Monkie Kid x Oc: The Bull and the Jade Warrior

Ice Ice Baby

The noodle shop was quiet, everyone having left after Chen's arrival. The mood had shifted greatly, and Pigsy, Tang and Chen were in no mood to party or celebrate. This was serious. But Mk and the rest of the gang gave them space, resorting to celebrating at the Sea-Crate HQ.

Chen was now sitting at one of the booths with Tang, waiting for Pigsy to come back from retrieving something. What, he didn't specify. The young man was quiet, staring at the untouched bowl of noodles in front of him. He'd changed into more comfortable clothes, now out of his wrecked racing outfit. His hair was tied back into a bun, and he held an ice pack to his cheek for the massive bruise. His hand was bandaged and clean, the stray pieces of glass removed, and the cut on his lip was almost entirely gone.

Tang sits across from him, arms folded in front of him as he glances between the quiet Chen and the noodle shop doorway, where Pigsy had left to go back home and fetch the mysterious item. He clears his throat, turning to face Chen fully. "So, did you...want to tell me what happened?" he asks.
Chen doesn't respond, that scowl still on his face. Tang sighs, rubbing the back of his neck. "Chen, we need to get to the bottom of this-"

"And we will when Pigsy gets back." Chen snaps, cutting off the middle-aged man. "I want answers, Tang. That thing told me that Pops knows something. And it was right." he mutters the last part angrily, removing the ice pack. The bruise had stopped swelling and was slowly disappearing, much to Tang's surprise. But he shakes it off. "What 'thing'? What did it tell you?" he asks gently, trying to get more information on what happened.

But before the young man could say anything more, Pigsy entered, a hand in his pocket. A tense silence falls over the trio as the chef sits down next to Tang, opposite Chen. He looked down in dismay at the untouched bowl of noodles in front of Chen, but he let it slide, realising that the young man wouldn't exactly have an appetite.
Rummaging in his pocket, he pulls out a small cloth parcel, placing it on the table. "Alright, Chen. What did the punk tell you?" Pigsy questions, keeping a hand on the parcel.

Chen glances between the parcel and Pigsy briefly. He lets out a sigh. "They said I was related to the Demon Bull Family. And that you were lying to me." he states bluntly, getting straight to the point. At his statement, Tang and Pigsy's eyes widened, both sharing looks.
The young man catches onto this, brows furrowing. "So they were telling the truth? You knew I was related to them?" Chen growls, hands balling into fists. At this, Tang raises his hands, shaking his head. "No, no, Chen. We didn't know you were related to the Demon Bull Family. We just..." he hesitates, glancing over to Pigsy for help.

"Then what happened? Why have you been lying to me about where you found me?"

The chef sighs, rubbing his neck. "I guess it's time I told you how I found you, huh?" He says quietly. "It was outlandish, which is why I didn't tell you. I wanted to tell you eventually, but after Mk found the staff, I when would be a good time." he rants, avoiding meeting Chen's gaze.
Chen raises a brow, staring at Pigsy expectantly. "Explain. Now."

– – –

20 years earlier...

"Dang lousy kids. Always calling in sick. This is the 14th time in 3 weeks!" Pigsy grumbles under his breath, as he drives through the rainy night. He glances around him, finding himself in a dense forest, with no sign of civilization in sight. This irked the pig demon, since he was doing his last delivery for the night. But he's been driving for 2 hours now, with no sign of a house or anything.
He looks down at the GPS, giving it a hard tap. The screen glitches out before turning off, and the chef realised that it was broken. Dang it, he was lost!

The rain was pouring, and Pigsy was having a hard time seeing through the windshield of his truck. Cursing under his breath, he stops in the middle of the old dirt road, waiting for the rain to stop.
He looks out the window. The only thing he could see were the vague shapes of trees through the heavy rain, and nothing else. It was literally a jungle out here.
With a heavy sigh, the chef leans back in his seat. The only thing he could do was wait it out.

A few minutes goes by, and the pig demon could feel himself start to drift off. There was no way that person was still waiting for their delivery, so after the rain lifts he'll just head back to the shop. Eventually, he falls asleep.

–

The pig was snapped awake from his slumber by a light knocking on his window. It takes him a second to gather his bearings and realise where he was, but once he did, he felt uneasy as he looked out the window. He was still in the middle of the jungle, and it was still dark. The rain had stopped, leaving everything eerily quiet. But that wasn't what had freaked him out.

Someone had just tapped on his truck window.

Pigsy scans the surrounding area, searching for any sign of a person. He wasn't going to leave this truck until he was certain that whoever was out there didn't mean harm, which there was a slim chance of since he was LITERALLY out in the middle of nowhere.
Yet there was no one around, not even a trace of a person.

However, his eye catches something in the distance. A faint blue glow, coming from within a cave a bit of distance away. The chef squints, trying to make out what it was but to no avail.
He turns on his truck, and slowly drives forward to get a better look at it.

Pigsy finally parks his truck at the entrance of the cave, and slowly and cautiously steps out, looking around. There was still no sign of anyone around, but the pig demon was still on edge. Reaching into his truck's glove box, he pulls out a flashlight. Switching it on, he cautiously steps inside the cave entrance, swinging the light around to see where the blue glow was coming from.
He didn't have to walk very far to spot the blue glow, coming from deeper within the cave.

He shouldn't be doing this. This could end badly. Horribly, even. But Pigsy couldn't help but be curious about what this weird thing was. It was like something was drawing him in, urging him forward. So, against his better judgement, he continued on, walking deeper into the cave.

His flashlight lands on nothing but rocks so far, and the occasional small critter scurrying out of view. The glow in the distance was becoming stronger the closer he got, almost lighting up the surrounding area. Pigsy glanced over his shoulder, just to make sure that he could still see the entrance of the cave, to which he thankfully could.

Stepping around a small corner, Pigsy stops dead in his tracks, eyes widening in disbelief.

Before him was a huge chunk of ice, sitting perfectly unmelted in the cave. It glowed brightly in the darkness, lighting up the surrounding area in a dull blue light. Yet this wasn't the only thing that surprised the pig demon. No, it was what was inside the block of ice that shocked him.

Curled up in a fetal position with its eyes closed, an infant lay trapped inside. Its hair was a curly black mess, a small bracelet with intricate carvings was wrapped around its wrist, and it wore a purple and gold outfit that looked ancient to the pig demon. It was well preserved and appeared to be sleeping peacefully, oblivious to being frozen to death.
Pigsy takes a step forward, reaching out a hand and wiping the ice to see if he could get a better look at the frozen child.

Upon touching it however, a small crack appears, and the pig demon freezes. The crack grows larger, travelling along the block of ice at a high speed. Smaller cracks began to form, and soon the whole ice block was covered. Pigsy takes a step back, startled, as the block of ice glows even brighter, almost blinding, and the ice cracks grow larger. It looked like it was about to explode.

Pigsy ducks for cover as the ice shatters, bits of ice flying all over the cave. The cave falls dark, as the ice loses its blue glow, the only source of light coming from the flashlight. The pig demon shakily gets to his feet, picking up the flashlight and looking around the now dark cave.
He swings it around, the light falling onto chunks of ice scattered across the cave's floor.

"What the heck was that...?" he mutters to himself. All he did was touch it! How did him touching it cause that reaction?!

Screw this. He was leaving.

Pigsy turns to leave the cave, when he stops in his tracks, ears perked. There was a sound from behind him. It sounded like...whimpering?
The pig demon swings the light behind him, searching for the source of the noise. That's when he spots a flash of purple and gold laying on the floor in the centre of the cave.

The pig demon steps closer, eyes widening in horror, shock and concern. There lay the infant that was previously trapped in the ice, but instead of being frozen and dead like he'd assumed, it was breathing.
The infant curled up on the ground, shivering and crying loudly in the cold, helpless against the elements.

Pigsy walked closer, kneeling down next to the child and carefully lifting them up into his arms. For a second, he just...stares at them. How in the world did this kid survive in a chunk of ice? How long was it in there for? How did it get trapped in there in the first place? This was all just so bizarre!
He's snapped out of his thoughts by the child's continuous crying, and he quickly takes off his jacket, wrapping it around the infant to keep it warm. "Shh. It's okay, kiddo. I gotcha." he soothes. Getting to his feet, he carries the child back to the truck, taking the infant home.

Before he got it, he took one last look around. Just to make sure that there really was no one else around. But just like before, there was not another person in sight. It was just Pigsy and the infant, alone in the jungle.

– – –

"See why I didn't tell ya where I found ya? I wanted to give you as normal a childhood as I could." Pigsy says, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. Chen was silent, staring down at the table. Pigsy...did have a point. Imagine growing up being told "hey! I found you in a chunk of ice in the middle of nowhere!" your entire life.

Tang nods, eating the unattended bowl of noodles Chen had neglected. "Mhm- and we DID try looking for anything that resembled that bracelet we found you with, but we couldn't identify those symbols from anywhere. We hit a dead end." the middle-aged man explains.
Pigsy opens the white cloth parcel still sitting on the table, handing it to Chen. "We took the bracelet and hid it because we found out it attracted some... unwanted attention." the chef explains as Chen takes the parcels contents.

The young man looks down at the bracelet. It was decorated with purple, gold and red beads, and had a small black charm with a familiar red symbol on it. The same symbol that Chen had seen in that calabash room where he woke up.
Tang leans over the table, pointing to the charm and symbol. "We didn't know what it was back then, but now we realise it must be a family crest of some kind. One that isn't in any history books." Tang explains, slurping at the noodles.
Chen's brows furrow, taking in all this new information. He doesn't say a word, his thumb tracing over the beads in deep thought. It didn't make sense how he got trapped in the ice in the first place, but he was relieved to know that Pigsy didn't just kidnap him from the Demon Bull Family or something. That he was just lying about finding him at a foster home.

Chen sighs, putting the bracelet down. "Sorry for getting angry with you. I just... things weren't adding up, and it freaked me out." he confesses, looking away. Pigsy shakes his head. "No, Chen. It's fine, it's completely understandable. But I do have to ask; how in the world did you find out? Who told you, and what did they tell you?" he asks, growing concerned.
The young man glances up at them briefly, sighing. "I...don't know. I don't know who it was. A lot happened, and I'm not even sure entirely what went down, either." he explains, glancing out the window.

Pigsy and Tang share another concerned look, which Chen ignored. "So the crest. Do you think it could be from the Demon Bull Family?" Chen asks, trying to change the subject. At this, Tang pushes his glasses up, deep in thought. "Well yes, I suppose it could be. But what makes you so sure that you're related to the Demon Bull Family?" he asks. Chen gives him a deadpan look, leaning back against the seat. "I already told you. Someone- I don't know who- had told me inside something called a calabash. If you don't believe me, we can go back to where I was attacked. I think I saw a board there or something that had my face on it." he points out. Tang's eyes widened in recognition.
The two older men nod, getting up from their seats. Pigsy crosses his arms. "Alright. Then let's go take a look." he says firmly.

– – –

Chen guides the two men to the abandoned house, where he had woken up and was freed from the calabash.
The trio look around, and the first thing they notice is how broken down the house was. It looked like no one had lived here for a good few months at least. Cracks covered the walls, there was graffiti written over one side of the wall, and another wall had been completely demolished.

Chen looks around, spotting the one thing he came here looking for. "There it is." he says, pointing to a board with a few photos, writing, and notepads. The three approached the board, and they could clearly see that in the centre there was a photo of Chen from the race earlier that day.

The young man looks over the photos, realising that the others were of the Demon Bull Family. There were tidbits of information on the notes, but what got the trio's attention was the heading written in big, messy red marker:
"Task: Brainwash the Monkie Kid's Brother"

Pigsy's attention falls to a large open book on the table, filled with more notes and a list. He reads through it, growing angry and concerned.

"1. Trap Monkie Kid's brother inside calabash
2. Brainwash him into thinking he's always lived with the Demon Bull Family
3. Return him to the Demon Bull Family and get filthy rich!"

Tang looks over the board, pointing to the photo of the Demon Bull Family with some writing under it. "It says here that Princess Ironfan had assigned these demons the task to brainwash you using the calabash. Can it actually do that?." he points out, and Chen folds his arms, looking away. Pigsy groans, pinching the bridge of his nose. "So it's true then. You really are-"

"Don't." Chen spat, silencing the pig demon. His face is scrunched up into a scowl. He couldn't believe he was related to those foul, destructive monsters. They were his enemy! They tried to kill him and his family, and now they were trying to brainwash him?! They really thought they could get away with that?!

Pigsy looks at Chen for a moment, letting out a quiet sigh. "Alright, we got our answers, then. Let's get outta here before those punks come back." he says, heading toward the exit. Tang follows suit, but Chen lingers behind for a moment, looking around. He takes one last look at the board, fists clenching in anger, before turning and leaving.

As they walk, Pigsy turns to Chen, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Did you wanna tell the others about this?" he asks. Chen's brows furrow, shaking his head. "Not tonight. I don't need to ruin their night anymore than I have." he grumbles. "Besides, I just want to go home. Night, Pops. Tang."
He walks away, leaving the two men in the street. His apartment wasn't too far away now, thankfully.

Pigsy was about to go after him, when Tang stopped him. "Give him some space. He needs time to process this, Pigsy." he says quietly.

– – –

Chen opens the door to his apartment, and is immediately greeted by Shu. The black cat darts up to him, rubbing against his legs and meowing loudly in greeting. She looks up at him expectantly, emerald green eyes shining in the darkness. Sighing, Chen picks her up, letting a small smile grow. "Hey, Shu. Sorry I'm late." he coos, holding her close. "Just had a...really rough day."
Shu lets him pet her for a while, before she begins to squirm in his grip, wanting to be let down. He lets her go, walking into the kitchen to get her food. She follows closely behind, as the young man pulls out a can from the fridge.

He couldn't believe that both the race AND the Calabash incident happened on the same day. It all felt so weird and surreal. All this new information, and yet he still had a million questions. How was he related to the bull family? How did he get trapped in that ice? Was he really abandoned, like that figure said? If so, why did the demon bull family want him back now?

Nothing made sense.

Giving Shu her food, Chen heads straight to the bathroom to shower. He's had a long day, and right now he just wants to forget everything that's happened and go to bed. Although he'd probably have a hard time sleeping after all this.

– – –

"Damn those stupid demons!" Jade hissed, kicking at an empty can. "He knows! He's gonna figure it out, I just know it! He's gonna go looking for answers!"

The snake demon paces anxiously in the dark alleyway, pulling at his hair. He was panicking. "I should've just left him! Now he's gonna go looking for answers, and he's gonna tell Wukong-" he tries to calm himself down, taking deep breaths. "Oh buddha I am screwed." he mutters, rubbing his eyes.

He couldn't have Wukong knowing he was out. It would ruin everything his mistress worked so hard to achieve. Knowing the Monkey King, he wouldn't care about trapping him in a box anymore. He'd go straight for the kill.

He takes another deep breath. "It'll be fine- it'll be fine! The kid promised not to tell him! That's enough, right? Then no one has to get hurt yet!"

He pauses, a feeling of dread forming in the pit of his stomach. The kid won't keep his secret, not after tonight.

"I need to get rid of the kid..."


– – –

A/N: CAN the calabash actually brainwash people? No clue, but I thought it'd be cool and kinda funny if Princess Ironfan gave Yin and Jin the task to do it. And they chose the calabash because, ya know, they're Yin and Jin.

Also sorry it's kinda rushed, i actually had no clue how this chapter was gonna go lol.