It was a late November day. Frigid and icy with a light layer of snow. The monks were bundled up warmly inside the temple library, studying to make up for the training they could not do in the cold. Each of them had been given a book to read and had to write a three page paper on it by the end of the week.
Raimundo was leaned back in his chair, a book on astrology over his face. Kimiko played with her PDA, glancing down at the book on ancient fashion every now and then. Omi was diligently studying a book on mermaids and sirens. He already had two pages of notes written down. Surprisingly Clay, who had been a good student in school, was completely ignoring the book on centaurs he had been given. He was instead, doodling. Omi looked up for a moment, probably too take more notes, and noticed him.
"Clay! Why aren't you reading?" The little monk demanded. The cowboy flinched, having been invested in his drawings.
"'Cause," he replied. "I'm too excited to read." Omi raised an eyebrow.
"What could you possibly be excited over?"
"It's less than a month til' Christmas," he said, grinning. Kimiko actually put down her PDA and smiled at him.
"That's right," she said. "I hope we get to celebrate it."
"Me too," Rai added, tossing aside his book to join the conversation. "Especially for your sake." He looked at Clay with a hint of pity in his eyes. "I thought you were gonna lose it when Master Fung wouldn't let you go home for that one holiday."
"Thanksgiving," Clay sighed. "It's called Thanksgiving."
Truth be told, he was still upset about that. He had talked to Master Fung earlier in the month about going home for a day to be with his family. At the time, they had been in possession of the Golden Tiger Claws. It would have taken no time at all for Clay to visit, so he said yes.
And then Jack had to screw it up.
He had gotten into the vault the night before he was meant to leave and made off with a few Wu before being found. One of which happened to be the Golden Tiger Claws. He begged, begged, Master Fung to let Dojo take him home but he declined, saying that it was too much time and that if a Shen Gong Wu went active, they'd be without a mode of transportation. Clay was still a little bitter about the whole ordeal, though he was far angrier with Jack. Especially when he had used the Claws to win a Showdown.
"When I get my hands on that no good snake…" he muttered. Just as he was about to describe, in great detail, what he would do, Dojo came bolting through the door, bringing with him an icy breeze.
"We've got a live one!" he cried. His body was covered in bright pink bumps and his nose was red and runny, though that may have been from the cold. Master Fung appeared by his side, Ancient Scroll of the Shen Gong Wu in hand. He approached the table quietly and unrolled the scroll.
"It is the Imo Gazer," Master Fung began. "A very dangerous Shen Gong Wu. It has the power to put anyone in its sights into a deep slumber."
"Imagine if Jack got his hands on it," Rai said, eyes wide. The others, realizing this, bolted from the room towards the dorms to get changed. "Hey! Wait for me!"
XMASXMASXMASXMAS
"What the in the Sam Hill possessed Dashi t' hide a Wu in the middle of the Antarctic?" Clay whined, pulled his hat down further. He was a Southern boy, born and raised. He'd never seen snow in real life until the time they went looking for the Falcon's Eye. A snow covered mountain was one thing; sub-zero temperatures were a different one entirely.
"Exactly why you're griping," Dojo explained. "Dashi knew, no matter how the world evolved, nobody would want to live in the North or South Poles. It's a perfect place to hide something so dangerous."
"Hey, look at it this way," Rai said with a mischievous grin. "Maybe you'll get to meet Santa Claus." Clay glared at him and flipped him the bird. Although no one could tell since he was wearing mittens. Raimundo just snickered and turned away from him to chat with Kimiko. Omi leaned forward and tapped Clay on the shoulder.
"Clay, who is Santa Claus?" The cowboy blinked, thinking he hadn't heard him right.
"How… How do you know what Christmas is, but not know who Santa is?"
"I am a bit ashamed to say I do not know very much of Christmas, only that it is to celebrate the birth of a noble warrior and there are presents given." Clay bit back a laugh at the idea that Jesus had been a "noble warrior".
"Well, he's a man who lives in the North Pole," he began. "And every year on Christmas Eve, he flies around the world to deliver presents to good children."
"He flies?" Omi gasped. "How does he fly?"
"With his magic sleigh and flying reindeer," he replied. He heard Kimiko and Raimundo begin to snicker but he ignored them. Nothing embarrassing about explaining Santa to a kid.
"And he delivers presents to all good children? All over the world? In a single night?" Omi asked without a single hint of skepticism.
"Yup," Clay said. Omi crossed his arms and scrunched up his face.
"But… if that is true…" For a split second, Clay thought that Omi wouldn't believe in Santa Claus. "Then he must be a very powerful sorcerer!" Clay laughed, relieved and sort of nodded.
"Y'know, I never thought about it but he must be." Omi jumped to his feet and pointed a gloved hand towards the sky.
"We must find this Santa Claus at once!"
"Good idea," came an all too familiar voice. Dojo whirled around to face Jack. He was in his jet, surrounded by over fifty Jack-bots. "When you find him, would you mind telling him what I want for Christmas?"
"We will do no such thing!" Omi barked. "You are not good and deserve no presents from Santa!" He turned to Clay, who confirmed that he was right. Jack Spicer would not get presents from Santa.
"Like I care," the techie sneered. "Jack-bots! Attack!" The army of robots descended upon them, laser guns blazing. Omi jumped up and grabbed one, throwing it as hard as he could into the next closest. Raimundo leapt to his feet, facing off with at least twenty of them.
"Typhoon Boom! Wind!" He brought his hands together sharply, releasing a devastating blast of air that tore the Jack-bots to shreds.
"Judolette Flip! Fire!" Kimiko's hands became engulfed in balls of flames. She threw one after another at the oncoming army. Every robot that was hit immediately blew up in a blast of sparks and flames. Dojo took out the last three robots, swinging his deadly claws at them. Now only Jack remained. Clay leapt off of Dojo's tail like it was a springboard.
"Seismic Kick! Earth!" He flipped midair to gain momentum and crashed into Jack's jet, heel blasting through the hull and destroying the engine. He tried to bounce back off from the failing machine but found that his foot was stuck inside the twisted metal. When Jack escaped through the cockpit with his heli-pack Clay reached up and grabbed his leg, freeing his foot but losing his boot in the process. He made a mental note to care later.
"Leggo!" Jack cried.
"No way!" Clay yelled, clinging for dear life.
"Face your death like a man!"
"I ain't dyin' here, Jack. No sir!"
"Fine," Jack snapped. "Then let's see how you handle this!" He pulled the Sword of the Storm from behind his back and activated it, whipping up a tiny blizzard. Snow whilred around the boys at top speeds, stinging at their exposed faces. But still Clay hung on. Frustrated, Jack swung the blade again and again until he created an actual blizzard and a bad one at that.
"Clay!" Dojo yelled. He could no longer see him through the storm. He could barely see his claw in front of his face.
"Hold on, man!" Raimundo cried. He threw his hands out in front of him, creating a small tornado that cut through the snow. Clay and Jack became visible for only a moment, but at that very moment, Jack's Heli-pack failed from the sheer cold.
The Dragon of Earth and Evil Boy Genius dropped out of the sky.
Their screams were swallowed up by the wind and their bodies became hidden once more. To the monks, it looked as though they had vanished into thin air.
"No!" Kimiko shrieked.
"Dojo! You must help him!" Omi pleaded.
"I can't," Dojo cried, his voice cracking. "If we get lost in this storm we could all die. We have to find shelter first."
"But if we don't find him he could die," Raimundo argued.
"We'll look for him when the blizzard lets up," Dojo said, turning and flying back the way they came. "Clay's strong, he'll be able to hold on until we can find him."
Kimiko buried her face into Raimundo's chest. Omi turned around and looked back to where his dear friend had fallen. He sobbed and brought his mittens up to wipe away the tears that threatened to fall. As much as he wanted to believe that Clay would hold out, he couldn't help but feel that the last second he saw him was the last time he'd see him again.
XMASXMASXMAS
Clay was surrounded by white. Freezing, unending white. He might've thought the fall had killed him were it not for the intense pain and cold. His ankle was messed up, that he knew for certain. He couldn't put any weight on it without wanting to scream in agony. To make matters worse, it was the same foot that lacked a boot.
He had no clue where Jack was or if he was even alive. He remembered seeing him just before the impact. He must've been unconscious, because when he opened his eyes again, Jack was gone.
Rotten jerk musta left me for dead, he thought. At least if they had been together, they could have used each others' warmth. But no. Here he was, all alone in the middle of the North Pole. He had a single Shen Gong Wu on him, but he doubted the Two Ton Tunic would help him much here.
His bad foot punched through the snow, sending a wave of searing pain up his leg. He cried out and fell forward, half burying himself in the process. Oddly enough, the snow warmed him a little. He curled up as tight as he could and just lay there, too tired to move.
Blackness began to eat at his vision,-or maybe he was closing his eyes?- but the last thought he had before slipping into nothingness was this.
This is gonna put a real damper on Christmas…