The Adventures of the Jade Dragon

Episode 9

The Jade Dragon’s Return

Chapter 2 Homecoming

Suzi Kendall stood at dockside watching the Empress of the Orient as the tugs pushed it into position. “Two years,” she said to the woman standing beside her. “It’s not a terribly long time, but it seems like ages.”

Kyla Smith nodded her agreement. “I never realized what a big part of my life they were until they left.”

Suzi made a wry expression. Kyla’s comment certainly understated the events of the last few years. Fighting crime without their former companions had taxed her and Kyla to the limit. Several times they had barely escaped with their lives and only the infighting of Metro City’s criminal elements had kept them from overrunning the city.

Still, they had prevailed. Only the Black Leopard and the crime syndicate headed by Stiletto still operated. The two villainesses were like rats. It seemed that no matter how many times they were beaten down they always resurfaced as bold and dangerous as before. The last few months, however, things seemed to have quieted down. Suzi allowed herself the hope that she and Kyla might have at last had some permanent impact on the crime scene in Metro City.

“There they are!” Kyla shouted, waving her arms. “I can see them and I can see the children.”

Suzi squinted as she sought to make out the tiny figures lignin the rails of the luxury liner. She spotted them at last and just behind them four other figures, the daughters they had taken with them just two years ago. “I should have brought my binoculars,” Suzi thought.

She was most anxious to see the four young women. The daughters of her former companions were something completely out of the ordinary. They had departed only two years ago as year-old infants and were now returning as young women. If Natassia’s letter was to be believed they had undergone a dramatic transformation. They had been taken to a mystical place in southern China known as the Mountain of Heaven where seventeen years had passed in just a single day. It was an incredible tale, almost unbelievable; and Suzi would have disregarded it if she had not recognized Natassia’s handwriting in the letter she had received. Even more incredible, the three mothers who had accompanied the young women had not aged more than the day they had been there, although to them a full seventeen years had passed.

It was something Suzi wanted to verify and she waited anxiously along with an equally eager Kyla for the ship to dock. Finally the huge vessel was tied up to the pier and the passengers began to disembark. Half an hour later the two young women each in her mid-twenties, ran toward their returning companions.

Pandemonium reigned for the next few minutes as amid laughter and tears the five heroines met, embraced, hugged, and kissed one another. Among the crowds on the dock a few people noticed that one of the women exchanging hugs and kisses was clearly oriental, and looked on with disapproval. Most, however, were too concerned about their own affairs to take exception to the breaking of 1930s conventions. And even those that glowered their censure would probably have giving grudging consent had they known that the Asian women who mingled so freely with the four Caucasians was Sun Lin, the Jade Dragon, the greatest heroine of crime-plagued metro City.

Sun Lin wiped away her tears. “It is so good to see you again,” she said to Suzi and Kyla, her voice choked with emotion.

Suzi dabbed with her handkerchief at her own tear-filled eyes. She could only nod dumbly in reply, but Kyla spoke up. “Welcome home, Sun Lin.” She kissed the beautiful Asian once more on her cheek and then held her at arms length. “You certainly don’t look like the mother of a teenager,” she smiled. “Why don’t you introduce me and Suzi to the girls?”

The four young women bowed as they had been taught, bending low in obeisance to their superiors. Kyla and Suzi looked somewhat embarrassed despite the fact that they had long been schooled in the ways of oriental etiquette. Their eyes and faces smiled on the four nearly grown daughters of their returned companions.

Huan Yue, daughter of the Jade Dragon; her luminous blue eyes shining, stepped forward first. Her half-Asian half-European heritage showed to the full. She was tall, perhaps just an inch shorter than Sun Lin’s five-foot-nine. Although born of a brutal rape by the half-witted giant, her mother had shown her only love and the weakness of her father’s mind had not been passed on to the daughter.

Huan Yue bowed even lower than the first time, embarrassing Suzi and Kyla still more. The girl was almost heart-stoppingly beautiful, her mix of Asian and Caucasian features blended to perfection.

Solange, Scorpion’s daughter presented herself next. Tall like her mother, she stood eye to eye with Suzi, but was more slender of build. Her ebon hair and dark eyes reminded Suzi of Shark Stevens, the criminal who had forcibly impregnated her mother, but her slender figure and full bosom were clearly inherited from her mother. As she met Suzi’s eyes the blonde heroine noted the same strength of character that radiated from Scorpion. This was a young woman who was clearly confident of her own ability.

Vala and Lari were last, Nova’s twins shyly holding back. Like her mother they were dark-haired and full-figured. However, there was no mistaking the fact that they owed a great deal to their father, the vicious crimelord, Zhuang Zhijian who had forcibly impregnated their mother.

Suzi reflected on the sorrow and the triumph that the four young women represented. All had been born of rape, but the blood of their heroine mothers flowed through their veins imparting to each of them a grace and beauty that was more than mortal. And then too was the fantastic story or their childhood. Taken to the mysterious Mountain of Heaven while still infants they had spent seventeen years being schooled in the mystical arts of the orient. Incredibly, to the outside world, however, only a day had passed. The four children had grown to young adults while time stood still for their mothers and for the rest of the world. Now at the age of nineteen they were ready to face the world. Or were they? Suzi realized that in spite of their physical maturity they probably still had a lot to learn. The streets of Metro City were a harsh classroom. They would have to learn quickly or suffer the consequences of their mistakes.

Turning her thoughts in more pleasant directions, Suzi smiled. “Welcome,” she said. “I bid you welcome to your new home. May it bring you much joy and happiness.”

Her friends fell in about her. Together the seven striking women walked from the ocean terminal. Metro City with all its wonders and vices awaited them.

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