Ok, this is my very first attempt at a serious, multi-chapter fic. The overall story is planned up until the twentieth chapter so I can assure you that it's going to be very long. While quite a lot of the overall story is already planned I welcome any input from anyone, whether its character development, Shen Gong Wu you want to see or who you want to see use it or maybe even your own invented Shen Gong Wu you want to be in the story (I'm more than open to that idea as I've already planned quite a few of my own invented Wu to include in the story.)

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Xiaolin Showdown or its characters, I own my original characters, original Shen Gong Wu and a notepad bursting with story ideas and that is all. This story will include violence in places, you have been warned.

6th December 2012, Cambridge, England.

From the way the day started he never would have expected it to spiral so completely out of control. Fifteen year old Mikey Rawlins got up as he did every morning; he attempted to tease his blonde hair out of its naturally curly state in vain. He attended the not so local public school, two bus rides away from his home in the so-called 'upper class' area of Cambridge. The day was just like any other, the same Thursday morning lessons, the same teachers droning on without paying much attention to whether the class where even listening or not and the same mad dash to the cafeteria to grab a burger and chips before all that was left was the cold pizza left-over from Friday's lunch.

Mikey always sat alone at lunch, it wasn't by choice of course, the other kids just seemed to avoid him like the plague. He'd given up trying to wrap his brain around the reason a long time ago but sometimes his mind would drift back into this forbidden territory. Was it because he came from a very wealthy family perhaps?, but why would that bother them, he did his best to challenge their preconceptions, he adopted the same middle class accent that the rest of the kids had rather than the pompous upper class one he had learnt from his parents. Maybe they thought he was unapproachable, his mother was often complaining about the fact that his expression was almost always one of irritation, or at least that's what his face looked like to her, he wasn't always irritated, not all the time, his face just seemed to be stuck in that sort of expression. He'd tried to adopt a pleasant, calming smile like his mother had shown him how to do but when he glanced in a mirror he looked like he was sucking on a lemon. It was most likely, if he was being completely honest with himself, because they thought he was a violent psycho with anger problems.

He really hadn't wanted to give them this impression but three days into the first week of his first term and he'd come across a group of guys ganging up on some kid, apparently they found out he was new to the area and had joined the school's martial arts club. They'd demanded the kid fight them to prove how tough he really was but the boy had refused to fight them and would only defend himself against their blows. When you're up against five opponents a year older, several inches taller than you and a dozen pounds heavier, defending yourself will only get you so far. He'd stepped forward to intervene when they knocked the kid off his feet and he still refused to fight back, he'd told the bullies that if they really wanted a fight then he'd give them one. They went down easier than breathing, not a single one of them was a trained fighter whereas Mikey had been boxing for as long as he could remember, five hard punches to the face and half a dozen broken teeth later and Mikey had gone to help the kid up off the ground. The kid had refused his helping hand and instead shouted at him, tell him how his sensei had told him that 'you never strike back to wound an untrained opponent, you should only use what you have learnt to defend yourself' then the little ingrate had called him a psycho loud enough for the entire crowd to hear and two years later he was still carrying that unpleasant moniker.

He knew now looking back that he had taken things too far, it was his fatal flaw. Whenever he got into a fight he gave it everything he had no matter who the opponent was and he didn't give up until he was victorious, his grandfather had always told him that he had the 'heart of a warrior', when he'd told him this he'd felt proud but then after his Grandfather heard about him getting into fights he told him that 'a warriors heart is a useful thing when you find something you want to defend, in times of war for example, but in a strong little boy it can cause more damage to you then to the ones your fighting'. At the time he'd resented being told that and the enrolment in boxing that followed it but now he really understood what his Grandfather had been trying to tell him, if he kept up this fighters mentality it was only going to scare people away from him and he'd end up alone.

All this intense emotional thinking had obviously shown on his face, a gaggle of sixth form girls passed his table, he glanced up at them and one of them scowled at him

"What you looking at me like that for, psycho."

Her friends laughed and agreed with her loudly as Mikey went back to staring at his half eaten burger. On the way back from school he'd texted his mum to let her know he was going to be back late because he was going to the gym and was unsurprised to receive a text back telling him it was alright because his Dad would still be in London until the morning and she wouldn't be back from Ipswich until gone ten that evening. It was probably a good thing his parents didn't pay a lot of attention to where he went after school, they trusted him to be responsible and not get into trouble, it was that trust which allowed him to go Mike's Gym.

3.45pm, Cambridge, England.

The gym was a converted warehouse that despite having only been opened for five years looked run down enough to give the impression of having been there for decades. There was no way his parents would have even let him near this part of Cambridge let alone join an admittedly dodgy gym whose owner Mikey had always been more than a little suspicious of. Pushing open the heavy access door in the side of the building he passed by a few men in their early thirties lifting weights and using the rowing machines, a couple of them called out greetings which Mikey returned with a wave of his hand, careful not to dislodge the duffel bag he'd taken from his locker on the way in.

He knocked on the door and listened as the owner of the gym Mike Matthews scrambled around slamming drawers and swearing loudly.

''Yeah.''

Mike had always been a man of few words, Mikey was one of the few people that Mike had ever spoken more than a full sentence to, Mike claimed it was because they shared a name but Mikey had his doubts about this as he did with everything concerning Mike. As Mikey opened the door the pungent smell of cigarettes hit him like a psychical force, each one of Mike's cigarettes stunk worse than a whole packet, he had no idea where Mike got them from and he was pretty sure he didn't want to know either. Mike's expansive stomach was wedged behind his desk with difficulty, most of the rest of him was hidden behind a cloud of his pungent cigarette's smoke including the mop of dark hair that Mikey had never really been able to definitively identify as real or a badly fitted wig, despite this he could still feel the force of Mike's grin aimed at him.

''Well, well, well, if it isn't my favourite little ball of sunshine, how's life treatin' ya, all rainbows and puppy dog tails as usual I assume?''

Mike wheezed the sentence at him rather than truly speaking, the effort he obviously had to make to finish such a short sentence without convulsing in a fit of smoker's coughing somewhat lowered Mikey's irritation.

'' Yeah, everything's just sugar, spice and everything nice on my front, I guess your lungs haven't quite given up the ghost yet then.''

His voice didn't reveal any hint of venom, if anyone had been eavesdropping they would have assumed that this was just how Mikey always talked to Mike and they would have been right. Mike had always appreciated the fact that Mikey wasn't intimidated by the gym's location, its patrons or its owner. Or as Mike had once put it to him 'you've got a real brass pair haven't ya kid.' Mike dissolved into a fit of laughing that seemed to mostly be coughing, when he had recovered from his fit Mike pulled a clipboard off the wall behind him and looked it over.

''I don't have you down again until Wednesday kid, what ya doin' here, miss me already huh?'' Mikey rolled his eyes and leant up against the doorframe as he glared at where he was pretty sure Mike's eyes were behind the smoke cloud.

''Yeah Mike, if I don't see your ugly mug, or at least what I can see of it behind all of that cancerous smoke, every few days then my poor little heart will just break.''

Mike snorted throatily at this and raised himself out of his seat with difficulty to check the sign-in chart resting on top of a half dozen folders that were themselves sat on a rickety old armchair by his office door.

''You looking for someone to go a few rounds with kid?''

Mikey smirked at him, the closest he could get to a smile without it resulting in the lemon-face look.

''However did you guess.''

Mike snorted at the sarcasm lacing his voice but answered regardless.

''That cute little princess smile of yours is dimmer than usual, what, did someone steal your lunch money?''

Mikey turned his half strength glare on him and Mike quickly glanced down at the sign in sheet and then out his office door.

'' You sign in and get changed I'll go see if Pete wants a rematch, if he's finished licking his wounds from the last time you wiped the floor with him of course.''

''Sounds good to me.''

Mikey replied glancing up from the sheet where he had scrawled M. Rawlins in his almost legible handwriting and saw that Mike had already managed to waddle half way across the gym, not even stopping as he threw a warning at Luke to be careful with the new gloves on his way to Pete who was glancing between Mike and Mikey with a mix of excitement and fear on his face.

5.00pm Cambridge, England.

''I'm home.''

Mikey called out at as he stumbled over the doorstep with several new bruises and another win under his belt. There was no response as he expected. He made his way into the kitchen and saw that even the housekeeper Petra was out, she'd left him a note telling him his dinner was in the oven and she would be back late from her date with her boyfriend Willem. He glanced in the oven and sighed when he saw what was in it, a huge pot of lamb stew, three years and Petra still had no clue what he would and wouldn't eat, even though there was a list of the three items he absolutely wouldn't eat (lamb, onions and sweetcorn) stuck on the side of the fridge. He trudged upstairs to his bedroom and threw his bags on his bed heading to the shower, hoping the hot water might help to work out some of the pain in his shoulders and lower back. As he closed the door to the en-suite bathroom behind him he completely missed the golden glow that was emitted from within his duffel bag.

5.45pm Cambridge, England.

He also missed the rustle from within his bag while he was drying his hair, the bag sat there while he went downstairs and put Saturday nights left over Lasagne in the oven. When Mikey finally made his way back up the stairs he was more than a little surprised to see his duffel bag lying on its side on the bedroom floor when he very clearly remembered chucking it carelessly into the middle of his kings sized bed. He picked it back up and put it on the bed going over to his desk to turn his laptop on and surf the web aimlessly for a while as his dinner heating up and so he could ignore the art assignment that sat waiting to be completed within his school bag.

He didn't make it as far as the desk before he heard what sounded like a bag being unzipped behind him. He whirled round quickly wondering who was in his room and what they were doing there and saw, absolutely nothing. Just the bedroom he had painted red and gold two summers ago during a brief harry potter obsession. Just to make sure he went over to his bedroom door, opened it and peaked out into the corridor. He was still stood in the doorway wandering at his own paranoia when he heard a gently thump behind him, whirling around this time with his fists raised in front of him, there was no way he'd just imagined it that time. It was just his bag though; somehow it had fallen off of his bed and back onto the floor emptying its contents around it.

His naturally paranoid mind instantly started screaming about ghosts and possessed duffel bags, he pushed these ridiculous thoughts away and crept over to the bag half expecting it to throw itself across the room at his approach, but nothing happened, it just sat there like the good little inanimate object it clearly was. Breathing a sigh of his relief he picked his school uniform up and chucked it back onto the bed leaving only his bag on the floor as well as two items that definitely shouldn't have been there. The first just seemed to be a blue sash, like the kind you might wear to keep an martial arts uniform tied together, except this one wasn't made of the thick fabric those usually were and seemed to have a long piece of untied fabric hanging off one side decorated at the bottom with frills. As he looked at the sash he knew he hadn't been the one to put it in his bag, he was sure he had never seen it before.

He sat down on his bed and placed the sash next to himself so he could take a closer look at the other item that had fallen out of his bag. It was some kind of scroll, if he had to guess he would say it was Chinese but he'd never seen anything quite like it before. It was gold, whether it was actually made of gold or simply coloured gold was unclear though, it wasn't much larger than the coffee table book's his parents owned and kept around for 'ambience'. There was two handles on either side of it indicating that it was supposed to pull opened. He must have just sat there staring down at it for the next few minutes, it wasn't particularly big or ornate, it could have been an ancient artefact or a modern remake but overall it wasn't all that impressive. Something about it seemed to be drawing Mikey to it though, no matter how much he tried to look away everything else seemed to be less clear and sharp in comparison to the scroll.

Finally he gave up on staring at it half-heartedly expecting it to open itself and reveal ancient Chinese secrets to him in a voice-over provided by Morgan Freeman, it clearly wasn't going to do anything, it was just a completely ordinary but oddly fascinating scroll. Finally he took a deep breath and picked the scroll up in both hands, nothing happened again, it didn't start to glow or transport him to an ancient magical kingdom, it didn't even weight that much. He found himself feeling almost disappointed, the sash and scroll had freaked him out so much and now they weren't even providing him with a reason to prove his paranoia. Someone at the gym had probably put them in his bag as a joke, there was probably a spring or something in the scroll that made it jump and push the bag off the bed…. but that didn't explain how the bag had unzipped itself.

Mikey shook his head absentmindedly, he'd imagined that of course, he must have unzipped it before he got in the shower and then forgot about it while he was in there, the unzipping sound he'd thought he'd heard was all just in his imagination. He would pull open the scroll and a spring or some fake snakes or something would come popping out, that's all. He gripped the handles and despite his self-assurance that nothing that he wasn't already prepared for was going to happen he couldn't brush away the feeling of impending…..destiny, yes that was the only word for it really, he felt like if he opened the scroll it was going to change his entire life forever. It was going to draw a line between his 'old life' and his 'new life', separating the two forever in such a way that he would never be able to return things to how they used to be. He pulled the scroll open hard and fast, recoiling in the anticipation of something happening but when he leaned forward and looked down at the scroll all he saw was what looked like old parchment covered in carefully inked characters, they could have been Chinese or Japanese, without looking it up online he wouldn't have had a clue, he pulled the scroll open further and all he saw was more of the characters.

What had that impending sense of destiny been about, was his destiny to figure out what the scroll said and go on some epic Asian-Da-Vinci-Code-Quest or something? No, that was just ridiculous of course; he'd just gotten himself all worked up and freaked out over something so clearly normal and unexciting. But if that was true then what had moved the bag (and possible unzipped it) in the first place, he looked at the sash out of the corner of his eyes trying to figure out if it had moved since he put it down next to him. Keeping one hand on the scroll so it wouldn't fall off of his knees he picked the sash up with the other, there didn't seem to be anything remotely odd about the sash, it seemed to be made of a fairly comfortable and durable material but it wasn't thick enough to hide hidden springs or anything of the sort.

He raised it up to his eyes to get a closer look at the material and missed the way the characters on the scroll where coming apart into their components parts, those parts slid into the middle of the page under Mikey's hand and became a mass of ink that flowed unseen until it had recombined into another image.

''Thank Dashi you finally worked it out kid.''

Mikey let out a shriek so shrill that even to his own ears sounded higher pitched than a little girl and threw the scroll and sash across the room as hard as he could. He managed to stop himself from jumping out of the window or something equally embarrassing but couldn't manage to stop his hand from drifting up to clutch at his chest where his heart was beating faster than it ever had. His eyes remained riveted on the sash and the scroll that the man's voice had come out of; the scroll had closed with the force he had thrown it against the wall with the sash resting on top of it. His eyes almost bugged out of his head when the scroll lifted itself up into the air and begun to drift towards him, he pulled his feet up onto the bed and scrambled back against the headboard trying to keep as much of a distance between himself and the obviously possessed scroll.

The scroll just continued drifting toward him until there was barely a foot of space between it and him. He had to slam a palm over his mouth to stop an unmanly whimper from escaping when the ghost or whatever it was controlling the scroll opened it up and unwound it until it completely filled his vision. Gone were the Chinese characters drawn with such beautiful precision, the scroll now showed a drawing of what appeared to be the head of a dragon? It was difficult to make out the intricate details of the drawing as it seemed to be showing a two dimensional representation of a three dimensional dragons head facing him, from the detail he could see the dragon had long jaws like a crocodile, with a strand of hair sprouting out of the edge of its chin. Its mouth was filled with sharp teeth, and it's relatively small skull held two very large but eerily human looking eyes. Growing directly out of its skull where pieces of ribbed looking skin that may have possibly been drawn to depict ears. The most disturbing thing about the drawing was the fact that as he observed it a small clawed hand reached up from the bottom of the scroll to scratch at one of its ear-like-protrusions.

Mikey tried in vain to push himself further into the wall in the hope that it might swallow him up and take him on to the next part of this nightmare, no such luck as the dragon painting just raised one brow at him.

''Your kind of more of a scaredy cat then I was expecting a Chosen One to be, your shaking worse than Omi in the face of an army of rabid squirrels.''

Mikey couldn't think of anything to say in response to this stream of gibberish but unfortunately for him his mouth was often not connected to his brain.

''I'm not shaking; I'm… vibrating, vibrating with…. Umm, intrigue?''

The dragon blinked in confusion at him and reached another previously non-existent clawed hand up to scratch at its temple, it crossed its arms and seemed to give him an in-depth once over.

''Well you don't seem to have bumped your head or anything so I'm just going to assume that in your world magic floating scrolls are uncommon and surprising?''

It took him a minute to realise that the scroll had actually asked him a question and was expecting an answer.

''As far as I know your completely impossible, unless your some kind of advanced secret Chinese technology or magic or something.''

He supressed the urge to pat himself on the back for managing to actually get that whole sentence out without stammering or trying to run. The dragon seemed to find this funny and let out a surprisingly high pitched chuckle.

'' Your second guess is right kid, I'm Dojo Kanojo Cho guardian of the Ancient Scroll of The Shen Gong Wu but you can just call me Dojo and who might you be.''

Mikey pointed at himself stupidly as if there might be some other guy pinned against his bed that 'Dojo' could possibly be addressing, Dojo nodded and pointed at him as if to say 'yes, you'.

'' I'm umm, Mikey, I mean umm Michael Rawlins.''

The dragon reached out a clawed hand and mimed shaking hands.

''Nice to meet ya Mikey, sorry to butt in on your life like this but you've been chosen by the Scroll to be the Dragon of Fire and leader of the Xiaolin Dragons.''

A Chinese symbol appeared in red ink over Dojo's outstretched hand that even though he couldn't read Chinese before he now knew to be the symbol for fire. Out of everything the dragon had said there was one thing that seemed to stand out amidst the general insanity of it all.

'' You keep saying 'the scroll' as if you're something separate than it but you're just a picture on it…''

A picture that of course could move and speak so perhaps that made his question a moot point, Dojo didn't seem to think so though as he nodded his head as if he had just been waiting for him to ask.

''I'm glad you asked kid, I haven't always been inside this scroll, 3000 years ago I met a Xiaolin Dragon named Grand Master Dashi.''

As he spoke his image split apart until it recombined to show a smaller full bodied image of Dojo with a long tail and a spine flowing down his neck, stood next to him was a man with a very tall bald head.

''Dashi had created hundreds of magically powered objects, some of which were handy as weapons while others were more suited to everyday situations, he called them the Shen Gong Wu.''

The image changed to show a variety of objects taking up every available piece of space on the scroll, some were easily identifiable, a pendant, a tunic, a statue of a scorpion, even a sash that looked unnervingly like the one that still rested against the wall across the room where he had thrown it.

''Originally Dashi created the Shen Gong Wu to keep the balance between good and evil when an evil witch name Wuya started to gain vast magical power.''

The scroll now showed a woman with long flowing hair, her arms raised to the sky as dark clouds gathered above her.

''When Wuya's powers grew too strong and even one of Dashi's greatest students, Chase Young, sold his soul turning to the side of evil, the Heylin.''

A young man in armour with hair flowing down his back knelt on one knee and raised his hands to a demonic creature who handed him a bowl, the man drank from it and stood back up turning into a bipedal lizard monster.

''Dashi knew it was time to face off against Wuya when she came close to conquering the entire world and enveloping the planet in ten thousand years of darkness, he faced off against Wuya and her army of rock monsters using his Shen Gong Wu to defeat her and her soldiers, when Wuya could no longer fight Dashi sealed her inside a magical Puzzle Box he had created to seal her away, hopefully forever.''

The figures of Dashi and Wuya fought against one another in what appeared to be a fierce battle with Wuya throwing energy from her hands and Dashi throwing lightning from a pendant until all of Wuya's stone golem creatures lay in pieces and Wuya could no longer stand, the drawing of Dashi produced a small box from behind his back which he opened, causing Wuya to transform into a small masked spirit and be pulled into the box.

''Why didn't Dashi just kill her, I mean if she was so evil then surely killing her would have been a better idea then sealing her into a box that she might be able to break out of one day.''

The image of Dojo reappeared on the scroll and shook its head at him.

''A Xiaolin Dragon never kills their enemy, there is always another way.''

Dojo seemed to pause as if considering whether to divulge the rest of his information before finally continuing.

''Even if Dashi had wanted to kill Wuya, which he never would have done, he wouldn't have been able to. Wuya was too powerful of a force of evil to be completely destroyed at that point; if he had managed to kill her somehow it would only have been temporarily. Wuya would have just been reborn into a new generation and wreaked the same havoc all over again, weakening her and sealing her in the Puzzle Box was the only option Dashi really had.''

The ink that made up Dojo split apart again and showed Dashi holding a tunic and a staff topped with a monkey statue out to Dojo who grew into a Chinese Dragon the size of a two story house and flew off into the side of the scroll.

''With Wuya defeated, the Shen Gong Wu disrupted the balance of the universe towards good so Dashi deactivated their powers and had me hide them around the world until a time came when they would once again be needed to restore the balance at which point they would reveal themselves. 1500 years later that time came, an evil boy genius named Jack Spicer got his hands on the Puzzle Box, the evil in his heart allowed him to open the Box and free a considerably weakened ghostly Wuya from her prison.''

A boy with spiked hair dressed in some kind of bizarre long gothic coat opened the Puzzle Box and the masked ghost Wuya rose out.

''The Xiaolin monks and I sensed that a great evil had been released into the earth and the Ancient Scroll of The Shen Gong Wu, a scroll Dashi had created to teach future generations of Xiaolin Dragons about the forces of the Heylin and the powers of the Shen Gong Wu became active. The head of the temple, Master Fung, consulted the scroll and gathered the Dragons of Wind, Fire and Earth to join the Dragon of Water in their training so that when the Shen Gong Wu begun to reveal themselves they would be prepared to fight those who allied themselves with Wuya and her forces.''

A small ink-Dojo handed the ink-scroll, a drawn copy of the one that was currently levitating in front of him, to an older Asian man who studied it. The image reformed to show an oddly round headed small Asian boy, a short Asian girl, a broad shouldered teen dressed like a cowboy and a Hispanic looking boy gathered in front of the older Asian man.

''It wasn't long before the Shen Gong Wu began to reveal themselves and the Xiaolin Dragons found themselves battling the forces of evil in all their forms to gather the Wu before Wuya, as with every Wu the Heylin gathered Wuya's power increased and the closer she got to returning to human form and ushering the earth into ten thousand years of darkness.''

Each of the figures was shown fighting a different opponent, a girl dressed like a cat, a huge bean with eyes and a mouth, the lizard like creature that Chase Young had transformed into and the human form of the witch Wuya.

''Not even when one of their own defected sides and helped Wuya gain her human form back did the warriors give up the fight against evil.''

The Hispanic boy held some kind of dragon like tail and flew through the ghost Wuya and a mirror somehow causing Wuya to become human again, the figures of the other warriors struck martial arts poses as the golem like creatures rose from the earth; finally the Hispanic boy raised the Puzzle Box and sealed Wuya back inside it.

''Over the years the Dragons faced many seemingly undefeatable enemies and hopeless situations, they had their Wu stolen, their allegiances questioned, but they always preserved against everything the forces of evil could throw at them.''

A demonic creature that seemed to be made of different pieces of armour and objects joined together by a fiery energy attacked the warriors, as did the massive bean with eyes and a mouth, Wuya in human form, Chase Young as both a human and a lizard monster and Jack Spicer who seemed to have some kind of hover pack attached to his back.

''Eventually the warriors managed to gather every single one of the Shen Gong Wu and seal Wuya back into her Puzzle Box and Chase Young in another dimension.''

The warriors now seemed to be ten or fifteen years older and were hugging, presumably in congratulations.

''A further 1500 years passed with the world mostly remaining in peace, new generations took over the safe guarding of the once again inactive Shen Gong Wu which had now been sealed in a vault beneath the Xiaolin temple. Just when it seemed like the world was never going to need the Shen Gong Wu or the Xiaolin Dragons to defend it form the forces of evil again an otherworldly enemy invaded the Earth.''

Three young Asian men with bald heads and an Asian woman looked up to the edge of the scroll where a spacecraft shaped, not unlike a whale, began to descend.

''The enemy was an alien race who invaded planets and stole all of their occupants magical power to power themselves and their weapons, the Xiaolin Dragons couldn't risk fighting them with the Shen Gong Wu in case they were stolen from them. The aliens had never encountered magical weapons with as much power as the Shen Gong Wu before; if they were to get hold of them nothing would ever be able to stop them again. The only way to insure that the aliens didn't get their hands on the Shen Gong Wu was to combine the power of all the Wu with their own power and open a portal to another world.''

The four figures were stood in a circle with their arms raised to the sky and what must have been hundreds of objects grouped in the circle between them.

''The Xiaolin Dragons lacked the power to sustain a portal with enough power to send all the Shen Gong Wu and themselves through intact so they were forced to turn to the only other people with the magical power necessary to sustain a portal.''

Joining the warriors in the circle were Chase Young and the ghostly Wuya, the portal opened above them and swelled in size.

''With the combined magical power of the now freed Chase Young and Wuya the warriors were able to send all the Shen Gong Wu to another world, your world, but they were betrayed by their enemies who tapped into the warriors magic and used it with their own.''

The figure of Wuya was sucked back into her Puzzle Box which threw itself into the portal closely followed by a leaping Chase Young.

''Wuya used all the power she could to change the spells on her Puzzle Box allowing her to travel safely through the portal within it and enchanting the Box with further power, Chase Young though was not quite as lucky, Wuya had stolen power from everyone in the circle so when he leapt through the portal it was with a dangerously low amount of magic. He may not even have had enough power to survive the journey. Their enemies' trickery had also unfortunately alerted the aliens to the Dragons location, their ship was on the horizon so the Dragons did the only thing they could.''

Ink-Dojo and the ink-scroll were now in the centre of the circle as the warriors pointed their palms at them, a different coloured ink emerged from each of the warriors, red, blue, white and golden brown swirled around Dojo and the scroll, the scroll unravelled and Dojo was sucked inside of it, it closed itself back up and threw itself into the portal which closed behind it leaving the warriors slumped on the ground.

''Knowing that none of them had enough magical energy left to travel through the portal and survive they combined not only their magic but their life energy, their chi, and used it to seal me within the scroll. They sacrificed themselves knowing that with the new powers the scroll would have it would be able to locate the Chosen Ones in this world and awaken them to their destiny as Xiaolin Dragons.''

The ink reformed into Dojo's face that looked at him with an expression that seemed to be equal parts pity and pleading.

''That's you Mikey, the scroll came to you which means it judged you as being the Dragon most equipped to lead the others. When I passed through the portal I sensed that Wuya had used the new enchantments on her Puzzle Box to grab hold of some of the Shen Gong Wu and redirect them to appear on the other side of the portal with her so I did the same. I exerted the power of the scroll onto four Shen Gong Wu and sent three of them to the other Dragons and one with the scroll itself.''

Mikey's head whipped in the direction of the sash that still rested harmlessly against the wall he had thrown it against.

''That's right, that sash is no ordinary one. Its name is the Third-Arm Sash and like all the Shen Gong Wu when you call its name it will activate its unique magical power, the Sash functions as a third arm that you control with your mind. It can extend its length and has a fairly high level of strength. The Shen Gong Wu spread across this world are all inactive and could start randomly becoming active again at any time but with the new power of the Scroll any Wu exposed to it will become active instantly. When you touched the Sash and the Scroll at the same time you showed yourself to the Scroll as the Dragon of Fire and activated both.''

Mikey started pinching his arm hoping beyond hope that he was going to wake up and this was all going to be some bizarre nightmare, maybe when he woke up he could write it all down and make a novel out of it or something. No such luck though, the pinches just hurt. The Scroll was still levitating in front of him and now so was the Sash. Mikey looked between the Scroll and the Sash in bemusement, Dojo, the Scroll, whatever the hell he was, he didn't really expect him to put that thing on did he.

''I can't do this.''

It was another fine example of his mouth working without his brains cooperation as he blurted the words out in a panic.

''I'm fifteen years old, I'm still at school, I've got my exams next year. I can't just go chasing around the world looking for a bunch of magical weapons to fight the forces of evil with, my parents wouldn't even allow it anyway, they're pretty protective when they actually remember I exist, can't you just make me forget any of this ever happened and go find yourself another 'Chosen One' or whatever, I mean seriously why on Earth does it have to be me.''

He knew he was just blurting out every single excuse he could think of to try and convince Dojo that he wasn't who he was looking for, that his must have been some mistake somewhere. The Fates must have got their threads crossed in this instance.

''No mistake kid, the Scroll used its magic to find this world's equivalent of the Xiaolin Dragons. There's only four of you born into every generation in every world and your one of them. I know this is a lot to ask of you but it's not like I can just go down to the local supermarket and pick out a replacement Dragon of Fire, you're the only one we've got and you're the only one were going to have until you and the other Dragons have kicked the bucket. Now, you might not like it but you're the leader so like it or not suck it up and do your job.''

Where had this sudden belligerence come from, Dojo had been pretty patient in explaining everything to him so far and now he was acting as if they had to get to get going right this very second or the dark side of the force was going to conquer the empire. Dojo seemed to notice that his sudden insistence had freaked him out as he sighed and ran a hand over his face.

''I'm sorry kid, I didn't mean to get all uppity with you but I can sense that Wuya has already been released. That means she managed to redirect her Puzzle Box to someone with a heart full of evil and a thirst for power, there's no telling who she might have allied herself with in your world. It could be someone relatively pathetic like Jack Spicer or it could be a powerful criminal or dictator in your world. There's no telling what the new enchantments on Wuya's Box have done, she might be able to sense inactive Shen Gong Wu or even the other dragons, there's just no telling.''

Mikey blinked wide eyed in surprise at what this meant.

''So there could be some warlord or terrorist or whatever out there right now targeting the other people you've sent Wu to?''

''Yeah, the other Dragons.''

''Are all these 'Dragons' going to be the same age as me?''

''Yeah pretty much, usually the Dragons are born into every generation around the same time, they might be a couple of years older or younger but they'll most likely all be teens.''

''So you sent a bunch of super powered magical weapons to teenagers that an evil witch and some psycho evil criminal or whatever are going to go after!?''

Dojo let out a sigh and had the decency to look ashamed of himself.

''It's even worse than that actually.''

Mikey let out an inadvertent sputtering laugh at this.

''How could it possibly be any worse than that.''

''The Shen Gong Wu I sent to the others are inactive, until they're exposed to the scroll they're pretty much useless, even if the Dragons knew what they were and how to use them they wouldn't be able to until you use the Scroll to activate them.''

''And where exactly are the other Dragons?''

''Two of them are relatively close, they're on the same continent as each other and the other one is on the other side of the world from them.''

''You can't tell me something even a little bit more specific than that?''

''Without active Wu on them they're harder for the Scroll to get an exact lock on, where were closer it will be able to point you in the exact direction.''

''And just how do you expect me to get to them if they're on other continents, I don't even have a passport.''

He decided to ignore the fact that he had pretty much given into the freaky little probably cursed Scroll. He couldn't just let a bunch of kids get killed for something they have no clue about and it's not like he could ring the police and tell them some kids on another continent are going to possibly be murdered by someone with an evil heart and a thirst for power. Oh where did he get this information, a magical talking Scroll from another world of course, oh the men in white coats will be over later to fit him for his straitjacket, yeah he could just see the conversation going down that route.

''You don't need to worry about transportation kid, all you have to do is hold the scroll and speak 'Dragon of' and then their element and it will take you close by to where that Dragon is.''

He looked at the scroll sceptically but figured it wasn't really any crazier than anything else he heard this evening. Could he really do this, go chasing down a bunch of strangers across the world to warn them about an unknown enemy who might be targeting them? Surely there must be something else he could do, maybe there was some way that the scroll could send a message to them or hell just send itself to them and explain everything and let them make up their own minds on what they want to do. All of a sudden the scroll shuddered in the air and it and the Third-Arm Sash dropped back down to the bed, Mikey scrambled to the side not wanting any part of them to land atop him.

''Bad news kid, Wuya's Puzzle Box just activated four Shen Gong Wu, here, come have a look.''

He shuffled forward slightly and looked down at the Scroll whose design had changed, it now had a block of Chinese characters on the left side with a small drawing of what appeared to be something shaped like a heart, next to this was a purple background with a stick figure holding the heart, as he watched the stick figure became animated and walked up to a stone statue and held up the heart which shone a light on the statue which then began to move.

''The Heart Of Jong is a Shen Gong Wu that can bring inanimate objects to life and even give them emotions.''

The small picture changed to what looked like an ornament made of gold with a clear jewel set in the centre, the stick figure raised it up to its face and suddenly a brick wall in front of it became see-through revealing a tree.

''The Falcons Eye, this Shen Gong Wu allows the user to see through solid objects and extend their sight far into the distance.''

The picture was now of what looked like a gauntlet shaped like a closed fist, the animated stick figure raised the hand the gauntlet was on and smashed it down onto a rock, completely obliterating it.

''The Fist Of Tebigong gives the wearer incredible punching strength, with it they can punch through almost any solid object.''

The picture now was the most obvious out of them so far, an ornate eastern sword with a wide twisted blade. The stick figure holding it raised it above its head and whipped it down to the ground, what appeared to be a strong wind current rose up and threw several other stick figures straight out of the drawing.

''And last but certainly not least the Sword Of The Storm, it's a Wu that allows the user to create powerful gusts of wind strong enough to knock down most anything.''

Mikey swallowed uncomfortably as he thought about the damage you could cause with the Fist or the Sword and how being able to see through solid objects might come in handy to a criminal or even being able to animate the inanimate.

''So whoever woke up Wuya from her Box has all of these Wu?''

''Yeah and it might not even be one person, Wuya has been known to work with more than one person before and so have those who she partners with.''

Mikey picked up the Third-Arm Sash and threw himself off his bed, he opened his wardrobe and begun to throw clothes out of it at an accelerated rate.

''Hey, what are you doing kid?''

Dojo's voice came from behind him, he glanced round to see the Scroll floating in mid-air behind him, Dojo's scandalised face looking down at him.

''You can't just run away from all this you know, Wuya and her cronies will probably just find you and..''

Mikey cut him off before he could continue with his unflattering assumptions.

''I'm not running away Dojo I'm trying to find some clothes I can wear to a country that I don't even know the location or climate of.''

Dojo let out a splutter that might have been meant to be words but was completely untranslatable as anything remotely resembling English. Mikey turned back around and continued his search.

''So you're going to help then?''

Mikey sighed but stayed facing his clothes; he didn't want Dojo to call him out on the look of indecision on his face.

''Yeah of course, I can't just let this happen when I know there's something I can be doing about it.'' At least for now, he added silently to himself.

11.00am Seattle, Washington, U.S.A

He was trying to drown out the old witch's voice he really was, he probably shouldn't have let her back out of the Puzzle Box when they got to the closed down department store but he wanted to make sure everything went according to his hastily made plan. He had figured at the time that it was best to have her with him where he could see her and keep an eye on her while he was working, just in case she tried something when he didn't just instantly obey her every command. Stupid witch, she'd told him herself that it took someone with a 'heart full of evil and a thirst for power' to open her Puzzle Box and yet she still seemed to think that someone of that description would hear her story and descriptions of these Shen Gong Wu and readily bow down to her, as if.

''While the Xiaolin's Wu are still inactive I can sense them from within the Puzzle Box, you can use the Box to go to them and take them from them before Dojo can use the Scroll to activate them but we have to hurry and get to them now!''

Her screech was worse than nails going down a chalk board; he wandered absently if her voice was that inhumanly shrill when she had had a human body.

''Will you shut it with all this 'we' business Wuya, were not a team and I'm going to do things how I want to do them which means carrying out this plan first.''

''WHAT!''

The screech really cut through him this time and he whirled round to face her.

''Seriously, shut up. I'm going to take the merchandise out for a spin first and then if they haven't already got it first I'm going to take only the Shen Gong Wu you told me these guys have that I'm actually interested in.''

This just seemed to anger her even more though as she floated up to his face.

''We must gather ALL of the Shen Gong Wu, not just the ones that catch your eye.''

He waved his hand in front of his face and pulled a face.

''How can your breath stink so much when you don't even have breath in the first place.''

This didn't seem to be the first time someone had mentioned this to her as she merely rolled her eyes, floating away from him to look across the street through the large fourth floor windows.

''And just what kind of ridiculous plot have you come up with that has brought us here.''

She asked him with disdain as she looked at the assembled damaged mannequin's that populated this and most of the other floors of the department store that had been forced to close following the recession.

''I've wanted to do this for years but I could never come up with a full proof plan that didn't require hiring a team and having to split the majority of the profits with them. But now with these Shen Gong Wu I'm sure I can pull it off.''

He smiled down at the Shen Gong Wu on the table before him that he had managed to fit so precisely into his plans. His smile morphed into a grin when his laptop let out a shrill tone not unlike Wuya's voice, alerting him to the fact that it had bypassed the firewalls of the security system across the street, the one that belonged to one of the oldest banks in the country, the kind with big vaults full of gold bars and security boxes full of rare jewels.

''I have to say, the fact that I'm going to pull this all off in broad daylight and get away millions of dollars richer and all before lunch, has me practically shaking with glee.''

It was true; he could barely stop his shoulders from shaking at the thrill of it all.

''You're going to rob a bank in broad daylight?''

Wuya didn't seem to be particularly concerned or reproachful; if anything she seemed curiously interested.

''Yeah, I am.''

Instead of continuing to shriek about hunting Wu the mask that made up her face brightened into a grin.

''What about all the people that will be in there?''

''If they've got any sense they'll get out of my way and if they don't then that's what the Fist and the Sword are for.''

She cackled, she actually cackled, and not even a little one, a full on, head back, tentacle-like hair wiggling, diminutive ghostly body shaking cackle.

''How deliciously evil of you, it's so refreshing to work with someone who doesn't spend all of his time building ridiculous robots and gadgets but actually actively works towards his goals.''

He raised a brow at her when he realised she was actually praising him and that she used to work with someone who built 'ridiculous robots and gadgets'. He was going to have to ask about that in more depth another time. He picked up the small jewel with the gold detailed edges and held it up to his right eye.

''Well, thanks I guess Wuya. Now if you'll excuse me I have better things to be doing than discussing how 'evil' I am with you. Falcons Eye!''

He had to stop himself from recoiling as he suddenly saw straight through the wall across the street, even though this wasn't the first time he'd used the Eye it was still surprising to see it actually do what Wuya had told him it did just by calling out its name. He focused his eye, causing the Falcon's Eye to focus in on the arrangement of security guards inside the bank. He looked over to the vault at the back of the building and the Eye just seemed to make the old fashioned wheel and heavy steel door vanish, revealing the riches that lay inside. He placed the Falcon's Eye back on the table in front of him triumphantly and tapped a few keys on his laptop, the banks cameras would stop broadcasting in two minutes and the silent alarm would shut down at the same time, if he was lucky neither would switch back on before he completed his heist.

Picking up the Heart Of Jong he cupped it in his hands and turned to face the mannequins crowding the room. He stepped onto the chair and from there onto the table; he raised the Heart as high above his head as he could and called out to them.

''Heart Of Jong!''

Golden light began to shine from the Heart, reaching almost across the entire floor space, hundreds of mannequins were bathed in its light and started to jerkily move around. Within seconds they had begun to march like soldiers towards him, with a few one-legged mannequins hopping instead.

''Well, they're not exactly the fighting force I imagined one day commanding but I guess they'll do, for now.''

Wuya drifted back into her Box with a chuckle, he ignored her and placed the Heart and Eye back in his backpack along with the laptop and Wuya's Puzzle Box, shouldering it he took hold of the Sword in his right hand and placed the Fist on the left. The mannequins followed him as he made his way down the stairs, when he reached the buildings door he turned and saw them crowded on the stairs behind him.

''Can you guys run?''

He had been expecting them to jerkily nod their heads but every last one of them that had a head opened its mouth and shouted,

''Sir, yes sir!''

deeply and loud enough to make his ribcage shake, those who were able then followed this up with snappy salutes.

''Well that's not going to give me any Chucky-esque nightmares or anything.''

The mannequins either didn't understand the reference or didn't deem it worthy of a response.

''OK then, I'm going to head out first and when I wave back at you I want you to run to me as fast as you can, is that understood.''

There was a repeat of the 'sir, yes sir' and salutes, oh yes he could definitely get used to this. No one on the street noticed him at first when he stepped out of the building; he got all the way to the edge of the sidewalk before someone behind him cried out.

''He's got a sword!''

He didn't bother looking back; the mannequins might mistake it as their signal and anyway who cared how these idiots were reacting, he had much better things to do. Raising the sword above his head he had to supress a laugh at the thought of the coming carnage.

''Sword Of The Storm!''

He swept the sword in a circle, every car passing past on the road was swept into the air by the powerful wind the Sword whipped up, people were screaming, car alarms were blaring, somewhere close by a child started to cry, he couldn't supress the laughter any longer. He doubted anyone could hear him over all the carnage but he really didn't care. The way to the bank was mostly unhindered by people and cars now but just to be sure he swept the Sword to the left and right causing everything to be blown far down the block in both directions. He ran across the street until he was on the sidewalk in front of the bank, he turned and waved and the mannequins came sprinting out of the building at Olympic speeds.

''When I say go I want you to run into the building and subdue anyone who's still moving.''

The mannequins responded with their now customary cry and salute. Stepping up to the wall to the left of the banks door he raised the Fist with a grin, pulling his arm back with a shout of,

''Fist Of Tebigong!''

He punched the solid brick wall and watched as it exploded inwards, the hole he had made was big enough to drive a truck through and more of it was still crumbling down. It was near impossible to see inside with all of the brick dust falling through the air but he could hear the screams of the frightened customers inside, raising the Sword he pointed it at the inside of the building.

''Sword Of The Storm!''

A slight circling motion of the point of the Sword sent a spiralling current of wind, not unlike a miniature tornado, into the bank. He pointed with the Sword at the gaping hole that was they're entrance.

''Go!''

Before he could even lower the Sword the mannequins had sprinted into the building with a fearsome war cry, when the last few stragglers had hopped they're way in he followed behind them. The mannequins were piled on top of one another; strangled screams emitted from the occasional pile led him to believe that they must have piled themselves on top of anyone still conscious to make sure they couldn't move. The Sword had really done a number on the innards of the bank, desks and pieces of masonry had been flung everywhere, almost every window had been shattered and you couldn't walk anywhere without stepping on pieces of paper, cash or small pools of rapidly expanding blood.

The path to the vault was difficult to traverse but when he was stood in front of the vault the fact that his favourite pair of shoes were covered in blood and dust really didn't matter much to him.

''Fist Of Tebigong!''

The Fist punched the vault door right off of its hinges causing it to skid across the inside of the vault in a shower of sparks. Pallets of gold, plastic tubs filled with cash, security boxes bolted solidly into the wall in long rows. It could all be his, with a little help that is.

''I need ten of you in here now!''

His shout was answered almost instantly as ten mannequins sprinted into the vault and stood to attention.

''Carry all of the plastic tubs into the centre of the room.''

They went to carry out their orders with a 'sir, yes sir' while he crossed the vault and raised the Fist level with his head.

''Fist OF Tebigong!''

Slamming it against the wall containing the security boxes it went straight through the one he aimed it at on the very far right of the wall, he ran from right to left, the Fist ripping through all the boxes on the row littering the ground with gold, deeds, jewels and antiques. He repeated the same actions on the row above and below until the ground was covered in his priceless prizes.

''You three put everything on the floor here into those bags over there.''

He gestured at the bags used for the transportation of currency; the mannequins began to gather everything into the bags as the others finished stacking the tubs of money in the centre of the room. The gold bars were all stacked on seven pallets against the opposite wall; he got into the space between the pallets and the wall and crouched down.

''Fist Of Tebigong!''

He pushed the bottom of the pallet as gently as he could with the Fist, pushing the pallets to the centre of the room proved to be as easy as pushing a shopping cart. When everything was stacked in the centre of the room in a circle he clambered atop one of the pallets and pointed the Sword beneath him.

''Sword Of The Storm!''

Rotating the sword in a circle beneath him created a vortex that carried him up into the air, he could see the current whipping round his legs but he went untouched by it. When he reached half way up to the ceiling he quickened the rotations of the sword and watched as the bags and tubs lifted into the air and began to spin within the now powerful vortex. The gold bars and even their pallets were soon sucked up into the vortex. He focused on the Sword and the vortex closed off at the bottom; there was a now a circular vortex beneath him with a pipe like protrusion of current that held him safely above the debris in the vortex below. He raised the Sword causing it to lift him higher towards the ceiling; before he hit it he raised his other arm.

''Fist Of Tebigong!''

Smashing straight through the ceiling, the debris that fell were whipped away from him by the same current that kept him safe within the vortex, he did the same for the next five floors of the building until there was nothing above him but sky and skyscrapers. He looked down and saw the rapidly shrinking red and blue lights of the police cruisers as he made his escape flying across the city faster than their cars could hope to follow.

Well, that's it for the first chapter, not all of the chapters will be quite this long, some will be quite a bit shorter and some may even be longer. I can't say for sure how often I'm going to update, it might be a chapter or two a week or there might be a longer gap between updates, I haven't typed up the second chapter yet but it could be uploaded by next Wednesday if I'm lucky, fingers crossed. I'm from the UK but a number of my characters won't be so if you notice some mistake I make regarding the way in which a non-uk character says something or names or the such then just let me know. This chapter is un-betad, if someone would like to volunteer to beta this fic then be my guess but I don't feel like it's a pressing necessity, might be nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of though :)

Xiaolin: Third-Arm Sash
Heylin: Eye Of Dashi, Heart Of Jong, Sword Of The Storm, Fist Of Tebigong.