Rising dragon, crouching genius
Chapter one- And you look so adorably desperate, when you're hiding you romance
By Shiva's Avatar
Omi's grin covered his face as he hefted the black book above his head. Finding this particular shen gong wu had been most challenging for the young monk and his friends, as they'd been forced to hunt through a jungle in southern Peru, with only Dojo's backside rash to guide them. It hadn't been fun, it hadn't been easy, but they had triumphed over evil once again, managing to get the wu before Jack Spicer even made his customary appearance.
"The house! The house! The house is on fire!" Omi sang indulging in a small dance, trying to copy what he had seen Raimundo do, after the other boy had mastered a particularly difficult kick-punch routine. Clay gave him an indulgent smile, while Kimiko hid a giggle behind her hand.
"It's, 'the roof is on fire', dude. The roof is on fire" Raimundo corrected with a sigh, rubbing a temple. The wind dragon had thought the hardest part about being a Xiaolin monk was going to be the training, or the lack of physical comforts, or the dealing with magical forces on a near daily basis … but no. He'd come to adjust to everything else, from the fact that he still lacked a bed, to the eight hours a day of training, to the confusing and often clichély named shen gong wu. He'd adjusted to it all, save Omi's inability to make a metaphor that didn't suck. He sighed again, as the smaller monk hastily corrected himself, and continued his mockery of a dance, waving the book above his head in delight.
Raimundo almost laughed aloud a moment later when the book was ripped from Omi's hands by a flying Jack Spicer. Raimundo was more then willing to admit he was a bit bitter at the water dragon's constant badgering about how he needed to be more serious and vigilant, so it took all his self-control to not burst into laughter when irony slapped the minute monk. Who could have known that without his posse of robots, their would-be villain could actually move with a fair degree of stealth?
"Heh, thanks losers," Jack said, flying as high the trees would allow. Then, without his normal barrage of taunts, he took off to the right, heading for a break in the trees, so he could make a quick airborne escape.
"Excellent! See how well things go when you don't waste time with your insufferable gloating!" Wuya said, grinning her fang studded smile as she hovered beneath him. Jack just rolled his eyes at her.
"Stop this moment Jack Spicer! That is a most valuable wu, one not to be held by your evil and most unwashed hands! I demand you come back here immediately and return it!" Omi yelled, shaking a fist at the fast retreating figure.
Jack couldn't help himself but turn around and toss a snide comment back, he simply had to reply to a statement that ludicrous … that and he resented the insult that he didn't wash his hands. Alright, so they might be covered in oils and paints every now and again … but that wasn't from lack of washing … no, that was the result of spending all of your free time building a vast robotic army.
"Do you even listen to yourself, you bald little dope? I'm the bad guy … remember! That means I do things like NOT play fair... And …" Jack's eyes hardened, and his voice raised a few octaves "I wash my hands a lot, thank you! YOU try building and maintaining over two hundred robot minions and see how clean your hands are! Loser, you probably couldn't even make a remote controlled car move with the remote in your hands…"
Wuya heaved a sigh as the serious Jack she had arrived with dissolved to become the whinny, megalomaniac child she knew all to well. She was keenly aware that had he just continued flying they could have made off the wu, but no … no, he just had to indulge in his catcalls. Therefore, it didn't surprise Wuya when Raimundo reached into his pocket, flipped a coin, and then kicked off of several trees to tackle the airborne Spicer. With another sigh, she realized that Jack's incompetence had just cost her another shen gong wu. She watched with an irritated frown, as Jack's propeller backpack gave out from Raimundo's added weight, sending both boys on a collision coarse with the unforgiving ground below them.
The two slammed into the ground hard, Raimundo's fall slightly cushioned by a screaming Jack. The monkey staff, mantis flip coin and book of exedon falling from their various owners when they impacted the ground, scattering in various directions around them.
Jack's screams stopped when his back hit the grassy earth, knocking the wind from him. A second later, his mind struggled to process what had just happened. Raimundo was on top of him … but not exactly in the way Jack had always hoped he would be. His rear was sore … but not from the activity that should have caused such bruising. Jack coughed, as he strained to start breathing again, as one single thought raced through his brain …
"Damn … Raimundo is HEAVY!"
Raimundo's first thought was to go after the assorted wu, but he hesitated when he realized that Jack wasn't moving. Unlike the monks, Jack wasn't known for his physical endurance or ability to take a blow. In fact, Jack Spicer, self-proclaimed boy genius was far better known for falling to his knees and pleading to not be struck, rather then suffer a blow he deserved. Realizing he was still half-kneeling on him, Raimundo hastily hopped off Jack, and gave him a worried look. A few seconds later though, the villain coughed, and lifted his head to give Raimundo a withering look.
"Alright, bet that hurt. Your pissed, got 'cha" Raimundo thought, as turned his attention from Jack to search for the troublesome wu that had caused all of this. Spotting it, he leapt over Spicer, rolled twice, grabbing the book when he came up from his roll. Jack, meanwhile, had somehow managed to crawl over, and likewise grabbed a corner of the book.
"Ra … Raimun …do … I … cha …challen …ge … you …to ..a …a …" Jack tried to say, still gasping for air.
"Wow … he really wants this wu…" Raimundo thought to himself, giving Jack a grudgingly impressed look … but only said;
"Whatever. I accept your challenge Spicer,"
Jack nodded in understanding, and sat down for a few minutes to catch his breath, his left hand still keeping a tight grip on the contested wu. He thought he'd caught a brief look of concern on Raimundo's face earlier, and tried to ponder what that could mean. Or figure out if it had been nothing more then a pain produced delusion. He turned to stare at Raimundo's face, trying to see if a flicker of worry still remained.
Perfectly tanned skin, blended flawless into strongly chiseled features, clearly defined by a gravity defying hairstyle that matched Jack's own. Strong lips were pulled into that smug half-smile Raimundo always seemed to wear, while a pair of emerald green eyes sparkled with impatience.
Jack felt his face redden a bit, mentally cursed himself, and turned his head to stare at the nearby trees … trying desperately to formulate a plan. Hormones aside, he hadn't totally forgotten what all this was about … he hadn't forgotten the power that the seemingly innocent book they were both holding contained.
"Alright," Jack said once he caught his breath and felt his blush fade, ignoring the lingering pain along his spine. "My monkey staff versus your mantis flip coin. First one to climb that tree wins"
Raimundo nodded, and the magic of the Xiaolin showdown began to take effect. Where once had stood large tree, about ten foot high, now stood something five times as big. That one tree seemed to become a jungle all by itself … a virtual mountain of branches and wood. Just looking at it made Raimundo's arms hurt.
"GONG YI TAMPAI!" both shouted, issuing the formal challenge.
Raimundo picked up his coin, and prepared to invoke its magic, when he heard Jack call out his name. Expecting a taunt, or some long winded rant about how he was going to lose, Raimundo tuned Jack out. Kept his focus on the giant tree in front of him, just wanting to get this contest over and done with.
Or at least that's where he kept his focus until his head exploded in a typhoon of pain. Jack, taking advantage of his obvious distraction had used the monkey's staff as the weapon it resembled, slamming his opponent in the back as hard he could muster. Raimundo flew forward, rolling to absorb some of the momentum, then shook his head to try and rid himself of the flashing colors obscuring his sight.
The other xiaolin monks met that piece of foul play with a chorus of jeers and boos … but were helpless to otherwise intervene. Even Wuya cringed when she saw the powerful shen gong wu reduced to play the role of a baseball bat in the hands of a would be thug.
Jack, ignoring all of them, invoked the monkey staff, and reveled in his new found prowess. Of all the shen gong wu, this one had always been his favorite, and with his new found strength and agility, there was no way Raimundo could beat him. With a primal scream, he beat his chest twice, transferred the staff to his tail, and then began scaling the tree with a skill no human could imitate.
"Come on Rai! You can't let him win with some dirty trick like that!" Kimiko yelled, trying to snap Raimundo out of his stupor.
"Yeah! You get that no good varmint!" Clay added. "Make 'em bawl like a hogtied pig in the middle of a bacon factory!"
Shaking his head Raimundo tried to get his bearing. He had a splitting headache, Jack was almost halfway up the tree, and his mantis flip coin was no where in sight. He scrambled on the grounds, knowing he needed that coin if he was to have any chance of winning at all. He growled as dug through the thick grass, until her finally spotted the wooden disk. Grabbing it he looked to see Jack almost at the top, while his friends looked at the ground in dismay, trying to hide their doubt in him.
"Thanks for your faith in me guys" Raimundo thought bitterly, studying the tree in front of him. There had to be a way to still win this … some way to beat that cheating rat. A jutting branch a few feet off the bottom sparked an idea, and Raimundo feverishly prayed that it would work. He climbed as quickly as he could to reach that branch, then carefully tested it to see if it would hold his weight.
"Raimundo! This is not a sitting contest! Climb! CLIMB! Get the lead up already!" Omi yelled, furiously pointing upwards.
Raimundo ignored Omi's eighth failed metaphor of the day, and put his full weight on the branch. It held. He heaved a sigh of relief, and hoped it would hold though everything he was about to put it through. He walked to the end of the branch, and felt the wood bend, still holding. Raimundo concentrated as he prepared for his only shot at winning this showdown. He jumped up and down on the branch twice, calling on his element to keep the branch steady. Coming down from the second jump, he felt the wood bend down just enough …
"Mantis flip coin!" he yelled, feeling the power of the wu flood through his body. Using the recoil of the branch, combined with the power of the flip coin, aided by his wind element, Raimundo felt himself soar through the air, at a speed he hadn't known possible.
Jack meanwhile had reached the top of the tree and held out an eager hand to retrieve the book. He hadn't liked hitting Raimundo, but better that then having the monk privy to his secrets. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a flash of color as something rapidly raced towards him. Had he simply grabbed the book then, he could have won the battle … had he simply plucked the floating book from the sky it would have been his …
But Jack Spicer was nor a warrior, and alarmed by the prospect of being hit and knocked from another tree today, flinching back seemed like a sensible option. Rather then be hit he cringed back, allowing Raimundo a chance to grab his branch, swing himself around it, and then land atop it. Jack saw his cheeks were flushed in pleasure as the monk's body stepped up to the challenge of conquering the tree … while those emerald eyes gleamed as the boy delighted in the thrill of it all. What had been one sided a second ago had transformed to a neck-to-neck race.
Jack lunged. Raimundo lunged.
Raimundo was taller by a quarter of an inch.
Smiling, Raimundo watched the scenery return to its normal state, the black book of exedon cradled in his arms, his headache a small price to pay for this prize.
Jack felt tears threaten his flame tinted eyes, and frantically forced them back. He wasn't going to cry here … there had to be some way to salvage all of this …
One look at Raimundo all but dashed those hopes though. He was wearing that smirk … the smirk Jack knew all to well. He was usually the one wearing it after all. It as that smirk he wore just as he was about screw someone over with some new form of treachery.
"I'm sorry …" Jack muttered, his broken tone far to low for anyone else to hear, save the nearby Dojo who turned to give the evil boy genius a questioning glare. No other words escaped his lips though, as he plotted one final plan … one last desperate hope of keeping his secret …
Though in his mind, Jack let the sentience play to its full completion.
"I'm sorry … for everything … all the taunts, all the schemes, all the worthless fucking stolen wu … and most of all I'm sorry … so very, very sorry … for falling in love with you … Raimundo …"
Author's notes;
Niaho all!
Just a few quick things …
1) Sweet holy moogles! You all know how to a boy feel welcome! Thank you all so very, very much for your feedback (I promise I won't disappoint you!)
2) This was my first attempt at writing a battle scene … ever … but I thought it necessary to have at least one showdown in the fic. The romance and angst come full tilt next chapter, so prepare yourselves (Hope you all liked the build-up :grins:).
3) The chapter titles are weird for a reason. When fully completed they will make a poem (my original goal was to put them in drop box, so when people went to go and pick a chapter to read they'd see it written there … but they're unfortunately to long). I'll make sure to include the entire thing in the last chapters author's notes … but if you're questioning the chapter titles, that's the reason they seem so "special".
4) I wanted to include some character motivation in each others notes (kinda like what I did with Wuya last chapter, but to a more in-depth degree). That's coming out longer then expected though … so rather then make obscenely long author's notes, its going to get it's own story (once I've finished writing/editing it). So look forward to that …
5) I forgot last chapter, and won't include it in any of the others but …
-Generic Disclaimer- I do not own the television show Xiaolin Showdown in any way shape or form.
--Anywho, that's all I've got for now. Thank you again for your reviews, and I hope to hear from you all again!
Thanks for reading! See you all next chapter!
-Shiva's Avatar-
