The answer came in the form of a thud, and Nass looked over to find that Aimee had been jumped from behind. She lay on the ground now, dazed, and before anyone could react, Li had dug into her pocket and pulled out the glinting shards of glass. Aimee grabbed for her as she passed, but Li dodged with the grace of a gazelle and ran to Feng Xu’s side. She deposited the shards in the leather bag he held, the drawstrings of which were attached to his belt like a medieval purse. Then she turned and smiled at her brother.
Aimee groaned and wiped some blood off her forehead as Zhai helped her to her feet.
Feng Xu laughed again. “Well, well. We were already able to snatch our prize from those fumbling government agents, and now you have brought us the final three shards! How our snake god is blessing us today,” his mirth faded into a fearsome scowl. “Come now. Let’s finish this!” He gestured to his men, and they sprinted forward.
Zhai gave the signal, and he and his Toppers charged.
“Go!” Nass yelled, and he and the Flatliners surged ahead, too, running into the fray.
Chapter 28
“Do not kill them if you can help it!” Feng Xu called to his men as they joined in battle with the combined Flatliner-Topper forces. “We shall feed them to our lord, the Black Snake, with their hearts still beating!”
At his command, the Obies put away their long daggers and attacked with their bare hands.
The thought of being eaten alive by a giant snake was all the motivation Nass needed, and he sprang forward in a twirling, circling capoeira assault, dropping one Obie with a leg sweep and cracking another with a backfist as he went.
Although Chin’s army had the Obies outnumbered, Feng Xu’s warriors were much better fighters. In the matter of two minutes, Dax, Michael, Beet, and D’von were all on the ground, either rolling in agony or trying to crawl away from the melee. Benji had managed to find a pile of bricks and was chucking them at the Obies as hard as he could. Every once in a while, one of them would connect, giving their allies a moment of breathing room.
Aimee seemed to be everywhere at once. First Nass saw her off to his left, laying a wicked head kick on a short Obie with a scar on his face. Half a second later she was thirty yards away, trading blows with Li Shao. At first he thought she was moving really fast, then he realized that it was more than that—she seemed to be disappearing and reappearing. The surprising thing was: he was barely surprised. Good old Middleburg, always bustin’ out the weirdness, he thought and kept on fighting.
Feng Xu had immediately gone after Master Chin—Nass guessed he was hoping to finish him off—but Zhai had stepped in front of his teacher and was now locked in deadly combat with the Obie leader.
Nass felt a blast to the back of his head, stumbled forward, and landed facefirst on the concrete. He rolled over, expecting the Obie who’d blindsided him to be coming in for the kill—and he was, but at the last moment, Cle’von Cunningham flew in out of nowhere, tackling him to the ground.
A sizzle of pinkish fire scorched across Nass’s face then, and he saw a shimmer to his left, as the half-invisible Black Snake God, which had been about to eat him, was blasted back by a shot of Shen delivered by Maggie Anderson. The beast recoiled, then struck at her with its long venomous fangs, passing over Nass’s head as it did.
He reacted instinctively, rolling backward and striking up in a bicycle kick, just as he’d done when playing soccer in the park near his house back in Los Angeles. The kick connected and altered the Snake’s course enough so that Maggie was able to escape its deadly strike.
Nass struggled to his feet. His head was ringing and his vision was blurred—between the beating he’d taken in his fight with Rick and the blow he’d just received, he was pretty sure he had a concussion, but there was no way he was going to stay down.
“Where’d you come from?” Nass called to Maggie when he was on his feet again. Behind her, he saw Kate and Dalton throwing rocks at the enemy.
“We were walking to my house when we saw the Beetmobile heading this way,” she called back. “We figured something was up—and we didn’t want to miss it!”
Behind them, Nass heard a taunt in a language he thought was Chinese, and he turned to find that Feng Xu had Zhai pinned to the ground. He had two sharp fingernails on each hand, and Zhai was trying to fend them off. Despite his best efforts, the bladelike nails were inching closer and closer to Zhai’s eyes.
Nass charged toward him to help, but the lashing tail of the snake swept his feet out from under him and sent him sprawling. He looked up to see Chin approaching Feng Xu from behind. The kung fu teacher looked older and paler than Nass had ever seen him, but the look of determination on his face was enough to send a shiver down Nass’s spine. He’d hate to be the one to take on Master Chin when he was looking like that.
“Enough, Feng Xu!” Chin growled. “This has always been our fight, ever since you corrupted the brotherhood my great-grandfather created. We finish it now.”
Feng Xu managed to bury a paralyzing knee in Zhai’s gut as he rose to his feet. “Yes,” he said. “We’ll finish it indeed.” And in a vicious blur of motion, he attacked Chin.
* * *
Every nerve in Zhai’s body seemed to be going haywire. The knee that Feng Xu had hit him with had struck just below his solar plexus, into a bundle of nerves that controlled all sorts of necessary functions, and the trauma left him feeling limp and achy. Try as he might, it was a long moment before he was able to roll over, much less rise to his feet. And at the rate their duel was unfolding, either Feng Xu or Chin would be dead by then. The two men’s arms blasted against one another, fitting together with puzzle-piece precision in a series of strikes, blocks, and counterstrikes that transitioned so fast that Zhai could hardly comprehend their progression. As they fought, sizzling glints of Shen power arced between them, like sparks showering from a blacksmith’s forge. The two combatants were equally matched in skill, speed, technique, and ferocity—but Feng Xu had the advantage in power, and as the duel wore on he drove Chin back step by step. Finally, he managed to power him off balance and catch him with a crescent kick to the face. Master Chin stumbled back, clearly dazed.
With a wicked, twisted grin, Feng Xu sprang forward, his venomous nails reaching for the kill.
Zhai’s breath caught in his throat as he tried to shout a warning to Chin, and he watched as the deadly points of the nails traveled in what seemed like slow motion toward his teacher’s eyes. In that moment, Zhai realized what was about to happen and a scream rose up from every cell of his body.
Master Chin was going to die.
Chin tottered on his feet as the poison fangs approached their mark and then, with the quickness of a snapping whip, his form went rigid again, as if he’d never been off balance at all, and Zhai realized it had been a trick. Xu was already leaning forward, committed to the attack, and Chin, with his usual sharpness and precision, quickly and casually deflected his stabbing fingers, trapped his forearm, and performed an upward arm break. There was a sickening crack as Feng Xu’s elbow snapped. Then Chin twisted his enemy’s own arm back toward him and jammed his venom-laden nails into his own neck. Feng Xu fell to his knees, quivering.
Chin was now glowing, encased by a brilliant film of Shen illumination the likes of which Zhai had never seen before. He glared down at his nemesis and cocked back his fist.
“You could have been a great disciple in the service of the All,” he said, a great sadness in his voice. “Now, you will be just another cautionary tale, soon forgotten.”
Feng Xu’s only answer was a wheeze—Zhai assumed he couldn’t speak because his fingers were jammed through his throat. Then, he realized that the wheeze was a laugh, and he saw what the laugh was for.
“Chin, look out!” he shouted. But it was too late. The half-visible snake faded into materiality behind Chin, and before anyone could react, it struck, con
suming Chin in one horrific bite.
* * *
“You’re a slippery girl, Aimee Banfield,” Li Shao taunted.
Aimee was glad she was slippery. If she wasn’t, she thought, Li would probably have killed her by now. But Aimee had figured out how to integrate teleporting into her fighting and the result was pretty awesome. Instead of blocking a strike she could simply slip away and appear behind Li, or to one side of her, or ten feet away. Instead of having to use an attack approach, she could simply appear right next to Li, throw an elbow, and then slip away again. But even with these advantages, it was barely an even match. Li’s speed, agility, and technique were mind-boggling, and Aimee now had a bleeding cut above her brow and her lower lip was swollen and bruised. Still she fought on, knowing that the only way to save her town—and maybe the world—was to defeat Li and the Obies and get back the shards of the ring. If she could keep Li busy, it would give Zhai and Chin a chance to get them.
Li lashed out at Aimee with a backfist, and Aimee blinked out of existence as it swung past and reappeared just behind it, in time to crack Li in the side of the head with her fist. Li, however, simply used the momentum to lean down into a side kick, and bury a foot in Aimee’s stomach—so hard that Aimee almost threw up.
Groaning, cursing, and clutching her abdomen, she slipped about twenty yards away to regroup. Then she slipped back, appearing in the air directly above Li’s head before falling on her knees-first, like she was doing a cannon ball into a swimming pool.
Li fell to the ground under the heavy blow, but instantly she was squirming as fiercely as a wet cat. She managed to grab Aimee with her legs in a scissor hold and flip her to the concrete. She raised a fist to strike and Aimee prepared to slip—but Li suddenly stopped. Aimee followed her gaze just in time to see Master Chin being swallowed by the Black Snake God.
Everyone on the battlefield froze, and Feng Xu rose slowly to his feet, blood pouring down his neck. Wheezing a cackling laugh, he triumphantly held the black bag filled with the ring shards aloft. Above them, they heard a rumbling sound that shook the earth, and everyone looked up to see three black stealth helicopters fly in over the treetops, heading for the roof of the factory.
Feng Xu laughed again, spat a wad of blood on the pavement, and then pointed up to the helicopters. “Well, there’s our ride now,” he called hoarsely to his men as the choppers started landing. “Let’s go!”
He turned to head back to the factory, but a strange hissing sound made him turn around. The gigantic snake was writhing now, slithering violently back and forth. A wisp of smoke emanated from its fanged mouth, and then the bulge in its neck began to glow. A single ray of golden light burst through the snake’s scales, then another, and another—and the thing hissed and screeched in agony.
“No,” Feng Xu whispered, taking a step forward, and then he was yelling, “No!”
More and more light poured through the blackness where the snake was, like sunlight pouring in through a set of window blinds. In just a few moments the light had completely consumed the shadowy body of the snake, leaving nothing but light. The glow was so bright that Aimee had to avert her eyes, and when she was able to look back she saw that Master Chin now stood where the snake had been—and he was glowing with radiant Shen illumination that made him look like he was cast of liquid gold.
The minute the snake disappeared, the Obies and Feng Xu all fell to their knees, as if the life had suddenly been yanked out of them. Now made entirely of light, Chin walked slowly up to Feng Xu, then reached out, and snatched the bag of ring shards from his hand. The Obie leader made no move to resist.
Then Chin, still filled with light, lashed out, burying one hand in Feng Xu’s chest. When he yanked it free, it was holding a still-beating black heart. Chin held the heart in front of Feng Xu’s chest so that he could see it. “I could crush this, Feng Xu, and your life would be at an end,” he said solemnly.
Xu stared at his own beating heart, transfixed.
“But I will not. Let my mercy be your first lesson in true wisdom, Feng Xu. The Snake is dead. Find another god.”
With that, Chin jammed the man’s heart back into his chest and stepped back. When he withdrew his hand, there was no hole in Feng Xu’s chest. The wounds in his neck were healed, too.
“Go now,” Chin said. “But know this: if you dare to show your face here again, you will not find me so lenient.”
Feng Xu got unsteadily to his feet and backed up a few paces, never taking his eyes off of Chin. He hazarded one wary glance up to the rooftop and then addressed his men. “To the helicopters,” he shouted. “Go!”
And his men retreated into the factory with him.
As she backed away, Li’s eyes lingered on Aimee. “We’ll finish this,” she said. Then she glanced at her brother, turned, and ran away with the other Obies. After a moment, the helicopters rose up from the rooftop and their roar diminished.
Chin fell to his knees. The golden glow disappeared from his skin, and he looked exhausted. He was trembling.
“Master Chin—you okay?” Zhai asked, hurrying to his teacher. The rest of the allies—the Flatliners and the Toppers—limped and shambled closer, gathering around Master Chin.
“Yes, I am . . .”
Although he smiled when he said it, to Aimee he still seemed a bit unsteady.
“Now, let us take what was broken and reunite it,” Chin said and held the bag of ring shards aloft.
* * *
Zhai could see how tired Chin was from the battle with the Snakes, but his sifu still moved quickly and with purpose as he led the horde of high-schoolers up the mountain. “Let’s go,” he said. “According to the tapestry, the ring must be reassembled on the top of the tunnel mound.”
When they reached the clearing on the summit, Chin held Feng Xu’s black bag out to everyone present and asked them to take a piece of the broken treasure.
After they had all taken one, he said, “Come. Gather around and let’s piece it together.” They all formed a circle—Toppers on one side, Flatliners on the other—and started trying to match the jagged edges. It was like a circular puzzle.
“I think mine goes with yours,” Cle’von said to Beet, and the two guys moved next to one another and fit their shards together.
“Here—these match,” Maggie said to Aimee.
Zhai realized how amazing it was that all these former rivals were working as a team to reunite the ring. Soon they had the right order and, each of them holding a shard, they put them together. But there was a problem, Zhai realized with a groan. They were missing a piece.
* * *
Raphael stepped into the cold breeze outside the Middleburg Materials factory, wiping a tear from his cheek. He felt completely empty and exhausted, but angry too, his chest burning with a fire that felt like it would take a thousand years to extinguish. Now, more than any moment during his exile from Middleburg, he deeply, desperately wanted to go home. But how? The train and the Magician were nowhere to be seen.
Like a sleepwalker, he wandered away from the factory and into the woods, barely aware of his surroundings. He’d only gone a few paces when he felt something hot scorching his thigh.
He looked down, and then reached into this pocket. His hand came out with the broken piece of the ring—and it was glowing, brighter than ever!
As he stared at it, it shone so bright that everything else around him seemed to fade into shadow, so that all he could see was the shard’s infinite light. Then, as he watched, something strange happened. Suddenly, the light was no longer a point, but a ring.
Its illumination was so bright that he had to look away from it, and when he did he saw that he was no longer in the woods outside Middleburg Materials; he was on a mountaintop—and all his friends were around him! There was Master Chin, Nass, Aimee, Maggie, the Flatliners, and even the Toppers. They
were all staring at him, laughing, and cheering in amazement. And all of them were holding on to the ring—Middleburg’s restored treasure.
“Raph!”
“Thank God!”
“We missed you!”
His friends shouted over one another, their voices mingling as they all tried to greet him at once. The only one who didn’t seem excited to see him was Aimee. She gave him the same flat, unrecognizing look she had in 1877, and her reaction soured the joy he’d felt just a moment before. Still, there was a lot to be happy about, he told himself: he was home.
For half a second, he was sure that he was only having a dream, that he’d wake up and find himself once more on that terrible shadow train, barreling through the oblivion of the Dark Territory. But in the next instant, he was enveloped in a massive group hug. He felt hands clap onto his shoulder, lips kiss his cheek, arms embrace him, and he knew at that moment that it was true. He was really back in Middleburg. He’d made it.
The ring was now complete and resplendent, and Raphael held it above his head triumphantly.
In that moment, however, a loud noise cut their celebration short. They all went silent, listening as the chugging rush of a helicopter echoed through the valley below, followed by the sound of an explosion.
Nass looked worried. “Great. You think the Snakes are back?”
“Or the government guys,” Dalton said, and they exchanged a lingering glance.
Raphael was about to ask what was going on when a shadow suddenly blotted out the sun. He looked up to find a huge black-winged shape swooping down on him. The next thing he knew, he was lying on his back on the slab of rose quartz he had been standing on, his hand throbbing.
The ring had been ripped from his grasp.
In the next instant, the sound of a roar drew his attention to the edge of the woods, and he turned to see a demon on all fours, watching them. It looked like Rick, Raphael thought. Like Rick would look if he morphed into a demon. It was foaming at the mouth and laughing—and it stood up, raised its arms, and snarled triumphantly. In the next instant, it turned and bounded down the steep incline of the tunnel mound, moving with the grace and power of a mountain lion.
Shadow Train Page 39
