Something I've been tinkering with since January. There's other 
chapters, but let's test the waters. C&C is of course, always welcome.

Mighty Max, Jackie Chan Adv, and all related is copyrighted to their 
original owners. No money is being on this and no such intent should be 
inferred.

****

"Now, that, Felix, M'man, is power," Max Sears said as he sniffed the 
plastic card in his hand. "My own credit card." He stuffed it back into 
his wallet and frowned. He had been feeling well, off, all day. Even 
being turned loose in San Francisco with two of his best friends wasn't 
helping.

"It's a check card," Bea Carter said from behind the two boys as the 
trio made their way through the edges of San Francisco's Mission 
district. "It's not power."

Max opened his mouth to wisecrack a reply when the wind blew a piece of 
paper in his face. Pieces of paper did not randomly come to Max.

"See ya," Felix said without missing a beat as he and Bea turned at the 
next corner and walked off.

"Chickens," Max muttered to himself. He couldn't blame them for not 
wanting to be in the vicinity, but yeesh. "Speaking of chickens," he 
muttered as he pulled the piece of paper off his face and glanced at 
the paper. It gave an address of an upscale fashion store a few blocks 
away. Underneath the address was a brief note.

"Not chicken--fowl."

"How does he do that?" Max said to the paper before wadding it up and 
sticking it in his pocket.

****

Westbury's West was an upscale shop where only the very elite of San 
Francisco's creme de' la creme set foot. You could only shop there by 
appointment, and you had to have an appointment to make an appointment 
to shop. The stockers wore tuxedos, and to buy a single pair of socks 
often required annual payments eqaul to the price of small appliances.

Needless to say, an twelve year old boy in a T-shirt, jeans and old 
sneakers was hardly welcome. Pursued by both store security and the 
salespeople, Max charged through the aisles, following the faint tug 
that would guide him to his destination...which, he realized, was in 
the women's dressing rooms.

Anyone else might have felt a glimmer of concern, but little things 
like that had ceased to bother Max a long time ago. He didn't even slow 
down, the doors were open so that some lady could leave and he slipped 
through, startling the women who were sitting around in various states 
of dress and undress.

"Look out!" Max called, "Mighty One coming through!" Weaving and 
ducking like a boxer, Max went through the room like a bullet. "Scuse 
me, pardon me, I like the blue one. Hi." Ahead of him, one of the 
fitting room doors glowed faintly with a light only Max and a few 
others in the world could see.

As though welcoming, the door swung open, Max's cap glowed brightly, 
and Max dived through, collided with whoever was on the other side and 
they both tumbled into oblivion.

****

Though Max had used the portals more times then he could count, he 
could never remember the actual travel. That is, he could remember 
entering and exiting, but never the actual moment of transition.

Virgil said that it was because the travel time was too brief to 
measure, but Max was positive that time passed.

"Hello, Mighty One."

Speaking of which...

"Hey, Virg," Max said as a hand grabbed him by the back of his shirt 
and lifted him to his feet. The hand belonged to a man who could be 
described simply as huge. At nearly seven feet tall with shoulders that 
could cover entire time zones, and trained in every form of combat 
known to man (and a few that weren't) Norman was the Mighty One's 
personal bodygaurd. A virtually unstoppable warrior. "Hey, Normie."

"Who's that?" Norman asked, his free hand moving to the sword slung 
across his back. Max remembered the person he had knocked through the 
portal and looked down, wondering how he would explain this.

"Max, what's going on?" The woman sitting on the ground was tall, 
blonde haired, and Max's own mother. She wore a tank top and pants. A 
utillity vest was clutched in her hand.

"Um, Hi, Mom," Max said sheepishly.

"Hi yourself," she retorted. "What's going on?"

"I believe I can best answer that, Madam."

Max's mom turned and looked at the source of the voice and then 
screamed, leaping backwards and to her feet, colliding with Norman. 
"What's that!" She looked up. "Who are you?"

"The big guy is Norman," Max said casually. "And the big chicken is 
Virgil."

"I'm a fowl, actually," Virgil replied, adjusting his spectacles. 
Norman crossed his arms and stood there, seemingly as paitent as stone.

"Wha?" She said and then seemed to give herself a good shake. "Moving 
forward, she grabbed Virgil's hand and held it away from his body. 
"You're a Lemurian," she said in an awestruck voice. "But the legends 
said the Lemurian race was wiped out centuries ago by one of their own 
students who was eventually defeated by Maximus..." she trailed off and 
lookes at her son, the color draining from her face as she suddenly put 
her son's strange behavior over the past year together. "The Mighty 
One. Oh, God." She grabbed the sides of her head, hyperventilating.

"Woah, Mom. Calm down," Max said.

"Calm down?" She jabbed a finger at Virgil. "He's a Lemurian. The last 
Lemurian. Legend says that the last Lemurian will be advisor to the 
Mighty One. That's you." She grabbed her son's arm. "The Mighty One 
will have to face Lemuria's destroyer in a fight to the Death ON THE 
WINTER SOLSTICE!" She grabbed Max and shook him. "Death, Max. You could 
die!"

"It's not that bad," Max said. "The universe rebooted afterwards."

"After...wards?" She stepped back. "You've already faced him?"

"If I may," Virgil said. "For reasons that are not entirely clear, the 
universe was restarted to the point directly before the cap came into 
the Mighty One's hands. Futhermore, a new set of tasks has been given 
to Mighty One for him to accomplish and Skullmaster has been silent. 
It's possible that he was obliterated in the previous confrontation, 
but the procephy still says that the Mighty One must face Skullmaster. 
The previous confrontation was because the Mighty One--"

"I was tired of running, okay?" Max snapped. "I wanted to get it over 
with." Max looked around. They stood in a courtyard surrounded by small 
buildings, each one obviously for people of Virgi's size. "It was a 
stupid idea anyway. Where are we?"

"Lemuria," Virgil said.

"What's left of it," Norman growled.

"Um, Virgil..." Max ventured. "The last time we came to Lemuria..."

"This has nothing to do with that," Virgil said. In fact, this doesn't 
even appear in the Procephy. There is another Chosen One in Lemuria."

"Another--wait. I thought I was the Chosen One."

"You are," Virgil said and adjusted his spectacles. "Put simply, Mighty 
One. Humans, indeed, Earth itself, faces a wide variety of threats. 
Rather then embody one person with the power to safegaurd this world, 
the Powers That Be...diversified, you could say. You, for example, are 
more prominent, embodying several different legends and protecting 
humans from the threats posed by Skullmaster and a few others. Other 
chosen ones, such as the Slayer, the Senshi, the head of the Ben Laudin 
Order, and so forth, have their own tasks to accomplish."

"So one of these other...Chosen Ones is in Lemuria?" Max's Mom asked.

Virgil nodded. "Unlike most places, Lemuria is strictly the Mighty 
One's domain alone. Any other Chosen One present in Lemuria upsets the 
cosmic balance. For the sake of the world, you must get this other 
Chosen One to leave."

"Not a problem," Max said. "You two wait here. Come on, Normie."

"Oh, no," Max's Mom replied. "Not a chance." She got up and followed 
them, Virgil doing his best to keep up.

****

The intruders stood in a sqaure several miles south, gathered around a 
sleek looking helicoptor. There were five of them. Leaning against the 
craft was a rangy man in a suit. Next to him, a girl sat on the stones, 
obviously bored. Nearby, an older man in pants, a white shirt and 
orange vest berated two others; the biggest man Max had ever seen next 
to Norman and much shorter, slender man in a blue sweater. Max and his 
friends lay on a rooftop at the edge of the sqaure, scouting the 
situation.

"So which one do we have to get rid of?" Max said to Virgil.

"A good question, Mighty One," Virgil mused. "I honestly can't tell."

"Then its all of them. Go for it, Normie." As Norman started to get up, 
the man in the blue sweater turned around and Max's mother leapt to her 
feet and scrambled to the ground. The other three followed her.

"Doctor Chan!" She called, hurrying across the the sqaure. "Doctor 
Jackie Chan, San Francisco Acadamy of Arts and Sciences?" The man 
nodded. She held out her hand. "Annabelle Sears, Los Angeles Museum of 
Palentology."

"Doctor Sears," he replied in a heavy accent, shaking her hand. "A 
pleasure."

"This is my son, Max," she continued. "And that's Norman and...Virgil."

"A giant chicken?" The girl was walking around Virgil. Max blinked. How 
had the girl gotten over to them from the coptor so quickly without him 
seeing her?

"I'm a fowl, actually," Virgil corrected.

"It talks!" The kid screeched. Except that it was with outright glee. 
"A giant talking chicken!"

"Fowl," Virgil said.

"My niece, Jade," Chan continued and then indicated the other two. 
"Tohru and Uncle."

"The man introduced as Uncle was staring openly at Virgil. "A 
Lemurian," he marveled and then looked at Max. "The Mighty One." 
Clasping his hands behind his back, he strolled over to where Chan and 
Max's mother were talking shop. Without changing expression, Uncle hit 
Chan on the head with two fingers. "Why did you remove artifacts?" 
Uncle screeched.

"But you--" Chan started and then broke off as Uncle hit him again.

"Put them back! One more thing!" He hit Chan again. "Lemuria must not 
be disturbed! One more thing! Move quickly! One more thing! Put them 
back exactly!" Chan scurried off to the helicoptor. "Forgive us, Great 
Teacher," Uncle said, bowing to Virgil. "We didn't know that this was 
Lemuria. We did not mean to tresspass."

"No need to forgive," Virgil said. "So long as we leave quickly."

"Excuse me," Max's mother said. Are you going back to San Francisco?" 
Uncle nodded. "Could you give Max and myself a lift?"

"Can we take the chicken too?" Jade asked.

"I'm a Fowl."

"Whatever. Can we, Uncle? Huh?" She clamped onto Uncle's leg. 
"Pleeeeeeeeeease?"

****

Though a little cramped, the helicoptor ride was fairly comfortable. 
And in due time, the distinctive shape of the Transamerica Building 
appeared.

The pilot however, swung the coptor towards Chinatown and then went 
into a hover and landed on the roof of a warehouse. Almost as soon as 
they touched down, the coptor shuddered and then began to move 
downward.

"Woah," Max said. "It's some kind of elevator."

"Yep!" Jade said.

The ride ended in a hanger filled with futuristic vehicles.

"What is this?" Max's Mom asked.

"Section Thirteen," Jade said and grabbed Max's wrist. "Come on, you 
gotta see the trophy room!"

****

The trophy room was a circular room deep within Section Thirteen. The 
walls were lined with various artifacts, each one behind security glass 
and gaurded by some of the most sophisticated hardware Max had ever 
seen. In the center of the room, under a cage of security glass and 
ringed with lasers was a cone set with twelve hexagon shaped talismans. 
On the far side of the room was a doorway secured with a grid of metal 
bars. Through the bars, Max could see a circular statue hanging on the 
wall. It was of a coiled chinese dragon and the eyes seemed to be 
glowing red.

"What are you staring at, Boy?" a voice demanded.

"Hey, Shendu," Jade said, seemingly appearing at Max's side. "Comfy?" 
Max stared as he realized Jade was talking to the statue.

"When I have my talismans back," the statue said, "I will spend an 
entire month removing your innards for that remark, Child."

"Shendu?" Virgil asked. "You have Shendu here?" He pushed his way 
between Jade and Max. Shendu's reaction was immedite.

"LEMURIAN SLIME!" The statue howled, actually shaking on the wall. "I 
will feast on your raw heart for what you did!" The statue moved and 
bulged. "Your teachings led the Ancients to imprison me in this form!" 
Shendu howled in fury. "I will feast on your brain, roast your liver, 
pluck out your eyes!"

"Ooh Mo Dai Chi Gow," Uncle chanted and the statue stopped moving, but 
Shendu continued to rant about what he would do to Virgil.

"What's all the fuss?" Striding into the room was a tall man. He was 
bald, and wore a red sweater and black pants under a long black coat. 
"Hello, Jackie. Back so soon?"

"Hello, Captain Black," Jackie said.

"Kevin." Max turned to look at his mother. Her expression was colder 
then the antartic in winter and her eyes were flashing with barely 
controled hate and rage, all of it directed at the one Chan had called 
Captain Black.

"Uh, Anabelle. Hi." Then he noticed Max, Virgil and Norman. "Who are 
those people?"

"Virgil, Norman, and Max," she said and then her face took on an 
expression of almost sadistic delight. "Does Max look familar to you? 
He should. He's your son."


-Steve "Komodo" T.
http://www.geocities.com/studio_pc_hub/


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