A/N: Sorry for the wait! Been getting settled into my new home and looking for a new job. Here's the next chapter. I don't own Xiaolin Showdown.
"Is it just me, or was that way too easy?" Kimiko asked. "I mean, I know Jack's been scraping the bottom of the barrel for awhile now, but he usually at least tries to put up a fight!"
"Kimiko is correct," Omi said, looking suspicious. "I believe that Jack Spicer may be attempting to run the cotton over our heads."
"Omi, seriously, you have got to be doing that on purpose!" Raimundo said, amazed at how badly Omi could mess up slang.
"Reckon we oughta check the Wu? Make sure they work?"
"A very wise decision, brother Clay," said Ping Pong. "Might I suggest we do that before we return to the Xiaolin temple?"
Jermaine reached into their sack of retrieved Shen Gong Wu and pulled out the Changing Chopsticks. "Changing Chopsticks!" he said, activating them.
He shrank down to the size of a grain of rice, as should have happened with the Changing Chopsticks. Using them again, he returned to his full size.
"They seem real enough to me," he said.
"Good enough for me!" Raimundo responded. "Let's head back to the temple."
Meanwhile, Jack Spicer laughed evilly, as he was wont to do. After having just lost all of the Shen Gong Wu he had stolen from the Xiaolin monks, what could Jack possibly have to laugh about? Why, it's simple—he hadn't lost all of the Shen Gong Wu he had stolen from the Xiaolin monks.
"Jack, you're a genius!" he said to himself. "Taking the one Shen Gong Wu that would make it easy for me to find all of the new Shen Gong Wu first! I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner."
Jack held his one acquisition up, laughing maniacally as he did—the Crystal Glasses gleamed in the light.
"I'm glad WaveRider13 messaged me about the monks coming—it gave me plenty of time to replace the Crystal Glasses with a duplicate! Sure, if they try to use them, those Xiaolin losers will figure it out in a heartbeat, but they never use this Wu! This is brilliant! Now I can use the Crystal Glasses to see when and where the next Shen Gong Wu will reveal itself! That way, I can always be the first one there!"
Of course, it would have been better if I'd been able to keep more of them, but making a realistic copy of the Crystal Glasses was hard enough. I barely have any parts for Jackbots these days... Anyway, the Crystal Glasses will also tell me when the Xiaolin monks will be away from their temple, giving me the best chance to steal the rest of their Wu back!
Jack laughed evilly again, thinking about his devilish plan. It was almost as good as the time he'd gotten help from his future self to find the Shen Gong Wu before they revealed themselves, maybe even better since there wasn't an old geezer with a walker to worry about this time. He put the Crystal Glasses on.
"Crystal Glasses!" he cried, concentrating on the next Shen Gong Wu.
Upon returning to the temple, the Xiaolin dragons were greeted by one of their apprentices—the blond girl whom Omi was considering as a potential Dragon Warrior.
"Did you get all of the Shen Gong Wu back?" she asked.
"Of course, we did," Omi said, jumping off Dojo. "We are Shoku Warriors! Jack Spicer is no match for us!"
"Speaking of Shen Gong Wu, I'm taking them back to the vault," Raimundo said. "But first..." He turned to Jermaine. "What are you doing here, anyway? Not that I'm complaining, but I was just wondering."
"I heard you were looking for a fifth monk, so I thought I'd stop by and see if I couldn't join the team."
"Well, an experienced monk joining a bunch of potentials?" Dojo said, hands on his hips. "This should be good."
Raimundo smiled. "Well, if you really want to try out with the other 'apprentices,' get used to Omi bossing you around. He's in charge until there's only three left."
"Yo, homie, I'm a Wudai Warrior, remember?"
"Yeah, and we're looking for an apprentice. But it's cool, it's cool. You might be the Dragon of Wood we've been looking for, so give it a shot. Seeing as you already hit Wudai Warrior before we did even though you had a late start, you shouldn't have any trouble showing up these amateurs."
Jermaine grinned. "Alright, Rai. If that's your answer, sign me up for apprentice training!"
"Great! Okay, Omi, Jermaine's yours now. Train him until he's as good as you," Raimundo teased.
"Very well," Omi said, writing something on a notepad. He ripped the small paper out of the notepad and handed it to Jermaine, adding, "Here, your number is 26. You must wear it for the duration of your training."
Jermaine took the number, raising an eyebrow. "Uh...okay."
"Rai! Aren't we supposed to be narrowing it down, not adding more?" Kimiko said, a bit irritated.
"What, you don't want to give Jermaine a shot?"
"That's not what I'm saying!"
"Then stop acting like it," Raimundo finished, walking off with the Shen Gong Wu. "I'll be in the meditation hall. Don't bother me unless Omi picks three apprentices, a Shen Gong Wu reveals itself, or evil's on our doorstep." Silently and sarcastically, he added, That should give me about five minutes.
"All right, apprentices!" Omi called to their potentials. "We shall resume training! Let us continue with our exercises!" He looked at Jermaine and said, "Perhaps you would like to attempt our obstacle course?"
"Sure, Omi," Jermaine said, moving toward the obstacle course he was certain he'd tackle with ease.
Kimiko pulled out her PDA, tired of watching Omi train young monks. Clay stretched, then headed inside to grab a bite to eat.
"Alright, that's all of them," Raimundo said, sliding the drawer containing the Manchurian Musca closed. "Now for the reason I was coming here in the first place."
He reached into the bag one final time and pulled out the Crystal Glasses. "With any luck, these can show me where I can find the Dragon of Metal."
He was about to put them on when he heard someone calling his name. He groaned, irritated. "What part of 'don't bother me' didn't they understand?"
Knowing this would have to wait until later, Raimundo put the Crystal Glasses away and headed up the stairs, leaving the vault. Knowing my luck, that's Master Fung with a long list of chores for me to do.
Several hours later, Omi had at last narrowed the apprentices down to three hopefuls—Willow, Ping Pong, and Jermaine. This was the third interruption that prevented Raimundo from using the Crystal Glasses, which irritated him for a minute when Clay came looking for him. However, he dutifully joined his team to determine their next course of action.
"Okay, Jermaine's no surprise, and you and Ping Pong have way too much in common for him not to be a finalist. But isn't that one a girl?" At Kimiko's glare, Raimundo held up his hands and clarified, "Not that I have any problems with adding another girl to the team, but I thought you didn't think they could fight, Omi."
"Willow may be a girl, but she is most skilled in combat," Omi answered. "I must admit, this selection surprised me, too. I did not expect when she first arrived that she would have such remarkable skill."
Kimiko groaned, wondering if Omi would ever stop having such outdated views on girls. She feared the answer was no.
"Hmm..." Dojo slithered among the three finalists, looking at each of them critically. "Good choices, good choices... They definitely have the potential... Yes, I can tell you, the Dragon of Wood is definitely here!"
"Well, hey, partner, that's great! Think you can tell us who it is yet?"
Dojo sweat and looked around nervously. "Uh...no. You see, I know the Dragon of Wood is here somewhere, but asking me to say exactly where is like..." He trailed off, looking for a good comparison.
"Kind of like when we go looking for Shen Gong Wu and you can tell us it's around somewhere?" Raimundo asked.
"Yeah, something like that."
"Okay, so we just have to figure out which of these guys is the best, and that should be the Dragon of Wood?" Kimiko asked, remembering their initial conversation.
"Exactly! It's either Willow, Ping Pong, or Jermaine."
"All three have my approval," Omi said. "We merely need to determine who is the final choice."
Raimundo shrugged. "Aw, whatever! We'll figure it out soon enough. In the meantime, Willow, Ping Pong, Jermaine—welcome to the team!"
"Thank you, Brother Raimundo," Ping Pong said, bowing respectfully. "I will do my best to earn a permanent place on your team."
"So they're all joining the team until we pick one?" Clay asked.
"Unless you've got a better idea, yeah," said Raimundo. "I mean, what harm could it do to have three extra bodies when hunting for Wu?"
"So, young monks, how goes the search for a Dragon of Wood?" Master Fung asked, approaching his students.
"We've narrowed it down to three hopefuls, and now we're planning some intensive evaluation to figure out who's on the team and who's heading for home," Raimundo answered, hitching a thumb at the three potential dragons.
Master Fung nodded his approval. "Excellent. And have you determined a course of action with the Dragon of Metal?"
Raimundo was about to answer when Dojo started shaking like a leaf.
"W-whoa! Heads up, boys and girls! We've got a Shen Gong Wu alert!"
And that makes four times I've been stopped, Raimundo thought. Man, how am I supposed to find a reluctant dragon when I don't even have time?
"You had best attend to that, young monks," Master Fung said.
"What Wu is it?" Kimiko asked as Dojo pulled out the Shen Gong Wu scroll.
"The Fifi-Xiaogo*!" he answered as the scroll showed an object in the shape of a laying dog. "When used, this Shen Gong Wu turns into a camping trailer." As Dojo spoke, the scroll showed a small man standing by the dog as it grew in size, then the man walked up to the dog and went inside. "It's a great Wu to have when you're roughing it."
"Yeah, nothing says camping in style like a dog-shaped trailer," Kimiko said a bit sarcastically as Dojo put the scroll away.
"Alright, crew! Let's get that Wu!" Raimundo said.
*Mentioned as being a part of plans for season 4 of Xiaolin Showdown. The lack of a season 4 is why it never appeared.
