a barely suppressed, almost twisted calm.
"That damn thief... has obtained four talismans in just one day?"
"Yes... yes, Shendu."
Finn answered bracing himself, daring not look up at the statue.
"We secretly followed him, wanting to find a chance... but saw Jackie Chan."
Ratso quickly chimed in, trying to divert Shendu's anger.
"Jackie Chan even wanted to steal the talisman that guy got! Guess what? Before he could make a move, he was embedded directly into the wall! Even worse than us!"
Chow added from the side, while nudging Hak Foo, who was grimacing in pain, with his elbow.
"Didn't steal the talisman, but got his own Rabbit Talisman snatched instead. In comparison, at least Hak Foo exchanged a few moves with that guy."
Blood seeped from the bandages wrapped around Hak Foo. Nudged on his wound by Chow, he gasped in pain.
If he hadn't reacted quickly earlier and grabbed a few Shadow Ninjas as meat shields to block a claw from that monster, he probably wouldn't be bandaged now, but lying directly in a coffin.
"Four talismans... so smoothly..."
Shendu fell silent, but this time, his thoughts were racing.
Too unusual.
Recalling the scene when that young man appeared in the office, Shendu keenly captured a detail he had ignored.
At that time, there seemed to be an extremely faint, almost imperceptible throb in his body, as if something was quietly extracted.
That feeling was fleeting; he thought it was just a fluctuation of anger when facing provocation at the time.
Thinking about it now, that might not have been an illusion.
A bold, even somewhat crazy idea grew and spread in Shendu's consciousness.
Dark Chi... has it chosen a new host?
That young man who acted crazily, didn't play by the rules, but could always achieve his goals in various ridiculous ways—didn't he fit the chaotic, rule-subverting nature of Dark Chi perfectly?
If that were true... this was not a bad thing, but a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!
This meant that he, Shendu, the demon representing Dark Chi, would no longer be the sole target fixed upon by "Righteous Chi" and its favored ones!
Righteous Chi's attention would be largely attracted by that newborn, more unpredictable "Darling of Dark Chi"!
His chances of gaining freedom, gathering the talismans, and restoring his peak power would greatly increase!
Perhaps... we don't have to be enemies with him anymore.
The red light in Shendu's eyes suddenly blazed, like two burning hellfires. His raspy voice even carried a trace of uncontrollable, almost pleasant tremor:
"Perhaps... we can try... to cooperate with him."
This sentence was like a thunderclap exploding in the ears of Valmont and his men.
Valmont stopped abruptly, looking at the statue on the wall in disbelief, his mouth wide open but unable to make any sound.
Cooperate? With that crazy thief who looted their headquarters clean, caused them heavy losses, and almost wiped them all out?
Is Shendu... mad with anger?
However, Shendu was completely immersed in the ecstasy and infinite possibilities brought by this new line of thought.
Cooperate, use that "New Darling of Dark Chi" to attract fire, to disrupt the situation, while he could calmly lay out plans in the dark, waiting for the opportunity to seize the final victory...
"That's right... cooperate..."
Shendu laughed low, the laughter echoing in the empty office, carrying a creepy implication.
"A... wonderful cooperation where... each takes what they need."