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 10

As the alarm on his clock blared in his ear, Jack reached over and turned it off. He sat up, eyes still closed, and headed across the room almost robotically to put his lotions on. So when he bumped into to something large, stubbing his toe and falling over, his wasn't exactly thrilled.

"Ahhh! Son of a bitch!" He hissed, grabbing his foot, his toe throbbing. He opened his eyes to glare, sure he was about to see his table, or maybe the wall. He was surprised when instead he saw several large cardboard boxes sitting in the middle of the room.

"Huh? Where did these come from?" Jack asked aloud, anger quickly replaced with curiosity.

Naral, who had once again curled up at the foot of the bed listening to Jack talk about his shopping trip, made a shrugging gesture and simply watched the youth.

"Wonder what's inside..." Jack muttered as he grabbed a random pointy utensil from from his work table and sliced through the tape to open the boxes.

Normaly, Chase had a strict personal policy about not even thinking about waking up until at least 10 or 11 unless it was extremly important to one of his schemes. However, he REALLY wanted to see Spicer's reaction to this.

After the goth had gone to bed, Chase had purchased the items on the list Jack had made up to build his computer system. Oh, it wasn't out of kindness or anything so vulgar, he just didn't want the youth to take any of his electronics and try to make Jackbots out of them.

It was a bribe to placate his need to tamper with machines and keep him out of his hair. Nothing more or less.

Still, he felt a certain level of anticipation as he watched the boy with the Eye Spy orb.

As Jack opened up the boxes and realized what was in them, his first instinct was to let out a delighted shriek and bounce in as he had JUST woken up, Jack didn't really feel like doing anything that energetic just yet.

He checked the boxes for any sort of clue as to who it might be from. The boxes were perfectly nondiscript and had no note. They could have been from anybody, which would have frustrated most people to no end. But the gears in Jacks head turned quite smoothly.

The fact that there were no clues was in itself a clue. Only one person would go through the effort of obtaining something like this and then not openly brag about it or hang it over his head.

"Chase must've got these..." he said straitening and cracking his back. "Wuya probably told him I'd take his stuff to make Jackbots or something, so he got me the computer parts I mentioned last night as an incentive to stay away from them and keep me busy for a while."

He stetched, cracking his knuckles and made for his toolbox. "Better get started. This will take hours. Naral, go tell the other jungle cats they have to make breakfast, cause I'm working on something...Oh, and if you see Chase, tell him 'thank's' for me, will ya?"

Naral nodded, hopping off the bed giving a stretch before padding out the door.

Chase felt several distinct emotions as the goth made his surprisingly calm and level-headed deduction.

Firstly, he was impressed by the boys ability to tell not only who had gotten him the computer components, but their reasons for doing so as well. He had accepted it maturly and hadn't insisted on finding the overlord and glomping him for the umpteenth time. This pleased him.

Secondly, annoyance that he hadn't gotten the reaction he'd expected. He'd been looking forward to watching the albino squeel like a girl and fall over his own feet in excitment, which usualy proved to be amusing, as the teen was far too excitable at the best of times.

Lastly, he felt disapointed he wouldn't get to have any of Spicer's home-cooking.

Jack really was terribly good at cooking.

Kimiko fiery nature was going to be the death of her. It really was. Because right now there was nothing she wanted more than to hop out of her wheel chair and beat Omi and Raimundo to a pulp, and she was only just managing to avoid doing just that.

It wasn't because they had asked Master Fung to go on a quest to look for the Immortal Weapons, which was a very dangerous and STUPID idea that could get them all killed, not to mention that they had NO idea where to begin.

It was because Omi had implied that only he, Raimundo and Clay would be going, and had made no mention of Kimiko. And Raimundo hadn't corrected him.

What, they couldn't wait until her leg healed?

Those little! Oh, she wanted to throttle them!

Her grip on the arms of the wheelchair was tight enough that her knuckles had turned white and threatening to break the plastic casing. Master Fung sensed Kimiko's anger and distress as his youngest monk proposed his quest, neglecting to include Kimiko into his plans.

"Going after the Immortal Weapons will be a very dangerous quest, my young monk. If you feel it is in our best interest to obtain them, then I will not stop you. However, I must insist that you wait until Kimiko has recovered from her broken leg."

"But Master Fung-" Omi started.

"You will require ALL of your teammates to succeed in this quest."The elder monk interupted. "That is my decision."

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Omi visibly sagged. He'd wanted to begin the quest right away. He turned and saw Kimiko glaring daggers at him. Laughing nervously, he grabbed raimundo's sleeve and started pulling him in the opposite direction,

"Raimundo, I believe it would be wise to flee. Kimiko is giving us the Eye of Bad Smells..."

"You mean the Stink Eye. And I agree," he said as he and the little yellow monk began running just as Kimiko began rolling after them as fast as she could, shouting obscenities.

"You egotistical little terps! Get back here so I can pound your heads in!"

"Ahhhh!"

"Faster Omi, faster!"

It was many hours of cutting, splicing and a few personal little adjustments to the moterboard later that the albino genius put his tools away and took a step back to admire his hard work. His new super computer system up and running.

"Isn't she beautiful?" he asked no one. Naral had left long ago to escape the sound of Goth rock music, metal on metal, and the crackling of eletricity in favor of a more quiet location. He rubbed his hands fondly over the cool surface of the machine, inhaling deeply and letting it out in a contented sigh

"Ahhh...Nothing like the feel of metal under your fingers, and the whir of machinery in your ears to make a guy feel at home and completly at peace with the universe..."

"Jaaaaacccckkkkk!"

"GGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Jack yelled, dropping his toolbox and sending his tools clattering across the floor. He whirled around to face the Heylin Witch who had yelled in his ear, who stood only a few feet behind him with a smirk on her face.

" 'Completely at peace with the universe', huh?"

"Wuya, why can't you learn to KNOCK?" Jack growled, scowling at her, " And havn't you ever heard of an indoor voice?"

"I'm not the one who just screamed like a little girl."

"You startled me!" Jack defended, brushing imaginary dust off his clothes. "You know I hate it when you do that when I'm working!"

" You looked like you were done to me" Wuya said, unapolegetic.

"No, only the big stuff like the assembling and wiring, is done. I still have to the delicate stuff like install all my files and set up firewalls and a bunch of other stuff you wouldn't understand cuz you're a crusty old lady" He said, still sour as he knelt and gathered up his tools, replacing them back into the toolbox. "Is there anything you want, or are you just here to bug me?" he ad=sked, putting the toolbox away. He sat at the keyboard and began typing away the binary codes for his state of the art home-made firewalls and anti-virus programs.

"It's lunchtime. I would've sent one of the jungle cats but none of them will come down here because of your awful music."

"I'm too busy for lunch, I'll eat later," he said, not looking away from the computer screen.

"So you don't wanna go just to thank Chase excessivly by glomping him and declaring your unending loyalty to him for buying you the pieces to make that oversized calculator?" Wuya goaded with a teasing, playful tone.

Jack stood, tapping his chin, as if thinking about it. "Tempting... But I think Chase'll appreciate my thanks better if I stay out of his way, don't touch him, and get my files off of his computer." he said, shoving the witch towards the door and slamming it shut.

"I liked her better when she was a ghost..."

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The sterio on the other end of the room lowered until it was the faintest of background noises. Jack turned to the warlord, who had materialized upon Jack's bed, sitting with one leg crossed imperiously over the other in a misleadingly relaxed, casual position.

"Hi, Chase. Nice entrance" Jack commented.

"Thank you. Am I intruding?" He asked, though both of them knew he wouldn't have cared if he was.

"Nah, just getting rid of Wuya. She was bugging me."

"She tends to do that," Chase agreed, "I see you've finished constructing your little toy" he added, looking at the completed supercomputer.

"Almost." Jack confirmmed " Still have to get my files off your computer. Thanks, by the way. Got the message loud and clear: don't mess with your stuff."

"Good... You are aware it's lunch time, right?"

"Yeah, so?" Jack said as he returned to his typing.

"You've been working for several hours."

"I'm fine. When I'm busy with a project, I usualy go until I drop."

"That's not healthy for someone with your metabolism" Chase said with a trace of a frown on his face

"I've been doing it for years" Jack said dismisivly

"Yes, and you're in great shape, aren't you?" Chase said, giving the teen a look as he glanced at his scare-crow like frame. "When was the last time you ate, Spicer?"

"Uh...dinner, yesterday, I guess..."

"That was over 18 hours ago. Even someone with a normal metabolism eats at least every five or six hours."

"What are you, my mom? I'll eat when I'm done!" Jack said as he leaned back and watched the screen as the supercomputer crunched the advanced binary codes Jack had just imputted.

"Why not eat now, while your computer processes the data to the security software you just installed? Consider it an unofficial break."

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Jack gave Chase a look that just screamed 'annoyance'. Much to the dragon lords wicked delight at the wonderful irony.

"You're gonna keep bugging me if I don't, aren't you?" Jack asked, crossing his arms.

"Yes."

Jack sighed in surrender, standing "Fine... You can be annoying when you wanna be, you know that?"

"Said the Prince of Annoying and Persistant Pestering" Chase said, with a smirk.

Jack would have protested, but he knew he was right. He crossed his arms, pouting mightily "Well, I guess I did have that one comming..." he grumbled.

"Agreed. Shall we?" Chase said, standing and making for the door.

Jack didn't miss the smug expression on the everlords face as he followed his idol out the door, heroically resisting the urge to stick his tongue out at Chase's back as they made their way down the hall.

End of Chapter 10

Hi guys!

hope you enjoyed! sorry for not being more frequent. I was suffering from accute writers block!