I disclaim Xiaolin Showdown and all its characters, I in no way profit by writing this fanfiction.
(though, If I DID own XS, Chack would totally be canon and there would be a LOT more seasons, lol)
hope you enjoy the story!
Chapter 21
Clay awoke the next morning, yawning loudly, his stomach, as always, growling for food. The cowboy stretched "Mmm, I'm hungrier than a snake sittin' across a cage of hamsters..." he mumbled as he stood and got himself dressed. Kimiko groaned as she dressed herself in her monkly robes.
"Clay, it's too early for down home sayings..." she grumbled as she brushed her hair and applied her makeup for the day. Wait until after breakfast..."
"Did someone say breakfast?"Raimundo asked as he pulled on his Shoku robes, stepping out of his room "Cuz I could sure go for some pancakes or waffles right about now...Or maybe an omlette...or a bagel...or leftover pizza...anything that's food, really..."
"Ah yes, you have stolen the words from my throat, Raimundo." Omi said as he did some stretches to help himself wake up.
"That's 'took the words out of my mouth', Omi" the Brazilian corrected.
"That too!" the littlest monk chirped.
"I'm hungry too! Besides, the sooner we eat, the sooner we can look for those addresses and get those immortal weapons AND the immortals out of danger" Dojo agreed as he slithered out of Clays hat "That's our top priority."
"What about our chores?" Kimiko asked, raising an eyebrow
"Guan's guys are taking care of them, as repayment of staying here" Dojo informed.
Raimundo grinned "Ah, Sweeeeeet! No chores!" he said, giving a fist pump as he and kimiko slapped a highfive.
"For now" Dojo Shrugged "Let's hit the feedbag and- ngghhaaaa!" he shuddered violently "Change of plans! We got a live one!"
The monks were immediately at attention "Which one is it?"
"Let's see..." Dojo said as he procured the Shen Gong Wu scroll from his ear "Oh, It's the XiaoHey Bookmark!"
"The what?"
"The XiaoHey Bookmark is used to pause one side of a persons Chi. The black ribbon side up pauses ones bad chi, while White ribbon up pauses their good. That means you can turn your enemies or allies temporarily good or evil depending on your own alliance, or enhance which ever part of their chi is the most prominent."
"Sooo in other words, it can temporarily turn someone evil GOOD, or someone good EVIL..." Kimiko said, taking the scroll from Dojo as she looked over the ancient text. "That could be REALLY useful..."
"How temporary we talkin'?" Raimundo asked, peering over her shoulder. Dojo took the scroll back and put it away "Eh...about an hour I think."
"Just imagine what we could do if we used that on Chase Young" Raimundo said with a wicked grin.
"Or HE on US" Omi pointed out with his usual serious tone "We should leave immediately!"
"Cheeseball is right, let's go!" The Shoku leader said, climbing on a supersized Dojo's back as he transformed, followed by his friends as they took off into the sky.
Jack groaned as his watch beeped in an annoyingly shrill way as a Shen Gong Wu activated somewhere in the world . Naral growled from his place beside the goth, his large head resting on the boys stomach, providing a comforting weight and warm presence "Yeah yeah, I got it..." Jack grumbled as he hit the button and blearily blinked at the little glowing panel "XiaoHey Bookmark...Is that a good one?" he mumbled, glancing down at the panther. Naral thought about it for minute before he gave a nod as he shifted his position, snorting as he felt his soft, warm human pillow slide away. Jack yawned as he shrugged on his trench coat over his pajamas and put on his helipack.
"Go back to sleep Naral I'll be back in an hour or two...JB-13, you stay here and take any calls and stuff, I gotta go get this Wu...Whatever it does..." he said trudging out the door.
"Yes, master Jack" the robot called after it's creator as he disappeared from view. Jack rubbed his eyes as he glanced at his watch again, "Time?"
"Time is now 6:00 AM in the Morning" chirped a female robotic voice from his watch.
Jack groaned pathetically "WAAAAY too early..." he grumbled as he stepped out onto the "jaw" of the gaping mouth like entrance and jumped over the edge, plummeting a few hundred feet before activating his blades and taking off into the sky.
"Why can't Shen Gong Wu ever activate when I'm either still awake or after I've gotten up? UGH! This could not POSSIBLY suck more..."
00000oooooo00000
"I should've kept my big mouth SHUT..." the boy genius muttered to himself. He'd reached his ideal altitude for flying only to find himself lost in a thick, wet mist. He was having enough trouble seeing in the dark. Let alone with THIS!
At this point he was REALLY hoping the Shen Gong Wu he'd been tracking for over an hour was really worth all this trouble. He growled as he tried reading his watch to check the location. unfortunately, The clouds were so thick, he couldn't see two inches in front of his face, let alone his wrist He needed to fly out of the cloud cover.
Jack dove downwards, letting the moist, cold wind rushed by his face and ruffle his hair as he broke free of the oppressive clouds, giving him a brief rush of adrenaline as he pulled out of his dive.
"Whoo! Free!" He grinned "Now I can-AHHHHH!" He shrieked, cut off as flock of geese appeared seemingly out of nowhere, smacking into him at full speed. A whopping 25 MPH. crack could be heard in his chest as the air was knocked abruptly out of his lungs and he was just plain knocked out. The panicked, angry birds flew in a crazed scramble, several hitting and bending the blades of the now unconscious geniuses Helipack. Blood and feathers sprayed everywhere with pained honks as the unconscious goth plummeted out of the sky in a terrifying Free-fall towards the cruel, unforgiving ground below.
The Monks looked around as they touched down at the place where they would find the newest Shen Gong Wu. "Where are we?" Raimundo asked, looking around at al the people with tables and stands covered with various knickknacks and household items surrounding a large building. Kimiko tilted her head "It's like a giant yard sale...Or something." Clay laughed at his friends good-naturedly "It's a flea market. used to go to these all the time back in texas. it's basically a mix between a covered bizarre and a garage sale...only hundreds of people participate."
"Oh, this market of fleas is MOOOOST fascinating!" Omi said, looking over at one of the tables containing various ceramic kitty statues.
"Yeah. I haven't seen so many action figures since that comic book convention we went to a few months ago" Raimundo said as he picked up some figurines from a nearby table.
"HEY! Doesn't that little cat statue look kinda like OmiCat?" Kimiko remarked, pointing to a little orangey yellow figure of a round-headed feline. Raimundo looked at it, a little grin coming to his face "Hey, yeah, it looks just like him!"
"Nah, it's a bit orange...OmiCat was more yella"
Omi himself looked rather annoyed by the conversation "We shall not speak of that incident" he said bitterly, turning his back on the ceramic kittens.
"I'm totally buying it" Raimundo said as kimiko snickered.
"No time for shopping now Kiddos." Dojo reminded them "Let's get that bookmark found. I'm starting to get a Wu-rash!" he said, scratching at his back "Nnngghhh!"
"TMI, Dojo..." she said, rubbing her temples "How are we supposed to find one little bookmark in this place?"
"Yeah, got a way to narrow it down for us, little buddy?" Clay asked as the dragon slithered up his arm and curled around his hat
Dojo sniffed the air, shuddering as he caught the scent "I think i got a lead...It's somewhere around...THAT area!" Dojo said, pointing to a small collection of tables not too far away "It's definitely in one of those."
The monks nodded, each taking a table as they began their hunt. Dojo shuddered and scratched his back again "I wonder if one of these stands has any Aloe..."
Jacks eyes opened slowly. His vision was assaulted with green and yellow blurs, he winced, closing them up tightly, opening them again more slowly a moment later. Trees. He was staring up at trees, with the sunlight filtering down on him.
Wait...
Wasn't he supposed to be up in the air, flying?
Jack sat up, wincing as his whole body seized in pain "Ahhhh!" He fell back, biting back several swear words as he fought tears "That's right...those geese...I must've crashed..." He sat up again, more slowly, bracing himself for the pain as he scooted back to check out the damage. he glanced at his arms and tried moving them. Luckily, they moved and bended with relative ease, without much pain. Slipping off his jacket, he saw most of his upper body was covered in black bruises.
"Nghh... That explains that..."he said, touching his ribs. One of his lower ones was broken. Or at least severely fractured. He pulled up the legs of the pajama bottoms he was still wearing, carefully feeling for breaks on the bruised flesh. well, one of his ankles was shattered. other than that, looked like it was just bruises. The trees must've broken his fall. Maybe he really WAS beloved of many gods of dumb luck, as Wuya had so often accused him of in the past. He leaned back against a tree, wincing, a light touch revealing a huge bump on the back of his head "Great. I probably have a concusion too..."
Jack reached into his discarded jacket's innermost pockets, removing a first aid kit, which he'd taken the liberty of packing for situations involving the monks, and began to tend to his injuries. Using some thick branches laying nearby, he managed to splint his ankle and downed half a bottle of non-drowsy painkillers so he could move without doubling over in agony.
"Now... I just gotta get out of here..." He flexed his shoulders, expecting to hear the familiar whirring of the blades of his helipack.
Nothing.
"Huh?" Jack frowned, reaching around and patting only his own backside. "Where's my-?" Looking around, he saw his beloved helipack laying in pieces a few yards away "Oh..." he said, a look of extreme disappointment on his face "Um...I...Crap, what do I do Now?!Um..Uh..I'll...I'll call Chase!" he decided, only for his brief hopes to be dashed when he saw his watch was Just as battered and broken as his helipack
Jack said a Very Bad Word.
"You've gotta be KIDDING ME! What the hell am I supposed to do NOW!? Where the hell AM I, anyway?" Jack stood, leaning against a long thick branch he would be using as a staff for the time being. He was in some kind of jungle, that was clear. And after all there were only so many jungles LEFT in the world with human developments wiping out the glorious tropical forests. This one had, as far as he could tell from his current location, giant trees with colorful canopies and strange birds flitting through he sunlight that looked like sea turtles with wings in place of flippers. Green Monkeys chattered in the branches as they fought over bananas or other fruits.
green monkeys...OH! This was the Jungle of Neither Here Nor There! Chase had told him about this place a few years back during that whole scheme to get the eagle scope.
Of course...jungles had things like spiders...
and snakes...
And other poisonous things...And predators just WAITING to snap up a morsel like him And-
NO.
He couldn't think that way. If he did, he'd panick, and that wouldn't help this situation. What he needed to do was find a mountain of some sort to climb and get his bearings and, of course, wait for help to arrive...
Eventually SOMEBODY would come looking for him...Right?
Shaking off the dark fears nagging his addled brain, Jack held onto the tree and pulled himself into a standing position. Panting from the effort, he looked around, searching for something he could use as a walking stick. A suitable pole-like branch lay on the ground a few trees down. Jack braced himself and hopped on his good leg until he reached his prize, gripping it tightly and leaning against it heavily, his head spinning dangerous as he began half stumbling, half limping through the jungle.
The XiaoHey Bookmark can be found on my deviantart account Xilex90.
Fanfiction dot net REALLY needs to allow us to be able to insert links.
And the Jungle of Neither Here nor There is mentioned in"the bird of paradise" episode briefly. no details were given so i went with it.
I'm sorry for my Absence. I've been dealing with a lot of stuff.
My grandfather passed away, I was participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month for those of you unfamiliar with the term) and the holidays in general. Not to mention my internet has been spazzing out. I haven't been able to do ANYTHING online until recently...So, basically, I don't get a lot of time to write. I'm sorry I've been kinda absent this past year i've been updating as frequently as possible but every couple of months doesn't seem very good, does it?
It's been really hectic for me and I'm sorry my dear readers have been affected by it as well. please enjoy the chapter.
Happy Valentines Day!