I disclaim Xiaolin Showdown and all it's characters, I in no way profit by writing this fanfiction.
(though, If I DID own XS, Chack would totaly be canon and there would be a LOT more seasons, lol)
hope you enjoy the story!
Chapter 4
Chase decided, upon seeing the wonders Jack had with the laundry, the throne room, and the play room (the mirrors sparkled as if they were new!), and now, currently, the dining room, that Jack, annoyance or not, did indeed have talents beyond that of robotics; he might not be as much of an inconvenience as a houseguest as he'd originally surmised...
He watched the genius from the balcony above as the teen sat up, finally satisfied the floor of the dining room was clean enough.
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Jack stretched, his muscles aching from the scrubbing, polishing, and dusting. Naral stared up at the Goth, who was now filthy from the cleaning, despite the various soaps and other substances he'd used to clean. He gave a growl of distaste. Jack looked down at himself, seeing the look he was getting.
"Yeah, I'm a mess, huh? I think I pretty much ruined the clothes Chase gave me..."
Naral nodded in agreement, his keen eyesight picking up stains from soaps and bleaches and small tears here and there.
Jack scratched behind Naral's ear, "I'm gonna go see if the storm let up..."
The panther gave a nod as the albino headed for the entrance to the citadel. Two lions passing by growled at the Goth as soon as they took notice of his presence.
Jack gulped, too tired from cleaning to make an attempt at escape if they decided to chase him. Naral darted in between the three of them and hissed at the larger felines, swiping his claws at them, giving a growl of warning, baring his fangs. Jack held his breath. Apparently, the panther must have held more authority than his maned compainions because they -reluctantly- backed off and went on their way, grumbling to themselves.
As soon as they were out of sight, Jack gave a goofy grin and outright glomped the cat, wrapping his arms around the warrior's thick neck. "My hero! You are easily the most awesome panther in the whole world!"
Naral gave a pleased purr at the compliment his charge gave him.
Jack took a seat beside the panther, leaning against the wall and scratching behind his ear "I'm totaly sneaking you a whole STEAK next time I'm in the kitchen..."
"Well well well. Look what the cat dragged in."
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Jack turned to see Wuya leaning against an intricately carved pillar. He relaxed.
"Oh, hey, Wuya," he said from his place on the floor, not bothering to stand, "What's kickin'?"
"Nothing much."
The old witch sauntered over, looking down at her former pupil with a frown "You look like the monks just mopped the floor with you."
"HAHAHA..." he said sarcatically. "Funny you should mention mopping, though. I've been cleaning since breakfast."
"I thought the dining room looked different...Earning your keep?" Wuya inquired.
"Just making myself useful and staying out of the way."
"For once in your life...she said shrugging, "What're you doing NOW?"
"I was gonna see if the rain stopped so I can go see if anything survived the fire," Jack said, taking off his goggles and running a hand though his now greasy-feeling hair.
Wuya took the dirty goggles from the boy, rubbing the lenses with a handkerchief in the pocket of her robe, "Don't bother. I was just outside. It stopped about an hour ago, everything's flooded. The Fire Squirrels are drenched and they're NOT happy about it. And don't even get me STARTED on the Man Eatting Trolls that live in the canyon..."
After inspecting her work, she handed the beloved item back to the Goth, who re-attached them to their usual place.
"Thanks, Wuya... Hey, wait! I thought Chase had you under house arrest after you 'borrowed' the Eagle Scope last week?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
Naral gave a snort of agreement, remembering the incident vividly. Wuya waved her hand dismissively at both of them "Oh, that old blow-hard Chase Young isn't the boss of me. Besides, what dragon breath doesn't know won't hurt him..."
"And just what don't I know?" came the rich, smooth voice of the overlord, who had materialized a few feet away from the three of them. Wuya whirled around, wearing a startled expression.
"Chase! How long have YOU been there?"
"Long enough..." Chase said, crossing his arms, giving her a look that screamed 'trouble'
"She's SOOO Busted..." Jack said, elbowing Naral in the side with a smirk. Naral bared his fangs in a grin, returning the smirk. The Heylin witch glared at them before laughing nervously, "Oh, would you look at the time? I need to go, er, tidy my room! It's an absolute mess..."
She scurried off quickly. Chase shook his head and turned to the teen, who was snickering with panther in a fit of hillarity at seeing the witch squirm.
"Spicer."
Jack stopped laughing and stood, clearing his throat and dusting himself off "Um, yeah, Chase?" he asked, hoping he hadn't done something he was about to be scolded/yelled at/beat up for.
Chase took a decidedly more casual, but still authoritative stance as he addressed the genius. "If we're going to see what's left of that house of yours while there's still ample daylight, I'd suggest we get going."
" 'We' ?" The Goth quoted.
"That flying contraption of yours was no doubt damaged from the journey here. Since it'd be a bother to have to collect you later if you fell out of the sky and broke every bone in your pathetic little body, I've decided to take you there myself. Besides, I'm quite interested in seeing the damage..."
Jack took the explanation with a grain of salt and without protest.
"Okay, but how are we gonna-"
He didn't get a chance to respond as Chase suddenly placed a hand on his shoulder and everything went black, tight, and cold; leaving a certain panther alone in the corridor as it's master and his houseguest vanished into thin air.
Jack felt as if he were being squished in a cold, clammy grip. But almost as soon as it started, it was over and the world came back into sight.
Jack winced, scowling at the dragon lord "You could WARN someone before you do that you know!" he shivered, making a face "Man, that was worse than Wuya flying through my head back when she was a ghost!"
The warlord ignored him as he looked around the property of what had previously been the Spicer mansion. Pieces of debris covered the lawn, a large portion of which was scorched from the flames of what had obviously been an enormous fire.
'Spicer was lucky not to have been inside when the explosion occurred.' he mused as the teen finaly noticed where he was, letting out a whistle.
"Wow. It looks even worse than when it was on fire."
Still, Jack wasn't really concerned with the actual 'house' part of the wreckage. As soon as he took in his surroundings, he immediately headed for what was left of his lab in what would have been the basement of a normal house. Dropping down onto the blackened stone tiles, Jack carefully navigated around charred beams, bars, and drywall, looking for any sign of 'surviving' robots; or at the very least parts with which to rebuild them. He picked up Jackbot claw, frowning at it for a moment before throwing it acrosss what was left of the room. "Dang it, it's all charred and melted...I can't use this stuff!"
Heaving a sigh, he made his way to the middle of the room, where a heap of bricks and wiring lay. Chase watched as Jack cleared the debris away.
"Do you require assistance Spicer?"
"Nah, I got it," the goth said, working his way through the pile much more quickly than the draon lord would've given him credit for. A few minutes later, Jack paused in his labors, a toothy grin forming as he found a tool of some sort.
"Hey, it's my favorite wrench!"
He hugged the soot covered but otherwise unharmed tool as if it were a teddy bear, even giving it a kiss, and placed it aside as he continued to work, ignoring the look he was sure he was recieving from Chase. Once it was finally cleared away, he lifted the tile under it, which was hinged. A cleverly disguised trap door. Leaning down, he heaved up a safe, untouched by the disaster that had struck the rest of the house, and began fiddling with the lock.
"Activate voice command system" Jack said, pressing a few buttons on a keypad attached to the door.
"Voice command active" a robotic female voice answered from the lock.
"Command 1-30. Open safe."
"Command confirmed. Input password."
"JSxCY"
"Password Accepted. Opening Safe."
The safe popped open with the grind of some gears followed by a thud as the deadbolts were pulled back. A look inside revealed the Shen Gong Wu he'd mentioned over breakfast earlier, along with a box labeled "necessities". Putting the 'Wu aside, he opened the box, revealing a spare of his usual outfit, a first aid kit, and a photograph of his mother in a silver frame.
Chase examined the picture as Jack grabbed the clothes and began to change out of the ruined body suit. Sylvia Spicer had light brown hair, green eyes, and a mouth with smile lines very similar to Jack's.
"So this is your mother?"
"Yeah."
"She's fairly pretty."
"Yeah. Samrt too. She met my dad at work. She's his assistant."
"I see."
Once Jack shrugged on his trench coat, he delightedly spiked his hair into its usual style with a glob of hair gel from a bottle, reaching for his eye liner.
"When you're done putting on your makeup Spicer, we have other things to do."
"Like what?" Jack asked, either not catching, or simply ignoring the goading use of the word 'makeup'.
"Like figuring out where you're going to sleep for one" Chase said, placing the picture back into the box.
"Oh, yeah, I kinda forgot about that..." Jack said, picking up a shard of metal and using it as a mirror as he applied his trademark eye markings with the black liquid.
"I imagine so, given you spent the majority of your energies cleaning everything in sight."
"Oh! That reminds me, did you like the lemonade I made earlier?" the teen asked as he capped the eyeliner, content now that he looked like himself, snug in his Frankenstein tank top and black trench coat.
"Admittedly, it was quite tasty." The dragon lord conceded, "You seem to know your way around a kitchen."
"Hey, I've lived by myself since I was 12, I had to learn something about cooking or I'd starve. I'm pretty good at it now. My specialty is baking. I have this recipe for cupcakes i learned form my gramma when i visited her last year that'll make you just DIE they're so awesome."
Chase gave an honestly amused chuckle at the idea of the technophile wearing an apron and ovenmits, baking.
"Perhaps I'll let you prove that at some point..."he muttered.
"Really?" The Goths eyes lit up at the idea as he gathered his 'Wu, placing them in the necessity box and picking it up.
"If I feel like humoring you," the everlord said noncommittally, placing a hand on his shoulder "Here's your warning," he added.
"Warning for wha-"
Jack was cut off as he was once again sucked into the cold, tight, blackness before reappearing just outside the citadel. He shuddered.
"Right, that...ugh..." he shuddered.
"You'll get use to it." The warlord declared
"There's gotta be a better way to teleport..." Jack said shaking his head.
"There isn't, I've tried" Chase admitted as the entrance opened, letting the two inside.
Jack reached into a pocket of his trench coat, fingering his favorite wrench, "Note to self, at some point, must build a matter transporter..."
Jack looked around the room that Chase had deemed 'his'.
It was a decent size with a high ceiling. It was also empty. Jack rubbed his chin in thought, in his mind he was trying to decide how he was going to decorate it.
"Wow, I've got my work cut out for me..." he muttered, scratching the back of his head. He cracked his knuckles, "Looks like I got some 'shopping' to do..." he said, "I wonder where a good place would be to steal a bed..."
"Why don't you just BUY one?"The overlord asked, sure he was about to hear some ridiculous excuse like 'because stealing is evil and cool'.
Instead Jack just gave him a look as if HE were the ridiculous one. "With WHAT money?"
"I thought your family was well off."
"No," Jack corrected, "My parents are well off. I was cut off years ago. I make money by selling some minor weapons of mass destruction to certain governments and getting scientific grants whenever I make "breakthrough" discoveries." Jack said, rolling his eyes at that last part. He was at least two centuries ahead of the rest of the world technology wise and it never failed to amuse him whenever someone thought minor formulas he'd discovered when he was seven was some major discovery that would 'revolutionize' the world of robotics. "It's kind of pillar-to-post though, robots aren't cheap. The copper wiring ALONE is ridiculous..."
"He's not kidding," Wuya, who was there as well, inputted, "I've seen him buy supplies that cost over 6 million dollars at one go without even trying."
Jack nodded, "Yeah, and that's CHEAP."
"You're exaggerating" The Dragon lord said, putting his hands on his hips.
"No I'm not, that's the sad thing. But hey, that's the price of being evil I guess" Jack shrugged.
"No, that's the cost of being a nerdy wannabe" Wuya said with a smirk.
"I am NOT a nerd!" Jack protested, "I'm an evil genius with a love of robotics! And even if I WAS a nerd, that's still better than being a powerless, old, has-been with tacky hair. Have you beengetting your fashion tips from Kimiko?"
Wuya gasped, growling.
"Why you insolent little WORM!"
Jack laughed at her outraged expression as she began slinging a slew of insults at him. Chase rolled his eyes at both of them before turning and walking out of the room, rubbing his temples in an attempt to ward off a quickly approaching headache.
"When you two are done acting like children, I'll be in the meditation room..."
Jack and Wuya turned and watched the Heylin lord disappear. Wuya huffed, turning to the genius "Now look what you did."
"You started it..." Jack said flatly, not really in the mood to argue anymore.
For a moment the two of them stood there in silence, not really sure what to do with themselves. Jack turned to the witch with a casual expression
"Wanna go on a robbing spree at the world mall and help me do some interior designing?"
"Sure, but only if we swing by the makeup department, I'd like to get some nail polish."
"Sounds like a plan" Jack agreed, "I need to stock up on hair gel and eyeliner anyway...OH! Hey Wuya, how about we do each other's nails when we're done setting up my room, I've always wondered how I'd look with black nail polish..."
Wuya laughed, putting a hand on Jack shoulder as they walked down the hall, "You're such a girl Jack."
"There's nothing wrong with looking good. I LIKE having manicures."
"Why, because they make you feel pretty?" Wuya teased.
Jack elbowed her playfully, "Shut up..."
End of Chapter 4
