A/N: I'm looking for betareader. Or at least waiting for people telling me, how many times I managed to do something hilarious with English. I wont bite or grab my toys and walk away, I really need the information to get better.
Chapter 2
From afar
Like the first time, Jack managed to snatch Mantis Flipcoin before Xiaolin monks showed up. This time he decided to back off, simply jumping into his plane rather staying on the spot to gloat. He got now bigger fish to fry. He was improvising and that learning magic stuff just happened to fell out of his mouth. But Wuya agreed to teach him anyway, even if she found the idea rather hilarious. Even if shooting fire out of his hands and other stuff he saw in other world would be out of Jack reach, he would still at least know this time what was going on and how to save his life. It was something. He remember way to well how weak and useless he always fell when Chase Young or any another villain was on the scene, with how much ease the Xiaolin kids were able to take him down. He really needed everything he could get just to feel safe.
"I feel another one!" Wuya announced, turning away from the window. She really liked to watch the ground under them when they were flying, probably enjoying being so high over everything else.
"That soon?" Jack raised eyebrows. "So, where we're going now?"
"Not far," Wuya answered.
"Can you show me on the map, or something? It would make piloting easier." Jack proposed and pushed several buttons. Panel next to the second pilot seat beeped and the tablet with electronic map on it ejected from under it.
"We are moving with decent speed," the witch eyed him, than the map with slight grimace on her face.
"But we are not the only ones in the skies." Jack sighed, when she just looked at him, not really understanding what his deal was. "Many people are using flying machines to move around the globe. And flying around without license is pretty illegal."
"Are you afraid, my boy?" she chuckled.
"It depends," Jack shrugged and his expression darkened. "Crossing lines with public transportation won't be that bad. But bumping into military..."
"Aren't you overdramatic here?"
"This is a small machine, Wuya. They can easily shot me from the ground. And that just for crossing invisible border in the sky."
Wuya was silent for a moment.
"You people definitely overcomplicate things." She finally said. then looked at the map, trying to picture the image of Shen Gong Wu in her mind.
"It just happened to be a very strange times." Jack smiled slightly, trying to force his demons away. He was flying around for years and nobody even cached him. He just preferred to be more careful than before. Just because.
"Somewhere around there," Wuya waved at one point of the map. "Through to tell it for sure..."
"We need to fly around that localization anyway" Jack nodded. "But at least now I can choose the best way to go there. We can work on it later."
"Later?" Wuya snorted. "Do you really thing, I'm in need or more practice?!"
"No, not you!" He protested quickly. "I get it is difficult! Hell, I'm surprised that you can read maps so well. That long ago not many could even comprehend something like that."
Wuya eyed him again, but she stopped looking mad. For an ancient being, she was actually pretty easy to butter up. Through the reading map was impressive skill. For people of his age it was pretty natural, taught in school from early on, but in the ancient times for most maps looked just like pretty, but irrational scribbles.
"Anyway," he started again. "Can you tell me some more about the Heylin?"
"Heylin is the name for evil forces of the world. What else is there to know?"
"A lot?" He shrugged. "I mean, here is some sort of magic in the whole business, am I right?"
"Oh, such a bright brat you are!" Wuta rolled her eyes.
"No, seriously!" Jack chuckled a little. "The Shen Gong Wu were made by some guy on the Xiaolin, side, right?"
"Indeed. By no one else than Grandmaster Dashi, a man who imprisoned me for all these years by mere luck!"
"So, Xiaolin make magical doohickeys. What is Heylin deal?" He already knew a lot, but to get to the interesting part, he needed to force Wuya to talk. Besides, it was pretty funny – just watching her reactions – and it was taking his mind out of the whole military deal. "They are doing some sort of black magic? Or use elements...?"
"Don't be a fool!" she barked. "Xiaolin Dragons are in control of four elements from thousands of years!"
"Seriously?" Jack blinked. "Thousands?"
"The conflict is much older than stories about Dashi," the witch said. "But the elements were always servants of the Xiaolin, while the Heylin simply force universe to obey."
"Seriously?" he shook his head. That, was definitely new.
"We force unnatural into existence. We make powers of the world listen to our wishes and breaking the laws."
"Sounds kind of like teenager on the loose."
"No, you're just stupid."
"Do you think you really are supposed to say nasty thing to only one person in the world who can help you?" Jack raised eyebrow.
"Just shut up and fly this vehicle of yours. We're getting closer."
xxx
"It is most disgraceful that somebody managed to take first Shen Gong Wu before us" Omi was rambling for some time now and it started to get on nerves of rest of the group. Sure, they knew it was quite a great quest and sure it wasn't that good when somebody managed to get the Wu before them, but things happens.
"But who could do something like that?" Kimiko looked at Dojo. "Because not many even know about the Shen Gong Wu, right?"
"Look, I don't know" the dragon grimaced. "Pretty much everyone would be able to use the Shen Gong Wu. All you need is to call its name. "
"That's all?" The girl blinked.
"'Knowing the name seems to be a tiny little problem." Clay scratched his head under the hat. "You know, those items don't have name written on them, right?"
"Of course not!"
"See? So even if somebody took it by mistake, he won't use it." The girl smiled happily. "Problem solved!"
"Why do I have feeling it is not going to be so easy?" Raimundo looked at Dojo.
"Because you're right. "The dragon sighed. "You see, we are gathering them for a reason. Until now, the balance between the forces of good and evil was well... balanced. But something happened and Wu reacted to it. "
"What are you saying my friend is that some evildoer currently is a danger for entire world! We should seek him and defeat him, before more Shen Gong Wu will end in his evil claws!" Omi raised his hand high, while standing straight and proud, proclaiming his personal war or everything, that wasn't good.
"Yeah, sure" Raimundo rolled eyes. "And where are you going to find that evil dude?"
"I am going to..." Omi blinked. "I have no idea where I am going to seek this evil."
Brazilian boy snickered to that.
"I reckon' if somebody other than us is looking for the Wu, then he should be where another Wu is located. We just need to be a bit faster than last time."
"Sounds like a plan." Kimiko nodded.
"Well, good you have one, because I'm just feeling something...!" Dojo shrugged. "And we are not that far away either!"
"How convenient!" Raimundo smirked, but climbed on the back of the dragon to continue their hunt.
"What else can you tell us about that great evil?" Omi asked, when they were flying for a few minutes.
"I don't know much, kid, "Dojo would shrug if he could. "Master Fung thing it was Wuya, who was set free... but it is impossible. She was imprisoned by Dashi himself!"
"Well, somebody could free her from wherever she was..." Kimiko shrugged.
"A woman?" Omi looked at Dojo not sure if he heard him right. "But women are frail and definitely not a warriors, why should we be afraid of a woman?"
"Hey!" Kimiko protested. "Do you wanna to try your own flying skills?!"
"Woah, easy there!" Clay slightly raised his voice. "No reason to be so offensive, Omi!"
"But..."
"No but, that really wasn't nice. You don't just run around and say things like that to people!"
"But it is truth! I read it in a book!" Omi protested.
"And how old was that book, smartass?" Raimundo snorted.
"Whatever!" Kimiko grunted. "People wrote all sort of stupid in the books and they are continuing on doing that."
"But... its books! They are supposed to tell only the truth!"
"Sorry little buddy, but the world don't work like that." Clay patted Omi on the head.
"Yeah, they are right, bud" Dojo eyed them. "Anyway, Wuya isn't just a random witch, she's one of the most powerful on the Heylin side. You know, the bad guys."
"She was that dangerous?"
"Why else Dashi would close her in that puzzlebox?"
"Puzzlebox?" Raimundo raised eyebrows almost as high as his hairline. "Seriously?"
"Alright, he had quite a sense of humor. "
"Guess she's quite mad after something like that." Clay mumbled. "I know I would be."
They found the Wu after a few hour of searching the area and it was rather uneventful mission. Boring, to tell the truth, since the location where the Two Ton Tunic has been hidden was small city without anything spectacular about it. Then again, the Shen Gong Wu wasn't anything special at all too.
"It looks like very, very ugly t–shirt." Kimiko grimaced when they finally managed to spot the all–powerful artifact.
"I'm with you on that one. " Raimundo nodded, parody of wise expression on his face. "It looks like the stuff old people are wearing. No surprise than nobody else was interesting in looking for it."
"I would be careful with making my decision about it right now." Clay shrugged. "Maybe somebody just don't have fast enough transportation?"
"I prefer to think that somebody just lucked out with Mantis coin." Kimiko said, making sure that her hairpins were in their place. Flying around the world on the dragon's back might be pretty funny experience, but her hair hated strong winds, ant there were plenty of those up in the air. And today she was wearing one of her favorite wigs to make thing worse. It would be really awful, if the thing just fell off during the ride, no mention the embarrassing factor.
"We should bring the Shen Gong Wu to the temple at once!"
"I can hear yo without all that screaming, little guy."
They grabbed the tunic and with happily chit-chat climbed back on the dragons back. No one spotted two figures which were watching them from afar, one floating in the air, the second one standing still on one of the rooftops, with long black coat floating in the wind.
xxx
"Why are you just standing here, fool?" barked Wuya. "Go there and get the Shen Gong Wu before the monks do!"
"They're already there, Wuya" Jack shrugged. "And I'm no warrior, in hand to hand even with Mantis Flipcoin I would hit the ground in mere seconds. "
"So you just decided to let them win?"
"For now" he smirked. "Because they are going to bring the Tunic to the next Shen Gong Wu, aren't they? And we will be waiting"
"You just said that in the fight you're useless."
"in the fight, yes" he agreed. "But in the Showdown? Wuya, I'm going to totally own them. Besides, you promised to teach me."
"So, this is how you're going to play it?" she asked. "Force me to teach you, because otherwise you're just going to ignore the Shen Gong Wu?"
"You may think whatever you like, Wuya."
Because, seriously. Getting his ass kicked wasn't really high on Jacks list of priorities. Besides, the two ton Tunic was completely useless to him. No sense in wasting energy on things that he didn't need. And he didn't really know how to act among the monks either, he needed more time to think it over. They were not the same people that Jack remembered. The Japanese girl wasn't the same one that helped Jack out of military facility even if they shared face and voice, and name...
He shook his head, and Wuya send him rather strange look.
"Whatever" he said. "Just lets go, ok? I promise, next one is ours."
"I'm going to keep you on this promise" she warned, but flew into the plane without further complains.
They flew for quite some time in silence, each one in its own thoughts.
Finally, Wuya decided to speak. It was so suddenly, that jack jumped in his seat, completely surprised.
"If you want to learn, land this vehicle. We don't have anything interesting to do anyway."
Jack blinked, then nodded and obediently took the plane to the ground.
They were in the middle of nothing, no civilization in sight, just huge grass terrain, flat as board, with cerulean skies over it. It was quite pretty, Jack decided, looking around. Quite silent to. Nothing around, just sound of his own breathe and from time to time crack from vehicle cooling down after the flight.
"You sure your fling toy isn't going to break?" Wuya looked at the plane with suspicion in her eyes.
"No, it's just hot metal." He smiled. "When we get back home I might check thing or two, but it is pretty safe to use for quite few months from now."
"Well, it is your own body which would be annihilated in explosion, do as you wish" ghostly witch shrugged.
The lesson in Heylin magic was rather underwhelming. No fireworks, no fire shooting in the air, no breaking the surface of the ground. Just sitting there in the grass, breathing deeply and trying to get oneself mind blank.
"You sure this isn't some monk stuff?" Jack asked after awhile.
"Silence!" Wuya snapped. "The Xiaolon and Heilin arts are much more similar to each other than one would think. You need learn how to control your own mind before you even try grasp the other powers."
"I control my brain pretty well, thanks" Jack said, feeling a little bit hurt on the inside. Power of his mind was one thing he was sure of. He was a genius after all, he was able to build his own plane and army of robots, and he was barely old enough to drive.
"Is that so?" Wuya smiled gleefully. "Then why it is you're still lonely in your dark basement instead of ruling the world, or at least lead the nation to greatness? Why you're just that odd kind and not one people are wary of?"
"I'm a teenager, Wuya" Jack rolled his eyes. "Teens do not lead people anywhere.
"So now you're saying that you're just mediocre kid, Jack?"
"I didn't...!"
"ah, but you did!" she laughed. "I'm able to lead your mind wherever I like, Jack. You're weak not only as a warrior. You lack discipline, you lack control. Without it Heylin magic would simply take over and burn you into a crisp."
Jack swallowed.
That hurt even more, especially he knew she was right. It was more than just easy to distract him and the Xiaolin monks use it to their advantage more than just once. He couldn't even work on single project at time, because his mind was always wandering, always looking for new interesting things and simply throwing ideas away after finding more interesting ones. His carelessness had lead him more than once to the failure and finally forced him to flee as far away as it was possible. Sure, he could create the whole machine and run away yet again, but it wouldn't lead to anything at all.
He needed a plan, he needed to think his situation through. He needed to keep himself away from the whole military mess. He need to get better.
"Yeah" he admitted finally, smirking under his nose. "I'm worthless right now. But I won't just quit. I'm not quitter. I am going to get over it. I always do."
"Ha." Wuya smiled, watching him like some sort of a hawk, floating right in front of him.
"So, how do you do it?" He asked. "How do you make your mind blank?"
"You're an idiot" he shook her head. It looked rather silly in her ghost form. "Clear mind is not the same think as blank one. You do not want to stop thinking it would be simply foolish to do so."
"Then what am I supposed to do?!" he took his goggles and threw it on the grass with fury. "I don't get it!"
"This is not something you could learn overnight, Jack."
"Same thing they said about theoretical math" he rolled his eyes. "And look where I'm now, I'm building my own planes!"
"Patience you must learn too" Wuya sighed.
"Whatever you say, master Yoda" Jack snickered.
"What did you call me?"
"I'm not the only one who need to learn thing or two" he smiled, feeling a little better, even if Wuya lacking in popcultural references was because she was imprisoned for the last fifteen hundred years.
Jack breathed deeply and let his mind simply wander. If he could not force it to shut down - and if trying to do so was as stupid as the witch said it was - then he could at least check what his own brain wanted from him. He actually never tried to just sit on his ass, he was always working, always doing something, several things at once, mathematical calculations dancing beneath his eyes while designing new creations with cold metal under his fingers. Silence was something entirely new to him. But how he was supposed to switch his mind from chaos of entropy and thousands thoughts at once to the some sort of Jedi Code?
How in the hell the monks was able to do it?