A/N: Thanks for the reviews, guys! ^^ It makes me happy to see that people are enjoying my story so far! I'm having a lot of fun writing it, because the characters are just soooo much fun to write! I apologize for the wait - school has been killing me. XP But I hope y'all enjoy this next chapter! 8D
2. When Light Meets Dark
Silence enveloped the entire clearing as the two groups stared across at each other. A crow circled high above their heads, watching all of them stand absolutely still, as if they had been turned into stone statues.
"Do you think they have our powers?" Kimiko whispered, staring over at the wicked smirk on her duplicate's grey face.
"I reckon there's only one way ta find out," Clay responded. Raimundo looked over at the cowboy with a grin as Omi and Kimiko got into fighting stances. Clay followed suit by pulling out the length of rope he always carried with him, and Raimundo took a fighting stance as well. Dojo poked his head out from under Clay's hat, saw that the monks were preparing to fight, and then took one look over at his own duplicated self. He sighed, but didn't hesitate before slithering quickly out from under Clay's hat and growing to his full forty feet. With a roar that bounced off the surrounding mountains, the giant dragon sliced through the air, followed by the Xiaolin Warriors charging across the clearing. The duplicates all did the same, the same sinister smirks still on their faces.
"Let's show them what we're made of!" Raimundo screamed, and then sent a flying kick right into the chest of his own duplicate. Kimiko was shoved backwards by her duplicate but quickly recovered to shoot a blast of fire from her open palm. Clay lassoed his duplicate and threw him into the trunk of a tree while Omi kicked his duplicate right across the face. The two large dragons spiraled high into the sky and began a fire show, spewing flames left and right at each other while soaring every which way above the dueling monks and their duplicates.
Being so wrapped up in the battle at hand, the monks failed to notice the arrival of someone all too familiar. Chase Young emerged from the trees, an amused smirk on his face. The crow overhead dove down to perch on the man's shoulder as a beautiful woman stepped out of the trees. Wuya brushed a lock of her lush red hair out of her face as her red lips curled up into a smile of her own. Her wicked green eyes roved the clearing, enjoying the sounds of blasting fire and exploding rock.
"Not that I'm not enjoying this, but tell me again what the point of going to all of this trouble was again…?" the witch murmured, watching the duplicated Kimiko slam into the trunk of a nearby tree before quickly getting out of the way of the real Kimiko's foot.
"The evil duplicates will not disappear until the monks are able to defeat them," Chase told her wisely. "And even though defeating them is merely stripping them of consciousness, for the duplicates, defeating the monks is stripping them of life."
"But even you're aware of the monk's abilities," Wuya reminded him. "And now they even have a leader to look to." The witch's eyes turned to where Raimundo was struggling with hands-on combat with his duplicate, and she sneered.
"I am very well aware of their abilities, which is why I am expecting them to win this fight. We did not come and use this Shen Gong Wu on them to destroy them." Chase turned slightly when a quiet thud was heard beside him.
"You could've been a bit more careful with that Shen Gong Wu," Jack told him as he revealed himself from under the Shroud of Shadows. "You almost hit me with the laser."
"If it hadn't have been for my crow, not even the monks would have been hit with the laser," Chase growled at the pale teenager. "I thought you said it'd be easy for you to get this Shen Gong Wu."
"He says that for every Shen Gong Wu," Wuya stated. Jack scowled at her.
"I wasn't expecting Raimundo to be such a challenge," the evil boy genius admitted. "I was actually expecting Omi to go after the Wu."
"He is the only Shoku Warrior, you klutz!" Wuya yelled at him. "Therefore he is the leader!"
"I do not fail to realize the threat posed by the Dragon of the Wind," Chase hissed, silencing both Jack and Wuya. "Especially since he is Shoku Warrior."
"Then let's take him out of the picture," Jack suggested darkly, glancing over at where Raimundo was dueling with his duplicate.
"Taking him out of the picture, as you say, would not be as easy as you may think it to be," Chase stated, his own dark, cat-like eyes resting on Raimundo as the monk blew his duplicate roughly onto the ground with a strong gust of wind.
"For us, it should be," Jack argued, scowling.
"You have another task to complete," Chase snapped, shooting his cold glare in the redhead's direction. "The monks are now successfully distracted – if you wish to raid their vault, you will go do so now. And if it is decided that the Wind Dragon be removed from the equation, you will do nothing unless told. Is that understood, worm?"
Jack didn't look into Chase's eyes as the evil genius' scowl deepened. "Whatever," he muttered. He turned and disappeared into the trees as Chase returned his eyes to Raimundo.
"Wudai Crater, Earth!" Clay yelled, sending a ripple of quakes through the ground with just one kick. The earth ruptured and then began to crack, splitting into a chasm that was heading directly towards Clay's duplicate. But just as the advancing crack went in between his two feet, the duplicate smiled and slammed his open palm onto the shaking crack. He then bent his fingers inwards, as if he was trying to ball his fist, and the split earth was pulled back together all the way over to where Clay stood, dumbfounded. The duplicated cowboy laughed and charged, jumping over Clay's head to land behind him.
"Earth!" the duplicate yelled. His voice sounded just as Clay's did, with the thick Texan accent, but with some sort of metallic ring shadowing it. With just the one word cried from his mouth, the duplicate punched the ground right next to where Clay stood, and the monk's legs were immediately sunk into the ground up to his knees. The cowboy struggled to free himself from the earth, but he couldn't move his legs whatsoever.
"Hey now, that just ain't right," he complained as his duplicate jumped to stand in front of him, a sinister smirk still on his face.
"Judolette Flip, Fire!" The smirk promptly vanished from the duplicate Clay's face as he was suddenly blasted by an explosion of fire. Kimiko flipped by the real Clay, her own duplicate right on her tail.
"I got your back," Kimiko told Clay as she flipped past him. He tipped his hat at her as she kart wheeled away, and then proceeded to grab one of her duplicate's ankles and send her falling on her face. He laughed and placed his hands flat on the ground on his two sides.
"Earth!" he bellowed. He lifted his arms and then slammed his palms down onto the ground. He was launched out of the ground, freeing his legs, and when he landed on his feet again he kicked a boulder out of the earth and sent it flying towards where his duplicate was pushing himself to his feet.
Raimundo shot through the air after he blasted his duplicate into the trunk of a tree, and stopped next to Clay. The cowboy kicked another rock towards his duplicate before giving his attention to his leader.
"I saw you and Kim help each other out," Rai told him. "That's what we need to do. We need to switch on them – they'll never see it coming, and-"
"My duplicate wouldn't know your weaknesses like your duplicate does!" Clay finished for him, a smile coming to his face. Rai nodded, smiling as well. He then turned towards where Kimiko and Omi were fighting their duplicates off.
"Kimiko! Omi!" the Brazilian shouted. They both turned towards him, their duplicates down for the moment. Rai nudged Clay in the ribs, smirking, before yelling, "Switch!"
Clay turned and charged towards where Rai's duplicate stood while Rai headed towards Omi's. Kimiko and Omi were confused for only a mere second before they both smiled and charged off. Kimiko rushed towards Clay's duplicate and Omi went after Kimiko's. The duplicates were all caught off guard as the monks switched fighting partners so suddenly, but were so full of blind evil pride that they thought nothing of it.
Kimiko's duplicate rocketed a blast of flames from her palm, aiming straight at the oncoming Omi. The little yellow monk effortlessly washed a wave of water over the flames, flipping back to behind the duplicate's back. Before she could comprehend where the young monk was, Omi punched her roughly in the side of her head, rendering her unconscious and knocking her down to the ground. Clay's duplicate also fell unconscious after being shot straight through one tree trunk and into another behind it.
Raimundo stood, facing Omi's duplicate, and a smile came to the leader's face as his opponent summoned two strips of water to his grey hands. When the duplicate shot the rams of water, Raimundo caught the liquid in a strong spiraling gale of wind, circled it above his head, and then shot it back at the duplicate. His opponent's red eyes widened and he lifted his arms to take control over the water again, but was hit by the wind-water combination full force. Immediately afterward, Rai's duplicate was shot through the air and crashed right into Omi's, sending them both into unconsciousness.
The Dragons' eyebrows all rose in confusion when the unconscious bodies of their duplicates began to glow red. The monks stared on as the duplicates became nothing more than glowing rod blobs, and then a collective gasp was shared between the warriors when each red blob shot across the clearing and slammed into them individually. Each monk took on a faint red hue as their evil duplicate was returned to the original, and then a moment later the red glow disappeared and the clearing was quiet.
Overhead, however, Dojo still spun through the air with his own duplicate, both showering each other with flames. Kimiko ran forward with her eyes glued on the grey dragon streaking through the sky. She watched the duplicate's moves, got a taste of the pattern of his attacks, and then readied herself as he and Dojo began to race back towards the clearing.
"Wudai Mars, Fire!" the Japanese girl shouted. Her hands were encased by flames and a circle of fire surrounded her. She held up both of her arms, conjoining the two separate balls of fire in her hands, and shot them upwards into the sky. The circle of fire around her shot into the air as well, surrounding the other blast of fire, and made it look as if a giant eyeball of fire was shooting up into the sky. It began twirling in circles as it flew, and hit the duplicate dragon in perfect time. Dojo flipped around in the air and sped toward his dazed duplicate, and before the grey dragon could even see him coming, Dojo whacked him with his strong green tail. The evil dragon was sent rocketing towards the ground, and was already unconscious before making contact with the earth.
"Way to go, Dojo!" Clay cheered, pumping his fist into the air as the mystical dragon came back down to the ground, looking a little weary. Dojo shrunk back to his usual size as he accumulated the red glow like the monks had, and wrapped himself around Clay's hat when the glow disappeared. Kimiko walked back over to where the boys stood and Rai gave her a "way-to-go" grin and high-five.
"Very impressive performance, I must say," Chase Young announced, having moved across the clearing and now was only a few yards away from the monks. All four teenagers got into defensive positions, Raimundo automatically stationed in front of the others.
"Chase Young," the Shoku Warrior sneered. "What exactly is it that you want?"
A small smile came to Chase's face as Raimundo asked him this. "Such a predictable question," he mused, locking eyes with Raimundo. "Let's see now, if you can predict my answer...?"
Rai's emerald eyes narrowed as Omi answered, "You… will not tell us?"
"Very good, young monk," Chase replied, switching his gaze to Omi. "But there is no need to fret about it."
"If it has anything to do with you, there's reason to fret," Kimiko hissed, earning herself a cold glare from the shape shifter.
"I suppose you can look at it that way," Chase murmured, sliding his gaze straight back into Raimundo's eyes. "You will find out soon enough, Xiaolin Warriors. I can promise you that." For some reason, when Chase said this, Raimundo had the feeling that the Heylin sorcerer was speaking merely to him. The Dragon of the Wind scowled at the man in front of his team, and earned a smirk in return.
Without another word spoken from either side, Chase disappeared into thin air, leaving the monks with confused expressions on their faces. Raimundo stood up straight and stared at the spot that Chase had just been for a few seconds, before turning to his team.
"Let's get back and train," he told them. "There's nothing we can do to get that Wu now."
Dojo grew to his full size and took off into the air after the warriors had hopped up onto his back, and the last thing of the clearing that Raimundo saw was a very colorful bird disappear into the trees.
A/N: Whew! Writing out fight sequences like that is tough! I hope I did it justice, though, lol!
I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter! Lots and lots of action goin' on here, lol, which probably means that the next chapter will wind down a little bit. Or does it...? ;) Lol! Reviews are love, people! So please leave one!
(( Claire ))