Xiao Hong, sat in the lotus position overlooking the clear blue of the lake. It was a perfect spot for meditation, but today for some reason she was having trouble concentrating. Perhaps it was the fact that it was her birthday. She had just turned eighteen and the day reminded her of past birthdays, when she had not been training as a nun in a Shaolin monastery.

If she thought back far enough she could remember when she had not even been in China. That seemed so long ago. She had been twelve when she had ventured into the Chinese area of Metro City. She had gone there on a dare from one of her schoolmates and had sneaked away from her dormitory after lights out. It had turned out to be much more of an adventure than she had planned. She had run into a henchman of Boss Crunch, Metro City’s most ruthless crimelord. Pretending friendship, the thug, who called himself the Mole, had lured her into a trap. She had been chloroformed, trussed up and presented to the evil crime boss himself. When he learned that she was Natassia Green, the daughter of Metro City’s Police Commissioner, he had decided to strike back at her father in the nastiest way he could. He had sold her into the white slave trade, with the full knowledge that most young girls who experienced that fate ended up as prostitutes or concubines in China.

That had not been Natassia’s fate, however. The resourceful twelve-year-old had managed to escape from her captors, but not before being sold into the service of a Chinese warlord in Yunnan Province. She had brought an especially high price at the slave auction on account of her virginity and the great potential beauty she showed even as a prepubescent girl. Natassia had taken advantage of a breakdown of the truck in which she was being transported to dart away from her escort and into the wilds of the Chinese countryside. Quite by chance, she had stumbled, exhausted, dirty, and starving into the courtyard of a Shaolin temple. The nuns, for reasons Natassia was never able to determine, had accepted her into the temple as a novice, and she had been there ever since.

Now she was Xiao Hong, "Beautiful Rainbow," and she had almost forgotten her life in the United States. But sometimes, the memories of her youth, and of her father and mother came flooding back. At such times she found it almost impossible to carry out her normal duties. This was one of those times. The nuns at the monastery, especially the Reverend Mother, had treated her well, educating her in the way of the Shaolin, including their skills in the martial arts. To Natassia’s surprise, but not perhaps to he surprise of the Reverend Mother, she had excelled in her training, surpassing all of the other novitiates. Now at the age of eighteen, she was a self-possessed, disciplined young woman. She was also extraordinarily beautiful, standing about five-foot nine inches tall with a strong, lithe full-figured body. Her long dark hair framed a face of exquisite beauty. Her large gray eyes were a source of wonder to any Chinese who looked upon her perfect features.

Down along the lakeshore something caught her eye. She stood up for a better look. Yes, there was definitely something there, something that did not belong.

One of the monks had joined her on the terrace overlooking the lake. "Bandits!" he exclaimed. "I must warn the master."

Natassia went with him. She went to the Reverend mother and told her of what she had seen. To her surprise the ancient woman did not seem at all surprised or concerned.

"I have seen it," the Reverend Mother said. "The prophecy is coming true."

"What prophecy?" asked Natassia, from her position of respect on the floor of the inner temple.

"Do not concern yourself, child. You will know soon enough. Meanwhile, we must prepare to defend ourselves just in case things are not as foretold."

By this time the entire monastery had been alerted. The 200 odd monks and the 35 nuns who were its inhabitants had armed themselves in preparation for the defence of their temple. Their weapons were simple enough, consisting primarily of bamboo staffs or crude edged weapons. Natassia wondered if they would be enough against the more modern weaponry that the bandits would no doubt have. She suspected that it would take all of the specialized training that the monks and nuns possessed to hold off the attack.

It turned out to be much worse than she had envisioned. The bandit army was not large by world standards, but it was easily large enough to overwhelm the small band of monks and nuns defending the temple. The bandits did not even attempt to storm the temple. Instead they brought up two pieces of outmoded but functional artillery and lobbed shells into the monastery. Against such weapons the monks and nuns were helpless. The shells tore the temple apart and set it on fire. The ancient wooden buildings blazed like kindling. Then, as the monks and nuns fled the blazing buildings, they were cut down by machine gun and rifle fire. The entire battle lasted only about half an hour.

Somehow in the carnage that ensued as the defenders of the monastery were gunned down, Natassia escaped injury. It was almost as if she led a charmed life. Bullets flew all around her, some of them even passing through the folds of her clothing, but she was not so much as scratched. It was not so for the Reverend Mother. As the aged women ran from the building she was struck down only a short distance from the doorway to the blazing main temple.

Natassia saw her fall and ran to her side. Grabbing the dying woman under her arms, she dragged her behind a low stone wall. There, she cradled the injured woman in her arms.

The Reverend Mother opened her eyes. "It is you Natassia. I knew it would be. The prophecy has come to pass."

Tears poured from Natassia’s eyes as she held her dying mentor. "I do not understand, Reverend Mother. What is the prophecy?"

The dying woman’s voice was very weak, but she managed to gasp out her story. "Your coming was foretold to the Head Monk in a dream. He told it to me the morning after he experienced it. He dreamed that a pale skinned girl would come out of the East, and that she would become our greatest pupil. And then as she was nearing the completion of her training, the monastery would be destroyed and she would depart, taking the Dragon’s Eye with her."

Natassia was weeping openly now, her body shaking with sobs. But she managed to stammer out a question. "What is the Dragon’s Eye?"

The Reverend Mother managed to raise her hand. Her fist was clenched, but as she held it in front of Natassia’s face she opened it. There, in the palm of her hand, was a blazing green stone about the size of a walnut. Natassia recognized immediately that she was looking at a gem of incredible value. But the Dragon’s Eye was more than just a gemstone. It seemed to glow with more than just reflected light, as if something within it was emitting a strange radiation of its own. Even as Natassia gazed upon the stone, the Reverend Mother gave a last sigh and died. Natassia caught the stone as it dropped. Even in her grief and confusion she was aware that the stone did not have the coldness of a gem, but actually seemed to radiate heat, as if it had some sort of tiny furnace within it.

Natassia’s mind returned to the peril at hand. Bandits were advancing upon her position. Clutching the stone in her hand she crouched low behind the wall and moved rapidly away from the approaching bandits. She now saw that she had delayed her flight a little too long. Already there were bandits behind her, cutting off her escape route. There was but one chance. She would have to charge right at the bandits who had gotten behind her, hoping that the element of surprise and the poor aim of her adversaries would allow her to break through.

Rising from her hiding place Natassia rushed toward the men who were closing upon her. She saw them turn toward her and train their weapons in her direction, but they seemed to be moving in slow motion. It was almost like moving in a dream, except that in most dreams the dreamer was the one moving slowly. In this case Natassia seemed to be moving with blinding speed and it was her attackers who moved like their legs were mired in mud. Before a shot was fired she had burst through their line and was heading down the hill toward the lake. Before she knew it she had gained the shelter of the trees and safety from rifle fire.

Natassia glanced behind her. The enemy had been left far behind. She suddenly realized that she had covered the several hundred yards from the ruined monastery to the wooded area beyond it in only a few seconds. She stopped to assess the situation. She should have been breathing hard from such exertion, but had hardly worked up a sweat. Something very strange had occurred, but she could not put her finger on it.

Natassia continued to move away from the burning temple as the bandit army closed in around it. With a tremendous feeling of loss, Natassia realized that her life in China was coming to an end. She knew now what her feelings that morning had been trying to tell her. It had been a premonition of a great change in her life. She knew now that she would have to return to the United States. The only problem was that she was not certain exactly how to do that. She had only been twelve years old when she had been abducted from her home and her memories of exactly where the United States was in relation to China were quite vague. She had only one sure fact to go on, and that was that she had entered China through Hong Kong. She also knew that Hong Kong lay somewhere to the west of the monastery. She suspected that she had many miles to go before she reached the British colony, but her alternatives were limited.

And so she set out, penniless and ill equipped to handle the perils of 1920s China. She did have three assets that she could count on. One was her Shaolin training that made her a most dangerous adversary in hand to hand combat. The other was the fact that most Chinese were disposed to give aid to a member of the holy orders. The third was her possession of the Dragon’s Eye. She did not understand the power of the stone, but she suspected that it must be an artifact of great power. She had reasoned that her escape from the invading bandits had been primarily due to the effects of the mysterious gem, and although she was ignorant of its full potential she was sure that in time its mystical qualities would be revealed to her.

Natassia was correct in her assessment. Through a series of adventures and with the help of villagers she managed to make her way to the fast-paced and notorious entrepot of Hong Kong. Once there she made her way to the American consulate and presented herself to the startled consulate officials. Establishing her identity was a bit of a problem, but officials in Metro City were contacted and eventually papers confirming her identity were received in Hong Kong. Then she received devastatingly bad news. Both of her parents were dead. Her kidnapping only six years ago had destroyed her mother. She had become addicted to alcohol and a number of dangerous pharmaceuticals and during one of her drunken bouts she had fatally overdosed. The shock of the death of his wife, coupled with the disappearance of his daughter, had destroyed the health of Natassia’s father. He had outlived his wife by only a year, and then he was felled by a fatal heart attack.

This dismal news was brightened only by the fact that Natassia’s identity was confirmed. She was Natassia Green and the heir to her family's considerable fortune. Within six months of the destruction of the Shaolin Temple she strode down the gangplank of a passenger liner in Metro City.

Natassia had used the time on the long ocean voyage to formulate a plan. She would seek out the men who had abducted her and avenge her parents. She was, therefore, somewhat disappointed to learn that the arch criminal who had been behind her kidnapping was already dead. He had been destroyed by a trio of costumed crimefighters known as the Jade Dragon, the Scarlet Falcon, and the Blue Avenger.

Natassia’s curiosity led her to further investigate the crimefighting trio. What she learned inspired her. She discovered that the three heroines had ended a criminal reign of terror in Metro City. Each of them possessed special abilities that when used together made them a formidable force in the war on crime. Natassia realized that the lives of these three women were a perfect model for her. She would join them and become a part of their dangerous world.

There was however, a problem in seeking out any of the trio. The three heroines were notoriously shy and avoided any contact with the media or even the police. Not only that, their costumes served to disguise their identities, so that no one seemed to know who any of them were. They also tended to work primarily at night when criminal activity was often at its highest. Natassia realized that she would have her work cut out for her in attempting to establish contact with any of them. Nevertheless, she was determined to make the attempt.

Upon returning to Metro City she returned to live in the family home. Technically as an eighteen-year-old she was still a minor. As a result the state had appointed a live-in guardian to watch over her until she reached the age of twenty-one; then she would come into full control of the family fortune. The state Board of Widows and Orphans chose as her guardian her Aunt Priscilla. Natassia dimly remembered her aunt as a kindly but strict woman with definite ideas about the place of young women in society. She immediately declared that until Natassia came of age, she would finish her education, which, of course, had been interrupted by the girl’s six-year stay in China. Her aunt also intended to correct Natassia’s weakness in the so-called social graces. She attributed her backwardness in this area to her life among the heathen Chinese, whom she regarded as completely barbaric. It did not help matters that for several months Natassia spoke English with a slight Chinese accent, due primarily to the fact that she had not used her native tongue for six years. It became Aunt Priscilla’s mission in life to reeducate her niece in the ways of polite society.

Natassia tolerated this control of her life because she felt it was something that her parents would have wanted her to do. She also genuinely liked her aunt, despite the older woman’s rather prudish and narrow attitudes.

As a result of her aunt’s strict regime, Natassia spent much of her day in the company of tutors and the rest with her aunt. She was however, able to have some time to herself in the evening. Excusing herself early each evening by claiming fatigue, Natassia was able to slip away from her aunt’s clutches. Her bedroom became her place of refuge. In the privacy of her room she could practice her Shaolin martial arts. There too she could acquaint herself better with the properties of the Dragon’s Eye. She discovered that when she wore the gem it greatly enhanced her strength and stamina, by a factor of at least ten. She became a veritable superwoman.

She followed the exploits of the Jade Dragon and her companions almost religiously. Newspapers smuggled into the house by a sympathetic maid enabled her to keep track of the exploits of the three heroines. Her aunt did not approve of newspapers, especially those read by the common people. The adventures of the Jade Dragon and her companions fascinated her, especially as she believed that she too had the ability to become a major force in the fight against crime.

First, however, she would have to prove herself. She eventually came to the realization that it was pointless for her to want to join the Jade Dragon unless she could show the oriental heroine that she had the ability to tackle criminals on her own. And so she intensified her training, using the Dragon’s Eye to enhance her strength and endurance so that she was able to practice until quite late at night without tiring. Eventually she felt that she was ready. She would go out into the night and show the people of Metro City that there was a fourth heroine on the scene.