Chapter 4: Rivalry of Envy
Dojo dove down to the ground and shrank back to his normal size as his nine passengers jumped from his back and landed on the ground. They'd landed just outside of Cancun, Mexico. Immediately, thoughts of late night parties and girls in bikinis started running through Rai, Clay, and Rush's heads. Rush couldn't help but laugh hysterically when Kim and Saya had to drag Rai and Clay away from the cities direction by their ears. Thank god I'm single, he thought. Julia, Elena, and Mimi ended up joining Rush in his fit of laughter. When Dojo asked Omi why he hadn't joined the other guys, Omi simply pointed to Clay and Rai who were cowering in their girlfriends' shadows and said, "That's why."
But, the gang hadn't come to Mexico for the sight seeing. They had a job to do. They were there to get a Shen Gong Wu called the Chimera's Breath. This Wu was a torch with a flame that never stopped burning. When the flame was blown on a jet of fire went shooting from it, incinerating anything in its path. A dangerous one in deed, which is exactly why they couldn't afford to lose to Jack Spicer or the Sins.
"Alright Dojo," Elena said after finishing her laughing session (Rush and Mimi were still going strong). "Point us in the right direction and we'll take it from there."
Dojo rubbed his chin as he went through his memories. "If I remember correctly, Dashi wanted to hide it in some ruins deep in the jungle." Julia was about to suggest that they head there, but Dojo managed to continue before she had the chance. "But, I was sick that week so he had to take a boat. So… the Chimera's Breath should be a few miles to the east and then we head straight down."
"But Dojo, that leads straight into the ocean." Omi explained.
"Hey, if you had to travel around an entire continent in a canoe you'd probably just screw the whole thing and chuck it in the ocean too." Dojo explained. "Dashi did have his short fuse."
Dojo perched himself on Omi's head as the group started towards the ocean. Omi was in the lead, followed by Elena, then Julia, then Mimi, and finally Rush. Kim Saya had disappeared some time ago with their boyfriends to give then the proper punishment. Rush and Julia were constantly joking about what the "proper punishment" meant. Omi didn't seem to get a single one of their comments, so Elena and Mimi had to explain. Omi shuttered as disturbing mental pictures began to enter his mind.
It had been what seemed like hours and they still had yet to reach the shore and the others still had yet to reappear. Conversations drifted from subject to subject until it finally landed on everyone's lives before they came to the temple. Omi and Dojo, having lived in the temple their whole lives, just kept quiet and continued walking. Rush told his same story about his life back in Africa: having graduated high school early he'd experienced quite a lot that the others hadn't yet. Julia told about her life back in Sydney. Interestingly enough, Julia had lived with the native aborigines far a few months. Elena said that back in Barcelona her father had been a professional bull fighter.
"A bull fighter! Wow… did you ever get in the ring with him?" Mimi asked sarcastically.
"Are you crazy?" Elena asked. "Those monsters would tear me in half!" everyone fell quiet for a time but the silence didn't last long at all. "So what about you, Mimi? What was your life like back in Paris?"
"Paris really isn't as great as everyone thinks. At least, it wasn't for me." Mimi explained. "I went to an all girls private school and my parents are dead set against me dating, unless he's a monk or something."
"I would've loved to go to an all girl's school." Julia broke in. when Mimi and Elena gave her confused looks, she quickly added, "I mean, a lot of the guys back in Australia are nice and all, but a lot more were just obnoxious, self centered jocks."
"Hey, I'd rather have thick headed jocks hit on me than have other girls hit on me." Mimi said. Elena, who'd been taking a drink from a water bottle at that exact moment, ended up spraying her drink out of her nose at Mimi's words and choking as she asked what she'd just said. "Oh yeah, there wasn't a lot of outside access at my old school, so about fifteen percent of the student population turned to each other, if you catch my drift. And Rush, you've got no right to make any smart ass comments here. You were in the exact same situation as I was."
The African boy gawked at the French girl in amazement. "How'd you know I went to an all boy's school?" he asked.
"Mind Reader Conch."
"Oh…YOU READ MY MIND!?"
"Hey, what else does a girl have to do on a Saturday night?" Mimi said nonchalantly.
"Hey guys," Dojo broke in, "I'd hate to interrupt your conversation..." thank god I'm getting this all on tape. "But we've reached the ocean and Omi need absolute quiet to concentrate, unless you guys want to start breathing salt water."
LOCATION UNKNOWN
"Envy!"
The shaggy haired teen appeared in council chamber at Prides call, ready to obediently carry out his superiors orders. "What can I do for you, Master Pride?" he asked as he bowed.
"Envy, I have received information that the Xiaolin monks are in Mexico, somewhere near Cancun. They've split into three separate groups for unknown reasons." Pride explained.
"You want me to go after them?" Envy asked.
Pride chuckled. "Precisely. However, as you may know, they've tried this tactic before. Wrath and Lust came back from their battles licking their wounds like kittens. Only Sloth came back in success."
"And you want me to follow her example." Envy said.
Again, Pride chuckled. "Exactly. However, I have specific orders for you. I want you to go after one of the smaller groups first. Use the power I bestowed upon you on one or both of them and then go after the larger group. That should make things a little easier for you." With that, Pride dismissed Envy with a wave of his hand. The teen thanked his master for the advice before disappearing to his mission.
MEXICO
Tropical birds scattered from the tree tops as Kimiko pushed her boyfriend up against a tree. She was giving Rai the "proper punishment" mention earlier; most of which included passionate and lustful kissing and slowly giving him what he wanted… way to slowly in his opinion. Kim had Rai pinned against a tree trunk and she'd just pulled away from the kiss after a good five oxygen less minutes or so. "You swear that you won't go after anyone else?" she huffed. Rai just thought that she was talking about ogling scantily clad girls in Cancun, but Kim was referring to someone in particular (a/n hard to figure out who that is). Rai probably would've been able to figure out who it was any other time, but he had other thing on his mid at the moment.
"I swear, already." Rai smirked.
Kim smiled at him seductively and said, "Good," before crashing their lips together again.
"Awe, isn't this precious." The voice came from the tree tops, breaking the once peaceful silence that the couple had been enjoying moments ago. "I bet Lust would get a kick out of this."
Rai and Kim broke apart and readied themselves for a fight. "Who's there?" Rai demanded.
A figure came down from the canopy. It was a boy about their age with shaggy blond hair who wore a pair of baggy blue jeans and a black T shirt with the symbol of the Sins on it: the seven pointed star.
There was no hesitation. As soon as Rai saw that star he rushed at the boy and tried to punch him across the face. Envy, however, managed to duck under Rai's attack sweep his leg under Rai and knock him onto his back. "That's weird. I thought a Shoku Warrior would know better than to rush recklessly into a fight like that… al well." Envy smiled at Rai menacingly as he raised his foot and slammed it against Rai's chest, knocking the wind out of him. "I've never been good with expectations anyway."
"Get the hell away from him!" Kimiko shouted as she summoned a fire ball to her hand. "Or you're in for one majorly bad sun burn."
Envy looked over to the Japanese girl amused. He seemed particularly interested in the flame she'd just summoned. He moved his foot off of Rai and started to make his way over to Kim at a slow pace. "Tell me, do you know why they call me Envy?" he asked. Kimiko remained silent. "Because, when I first got this gig I had nothing and wanted everything. Now that I'm with the Sins and can take anything from anyone." Kimiko cringed, thinking that he was going somewhere bad with this. "Including… your fire powers!"
Envy rushed at Kimiko with amazing speed, catching her off guard long enough for his hand to start glowing neon green and for him to slam his palm against the center of her chest. Immediately, Kim could feel her power being drained from her. She tried to break away from him, wanting to sever the transfer so that she'd at least still have half her power. But she couldn't move. Every nerve in her body had shut down completely.
Kimiko dropped to her knees. The teen closed his eyes and sighed as the power began to fill him, his black heart filling with the fire that Kimiko had been born with. Envy's eyes flashed open to reveal that they were literally filled with fire. "Now I see why this guy likes you so much." Envy said, looking down at Rai who was still lying on his back trying to catch his breath. "You've got… sorry, used to have a real flare about you." With that, Envy vanished with the wind.
As soon as Envy as gone Rai struggled back to his feet and rushed over to Kimiko's side. He knelt down beside her and wrapped one of his arms around her shoulders. "Kim, are you alright? He didn't hurt you did he?"
Kimiko just stared into space. She wanted to answer him, but all she could manage to do was make her jaw quiver. She wanted to turn and embrace him but she couldn't bring her body to move at all. "Kim…" Rai said quietly.
"He took it, Rai." Kim finally managed, "He took my fire away from me."
OMI, MIMI, RUSH, JULIA, AND ELENA
The group walked silently along the ocean floor with Omi in the lead concentrating on keeping the bubble they were in from bursting. It had been a while since they'd entered the water so they were sure that they were close to where the Chimera's Breath was. Of course, they would probably have found it by now if Dojo could give a straight direction for once. So far Dojo had told them that it was straight ahead, and then told them to turn around five minutes later; gave them three different directions at one time; and told them that is was directly upward. "I'm sorry kids." Dojo sniffled. "I must be allergic to this one."
"Tell us something we don't know." Omi grumbled.
"Hey, you concentrate on keeping us alive." Dojo snapped just before sneezing.
As the group pressed on, the water began to get darker due to the distance from the surface. More and more often they fount themselves almost walking into boulders, coral reeves, one or twice small sharks actually jumped through the air pocket that Omi was projecting. But all and all, things went quit smoothly, with the exception of Dojo constantly sneezing and changing his directions.
"Are we there yet?" Rush demanded after what he suspected to be an hour had passed by.
"Almost." Dojo sniffled angrily.
Amazingly, Dojo was right. Not much after Rush's question, Elena tripped over something and landed flat on her face. While Julia helped Elena back to her feet and Omi continued manipulating the water around them, Mimi, Rush, and Dojo took a look at what Elena had tripped over. It was a stick about a foot to a foot and a half in length with decorative carvings and paint on it. At one end of this stick was a small, white hot flame. A fire under water could only mean one thing: this was the Wu they were looking for. The Chimera's Breath.
Rush grinned smugly as he picked the torch off of the sea floor. "Way to go, Elena." He chuckled. "Who would've guessed that your big feet would've helped us out here?"
"BIG FEET? You're saying I have big feet?" Elena snapped. "Well, you'd better start running before one of these monsters is half way up your ass!"
"Oh, you went all 'Red Forman' on me, I'm so scared." Rush said sarcastically.
"It's not her you should be afraid of!"
A black blur broke through the roof of the bubble, grabbed Rush by his collar, and then went speeding back to the waters surface. Omi immediately took action by reforming the hole in the bubble and then launched said bubble straight up, chasing after Rush and his captor. The bubble exploded on contact with the air at the surface leaving Omi, Mimi, Elena, Julia and Dojo in the water. Floating a few yards away just above the waters surface were Rush and his captor, who they guessed to be one of the Seven Deadly Sins due to the seven pointed star on his shirt.
"I don't believe we've met." The boy called to the group. "I'm the Sin of Envy, and you are?... oh, wait, I don't care!" with that, Envy ripped the Chimera's Breath from Rush's hand and then tossed him into the water. "Now, I'm going to give you an off you'd be stupid to refuse. I'll give you back this stick and lat most of you go so long as the bald midget holds still for about ten seconds."
"Proposal denied!" Omi leapt from the water with amazing speed and latched onto the torch in Envy's hand. The Chimera's Breath began to give off a golden glow, signaling the beginnings of a Xiaolin Showdown. "Sin of Envy," Omi announced, "I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown!"
"Yeah, way to go, Omi!" Mimi called out.
Envy sneered in Mimi's direction. "Silence, mortal!" he shouted. Envy pointed his free hand at Mimi and the others and, to everyone's surprise, shot a fire ball directly at them. Everyone barely managed to escape by diving under the water. "How did you do that?" Omi demanded.
"Oh, that little trick. Well… let's just say that you're Japanese friend isn't so hot anymore. And if you don't understand that…"
"Yeah, I get it." Omi broke in. "You somehow stole Kimiko's ability to control fire. And what is it with people thinking I'm so dim witted?"
There was a short pause, but then Envy broke the silence by getting back on topic. "Anyway, I accept your challenge, oh great bald one." Envy laughed. "My Lucky Cricket against your Golden Tiger Claws."
"Agreed, but I also call a Shen Yi Bu Dare. My Reversing Mirror against Kimiko's Dragon Element!"
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me! If I win then you return Kimiko's powers to her." Omi explained. "And I'd take the challenge, because if you deny it, you automatically lose everything." Omi grinned menacingly as Envy growled in anger and the others cheered from the water below.
"Fine, let's get this over with." Envy growled.
"The game is dodge the lightning. First to be struck loses!"
"Let's go, Xiaolin Showdown!"
Up from the sea shot at least two dozen stone pillars, each perfectly cylindrical and arranged in six rows by six columns. A twenty fifth pillar also shot up for the spectators. The sky above darkened with pitch black clouds and thunder began to boom in the distance and within no time at all lightning was crashing all round them, but never striking the arena for the moment. Omi and Envy found themselves on opposite corners of their arena as the waters below began to crash against the bases of the pillars.
"Gong Yi Tanpei!"
Immediately, two lightning bolts shot down from the clouds, heading directly for the pillars on which Omi and Envy stood. Envy successfully jumped out of the way just in time while Omi vanished through the Golden Tiger Claws and reappeared a few pillars away. Both Omi and Envy were to preoccupied staring each other down that they didn't even notice that both of their original pillars had crumbled into the sea after being struck. The clouds flashed, signaling that two more lightning bolts were on their way. This time, Envy summoned his stolen fire powers to launch himself across the arena while Omi simply jumped a few pillars away. Again, the two pillars that were struck crumbled and fell into the waters below. This music less montage of jumping, flashing lights, and loud noises continued for the better part of five minutes until one two pillars were left and both competitors were almost out of breath. Again, the dark clouds above flashed, giving Omi and Envy a quick warning. Envy cringed, knowing that there were no pillars left to jump to, but eventually an idea crept into his head and an evil grin made its way onto his face. Within seconds, the lightning bolt came flying down at him. Envy quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out the small golden cricket statue and called out its name, "Lucky Cricket!" Just as Envy finished speaking, a humungous wave came up from the water and went right over Envy, blocking the lightning, and then reversed its direction and went back into the sea. "Ha! Whaddo ya say to that, baldy?" Envy called out.
"I saw karma is on my side." Omi whispered. Omi's final lightning bolt flew down from the sky just as these words were spoken. "Reversing Mirror!" Omi grabbed the magical mirror and held it directly over his head. The mirror absorbed the energy, causing the lass to give off a blinding glow. Omi then redirected the Mirror at Envy just before the energy was released and the lightning shot out of the mirror. Envy cursed under his breath as the bolt slammed into his body, knocking him off the pillar. "This isn't over, Baldy!" he shouted just before crashing into the water and disappearing into its depths.
SHORE
Clay and Saya watched the showdown from the shore. Kimiko was curled up on a rock not far away staring blankly down at the ground. Rai was sitting next to her, trying to cheer her up, get her to crack a smile at the least, but nothing seemed to be working. Kim just seemed empty after Envy stole her element. "Kimiko, I swear, we'll get it back. We'll find that Envy guy and we'll make him hand it over."
Kimiko just sighed and pretended to ignore him. Truthfully, his words were getting through to her and she wanted to believe that Rai was right. But something in the back of her head (more than likely common sense) kept telling her that they didn't even know how Envy took her element, much less if there was even a way to give it back.
It pained Clay and Saya to see their friends like this. Kimiko depressed to no end and Raimundo desperately trying to cheer her up. To think, while those two were being attacked, Clay and Saya were spending their time at a small, secluded beach that they'd stumbled across. They'd just spent the whole day lying on the sand next to each other, listening to the waves and the seagulls. At one point they both ended up falling asleep only to wake up in a rather awkward position. The day had been great for them, and they were sure that the others wouldn't rat them out for ditching them. But just as some dark clouds started to roll in, Kimiko and Raimundo appeared on the same beach, Kimiko having already lost her element to Envy.
"Maybe we should try to help out, Clay" Saya suggested.
"I don't think we'd be any help, Saya." Clay said. "It'd take a miracle to lift Kim's spirits this time. I've honestly never seen her this down before." Just as Clay finished speaking, the dark clouds in the sky began to vanish into nothing and the constant thundering began to die down. The next thing they knew, Dojo came flying overhead in his super sized form with Mimi, Rush, Elena, Julia, and Omi riding on his back. Omi was being cheered on by the others as if he'd just won a war single handed.
Dojo dove down to the ground after spotting the missing members of the group. After his passengers spotted them as well, Omi jumped off of Dojo's bake while he was still air born, landed clumsily on his feet, and ran over to Kimiko and Raimundo.
"What the hell's going on, guys?" Clay asked the others as Dojo landed and they jumped down from his back.
"Just sit back and watch." Elena said with a grin.
Omi slowed his pace down to a slow walk as he neared Kim and Rai, all the while grinning like a big hero. Rai looked when he noticed Omi walking their way, wanting to say now wasn't a good time, but Omi started before he could. "Kimiko, Raimundo, I have wonderful news!" he announced proudly.
"Not now, Omi." Rai groaned. "Kim's having a bit of a… what am I saying, it's a catastrophe." Ria got up and walked over to his pint sized friend, "I think she just wants to be alone right now."
"Really?" Omi asked with, to Rai's surprise, sarcasm. "Then I guess she won't be wanting this back any time soon." Omi reached into his sleeve and pulled out a small white orb that gave off a red glow and hovered an inch or two above his palm.
Kimiko's head snapped up after she noticed the glow from the orb and sensing that her stolen element was near. "Omi! How did you…"
"I forced Envy to bet it in a showdown and I won." Omi said proudly. "No thank yous are necessary, just take it back so that everything can go back to normal… seriously, take it. This thing energy is starting to make me light headed." Just to prove his statement, Omi grabbed his head with his free hand and started to sway slightly.
With no hesitation, Kimiko stood up and walked over to Omi and Raimundo. She took the glowing orb from Omi's hand, took a few seconds to take in the moment, and then pressed it against her chest where it slowly was absorbed into her body. Almost instantly, Kimiko went back to normal. The Japanese girl actually started to chuckle for seemingly no reason. She bent over and gave Omi a quick kiss on his forehead just to show the least of her gratitude. "Rai, don't say a word," she said before Rai could even open his mouth. "Keep quiet or you'll ruin it, if you catch my drift." Rai, knowing exactly what his girlfriend meant, didn't say a word.
"Ok, Kimiko's got her element back, we've got the Chimera's Breath and the Lucky Cricket, everything's as it should be." Dojo said. "Now can we please head home? I'm starting to think that I just have a regular cold instead of being allergic to the Chimera's Breath and I'd like to get back before night fall."
"I'm with the gecko." Rush, Mimi, Julia, and Elena all said simultaneously.
"GECKO!?"
(a/n) Gecko! I crack up every time someone calls Dojo that. I cna just imagine Dojo doing a geico comertial. anyway, onto more important matters. for those of you who got the wrong idea, Mimi is not part of that fifteen percent that she mentioned from her school. I only put that in there for a joke. also, if you havent figured it out yet, I do plan on having envy steal more of the dragon elements at one point or another. uh... thats all I can think of to say right now. later.
