Wind in Her Hair

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Author's Notes: These are all one-shot ficlets. I have no plans to do anything more with the concepts I end up displaying in here.

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Jade grinned and looked down from the top bunk of her bed. So she was confined to her room again. No big deal, though, because she had a few new tricks that Jackie didn't know about yet.

She loved to fly.

The best thing when she first came to America hadn't been Uncle Jackie, or Section 13, or even the Dark Hand. That'd all been fun, sure, but they hadn't measured up to the Rooster Talisman.

'I can fly!'

Oh, man, she still remembered the sudden shock as the skateboard went soaring off the bridge. It had fallen into the river far below, but not her! Never her. Jade Chan had enough luck and pluck that she always came out golden- or at least not too badly hurt.

No, she hadn't fallen that night. She'd almost gotten sliced up by that monster sword of Tohru's (what'd he do with it?), but she'd turned the tables on him! Rooster Talisman's levitation extended to way more than just flight! She'd levitated Tohru (let him fly) and dropped him! Man, oh man, what a crash he'd made!

She hadn't gotten to fly again until after Shendu had been defeated the first time. Kepler's rocket pack had been useful, even fun, but it was noisy! The rocket fuel smelled weird, too, and hey, need for fuel cramped her style. Finn would have really hurt her if she hadn't taken care of him before the fuel ran out!

Lucky, lucky Jade the wonder-girl.

Jade leaned back on her bed, staring up at the ceiling with her hands behind her head. Rabbit and Rooster were a great combination. Too bad she'd needed them to fight her new friend, Seymour. Okay, so he was actually the sky demon in disguise. She'd still liked him. It had been great having a friend at school.

She'd flown, though. Faster than the first time she'd had the Rooster Talisman, higher than when she'd had the rocket pack- It had been great. Especially with the enraged sky demon chasing her.

This new adventure with the chi powers of the demons was letting her learn some cool new stuff about those same demons. For instance, as the sky demon, Hsi Wu's powers were not so much of the air but of light without heat. Traditionally, the sky was the dome over the world where the stars, sun, and moon were placed. It was the barrier between the mortal world and the realm of the gods.

It was not air. Air was what lay below the sky. So, while Hsi Wu could fly and fly well, he hadn't been fighting in his element. She'd still come close to losing to him, though. He had way more experience than her, but she was a whole lot smarter than any demon ever born.

Well, okay, Tarakudo could give her a run for her money, but he was trapped in his mask. So, no floating head to toss her around and be smarter than her and try to convince her to go evil again.

Never, never again. The Queen of the Shadowkhan was dead.

She shivered and turned to face the wall. That wasn't worth thinking about. Not when she could remember what it was like to fly. She'd soared on the Rooster's wings three times now. When she first got it, when she fought Hsi Wu for his tail and her Uncle, and when Daolon Wong had tried to capture the real rooster.

Oh, wow, that had been great. The whole house had flown! They'd been soaring above Kansas, which was pretty terrifying when she was there but not so much now, and Jackie was fighting the Dark Hand, like always. Same old, same old, even with the eyeblasting pig and the whole "the house is flying?" thing.

But then-! Finn had broken the rope binding the rooster to the house and it had started to fall! So she'd ended up clinging to Jackie, the pig riding pig-a-back, and Jackie holding onto the rope with his teeth!

It had been so freaking cool.

Not quite as cool as the time she'd jumped out of that airplane, though. Man, she got more and more golden every year. Lucky Jade who never lost. She'd never have dreamed of taking a leap like that after she'd fallen off Valmont's office building. But, hey, things changed. Jackie had needed saving (again), and she'd been glad to do it (again). Just another step in proving herself to the adults.

She wouldn't stop doing that now that she knew her future, though. Sure, she would become the head of Section 13. She had to keep working at it though. That kind of thing didn't get handed to you on a platter.

Jade knew a secret that Jackie didn't. Most of her luck was just luck, but some of it (the best part of it) was being prepared for bad things to happen and having the guts to fight back when they did. Sometimes, you had to take advantage of the circumstances.

'Done congratulating yourself yet?' The not-quite voice croaked in her ear. 'If you want to learn to fly, you'll have to start small.'

"Yeah, yeah. Just show me what to do!" She turned over to keep an eye on the door. Please, oh please, don't let Jackie hear me. I don't want him to ask questions (I don't want to lie to him). This is way too important to me- We need these powers to fight Drago!

'It took me centuries to achieve full control, Jade-girl. This would be much easier if you had my chi.'

"No way! Jackie would find out what was going on if I took that back. Plus, unlike you, I like being thin."

He laughed croakingly. 'That physical transformation yesterday was an overload of my powers in you. It wouldn't happen with me to guide you. However, this is far more subtle and far trickier.'

"I can do it!" (I can fly!)

The End

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