Chapter 1
Note: This is a broad continuation of my previous Xiaolin fic "On Guard." I didn't quite feel like cluttering together a whole bunch of "episodes" as multiple chapters in one story. More separate and organized this way.
It was a humid and sunny day for the jungles of Zaire, Africa. A breeze picked up and swept over the treetops, and the silhouette of a flying serpentine figure eclipsed the blazing sun. Shortly it came in for a landing, breaching the jungle canopy.
After a while, bickering voices could be heard in the lower-hanging jungle brush.
"IS it this way?" Kimiko asked in annoyance as she followed a scampering Omi up through thick vegetation. Dojo was soon seen poking his head above a tree root and slithering along with her.
"That's what this darn nose is telling me," he replied. "Then again, there are a lot of 'exotic' smells that could be interfering…"
"Well, do the best you can and sniff out the Wu," said Clay, trudging up beside them carrying a hefty Shen Gong Wu bag. "This wet heat's really gettin' to me."
"Ugh, same here," panted Raimundo, falling behind on the rugged path.
Kimiko stopped shoving branches away for a moment and shot a glance back at the Brazilian. "Are you joking? Shouldn't you be used to this kind of heat? Heck, you practically lived on the Equator."
"Um, no. Excuse me, but Rio's HUNDREDS OF MILES away from there," Raimundo asserted. "Makes a big difference."
Their conversation was carrying over the jungle treetops along with the more natural environmental sounds of birds and monkeys.
"All right, all right." Kim shrugged, a little exasperated. "Let's just find this 'Lucky Horseshoe' so we can leave already."
"Fu Horseshoe!" Omi yelled from afar.
"What? You found the Horseshoe?" shouted Clay.
"No! It is called the FU Horseshoe!"
"He's right gang," stated Dojo "intelligently." "Chinese for 'luck.' It's the proper name… AND it rhymes!"
"Yeah, well it's pretty ridiculous having a horseshoe giving good luck as a Shen Gong Wu." Kim continued bending back tree limbs, which took some real effort. "How did Dashi come up with this stuff – stealing ideas from Irish mythology and everything."
The dragon secretly concurred to the silliness of it all. "Hey, at least this'll be the only lucky horseshoe that works."
"True."
Not long after, the group approached a wide-open section of jungle devoid of tangling underbrush and viny trees. "Free-DOM!" exclaimed Clay as he stretched his arms. They walked out onto the rocky-yet-grassy plain in search of the Wu. But right on time, a shadow loomed overhead, bearing the shape of a scrawny teen and his heli-pack.
"Oh no…" moaned Raimundo, having caught up to witness the arrival of one irksome goth boy.
"Jack Spicer!" Omi stared up and clamped his hands into fists.
"Whoa, hey!" Jack screeched as he gazed down upon the Xiaolin. "Didn't expect to see YOU guys here in the middle of a stinking jungle!"
"Very funny there, Jack." Clay proceeded to crack his knuckles. "Now then, where're all your flyin' tin cans?"
"…I'm working on that! In the meantime, I need that Lucky Horseshoe – "
"Fu Horsehoe!" corrected Omi.
"Uh, whatever…" Jack continued, "so cutting right down to it, can you all just back off and let me get the Wu for a change? For once?"
"Wow… seriously?" Kimiko scoffed at Jack's blatant patheticness. "Sorry, that's not happening. Take a hike."
To that last sentence, Dojo let out a quick snort.
"Why I thought that would accomplish anything, I'll never know," the redhead muttered to himself. He then dove toward a lone tree surrounded by quicksand.
Dojo came back to focus. "Oh man! That's probably where it is!" He pointed in the tree's direction.
"You think?" Raimundo quit idly massaging his forehead and blew out ahead of everyone into the field.
Jack, meanwhile, rushed to the tree and began his search top to bottom. "Come on, where is it…" He eventually found a hole near the top of the tree trunk and stuck his hand in it. "Doi."
Out popped the Horseshoe. Mesmerized by its golden gleam, Jack held it tight and was about to fly off with his prize; but Raimundo swooped by and grabbed onto it, causing it to glow even brighter.
"Hey, no! I found it first!"
"Too bad."
"Well then, I guess this means a Xiaolin Showdown…" Jack raised his eyebrows anxiously and reached into his heli-pack. "Okay, let's see… I have… the Glove of Jisaku. Dandy."
"And… I've got nothing," Rai claimed, digging into empty pockets. "Clay! Hurry up and chuck me something!" Clay, as well as Omi, Kimiko, and Dojo, were just now arriving.
"Oh-oh, 'kay. Here you go!" the cowboy hollered, tossing out a pair of sandals from his bag.
Raimundo instantly caught them. "Here they are – the Fancy Feet."
Jack lurched. "Shoot – okay. How about last person to fall into quicksand wins."
"FINE, can we just get this over with?"
"Uh, yeah."
"Xiaolin Showdown!" Spicer yelled while Rai simply said. On cue, the landscape spread out and gave rise to a sprawling ocean of quicksand. The lone tree shot up, detached from its roots, and branched out to become as large as a 10-story building. Near the bottom of the floating arborous tower stood the two opponents, one now clothed in blue armor.
"Gong Yi Tanpai! And blah." Jack began his climbing.
With that said, Raimundo immediately felt the giant branch beneath himself start to give way. "Kuh, I'm not that heavy," he murmured. "Fancy Feet!" With the special sandals slipped on he dashed to the branch's edge and jumped up onto a wilted limb.
"Showoff…" breathed Jack, watching the warrior perform tree-climbing acrobatics far above on the opposite side. He glanced down at the Wu he was holding… as well as the disgusting moss now on his fingers. "Hmm. Glove of Jisaku!" The magnetic forces of the glove spread out in an attempt to attract Rai's Fancy Feet, but its radius could no longer reach.
"Rrrrrrr!" growled the albino, voice cracking. He scrambled on up the crumbling tree; if his heli-pack hadn't "mysteriously disappeared," he would've been having a much easier time.
Suddenly, Raimundo screeched to a halt as he was running for another branch. It was at that moment when, for some reason, he started feeling a weakness in his arms and legs, as if he had just been zapped of his energy. Despite this, he pushed himself onward with every bit of strength that remained.
Omi, Kimiko, Clay, and Dojo were watching (or at least trying to watch) the competition from the quicksand shore. "Wish I could see what's goin' on all the way up there," commented Clay, raising a hand over his eyes against the glaring sun. "Eh," remarked an inattentive Dojo.
Raimundo attempted to jump up to a twisted ledge that stood high above. At about the same time he had grabbed it, he let go and ended up slipping down like a rag doll. Jack, however, was gradually making his way up the other side of the tree when he noticed that Rai was now below him.
"What is this? Hey, if you're gonna beat me and rub it in my face… AGAIN, then stop with all the 'holding back' please. It's bad enough I'm already being downplayed!"
Struggling, Rai finally managed to pick himself up again. But no matter how hard he tried he couldn't shake off this dizzy, weak feeling, and the pounding in his chest certainly didn't help. Still standing, he teetered back and forth for a while before the branch beneath him began to break.
And just like that, he plunged down the giant tree into the quicksand. Raimundo had lost the Showdown… to Jack Spicer.
Once the landscape returned to its normal, less unearthly self, the Fancy Feet and Fu Horseshoe both flashed into Jack's hands. Jack – not to mention the Xiaolin – was stunned.
"Hang on buddy!" Clay ran and swung a lasso out into the quicksand, catching Rai by the arm and pulling him to shore. Having turned back to their normal clothing, Omi and Kimiko also rushed to their "fallen leader," with Dojo trailing behind in vacillation. They were only mildly distracted by Jack as he hovered up and away, stuttering: "Welp, looks like I didn't TOTALLY need this Wu's good luck to start with! Ha-ha, later Hare! Ya know? I'm the Tortoise and you're the too-smug-for-his-own-good Hare? Ah forget it… that was lame."
With the mecha-maniac out of the picture, Omi, Kimiko, and Clay didn't have to take a second glimpse at Raimundo to know there was something very, very wrong. For starters, he was now on his knees, hands clenching the ground, gasping for air.
"I… shouldn't… have lost!" he choked.
"We already know that," said Omi, sounding a bit more worried than disappointed.
"Umm, Rai, maybe we oughta help you out there…" Kim insisted with troubled eyes.
"Yeah partner, you don't look very good," Clay observed. "In fact, you look… gray."
By that time Raimundo's face had turned a completely pale gray color, but the Shoku Warrior thought nothing of it. "Well… so what…"
"So what?" retaliated Kimiko. "C'mon, let's take you back to the temple."
"I don't… need… to be TAKEN back!" he snapped, trying to move his numb limbs.
"But Raimundo – " squeaked Omi.
"NO!"
"If I didn't know any better I'd say you need some serious treatment," Dojo declared, who had just then joined the group.
Rai pushed himself up and dragged forward, but in the process his vision and sense of balance became entirely distorted.
"Raimundo partner – " Clay's voice distanced.
He lost consciousness and collapsed right there.
All I have to say is "stay tuned"...
