" Talking"

' Thinking'

" Demon/ Dragon Talking."

" Spirit Talking."

" So, remind me, Dojo. What's your attraction to the center of the Earth?" Phillip asked as the group walked down a narrow path. Each side was a pit fall away from fiery death. The heat caused the group to sweat profusely.

" It's a good hiding place," the dragon said. " Even against me." The group walked until there was a wall beside them and the path spread wider. Suddenly, something shot out of the wall at a blinding speed and into the ground. Two more blurs followed it. The ground at each impact and some of the ceiling fell. The group turned and found... a weird looking robot.

A light brown drill spun at the end of the bot, which stopped and opened to reveal several silver sharp teeth. The main body, tail, and head was golden while the links between the three was a bright silver. Two more of the robot appeared beside it and another popped up from behind them. The whirl of the gears brought their attention to another that held Jack Spicer on it's back.

Jack sighed. " Okay, so it's just you."

Phillip waved down the others and asked, " Find it yet?"

Jack shook his head. " Nothing. Zip, Nadda. Bupkis." Jack slid down his mount to join them. " I keep getting signals but they echo through the rocks. Hard keep a firm grip."

Omi gave a suggestion. " What about Dojo? He's a much better Shen Gong Wu finder. Better than anything you can create." Jack just blew a raspberry in reply.

" My Worm-bots have been working for hours trying to find it. No such luck." Jack told Phillip.

Phillip nodded. " Dojo, can you narrow the location down a bit?"

Dojo sniffed around before pointing to a small part of the wall. " It's somewhere behind this rock." Jack gave the indication and the bots began drilling.

Phillip had to ask. " Did you use the money I gave you?"

Jack said, " Nah. My mom got a pay raise, so my allowance went up." A few seconds of drilling, and a cavern was found behind the rock. The bots drilled down so the Xiaolin Warriors could get a glimpse of what was inside. They cheered when they did.

A mouse-like object with a bronze coat and golden streak down it's spine sat on a pedestal. It's streak turned into a goldenrod tail at the end. Black ears with golden inside shone in the bleak cave. The one thing that stood out in the gold and bronze mes was the ruby eyes. The newest Wu- The Hoduku Mouse- was found.

Jack looked back at them and gave mischievous grin. " First one to it gets to use it first!" The boy rushed into the cavern with Raimundo right behind him, Clay and Omi following right after and Kim keeping in the back. Phillip walked in without much care for the contest. That changed when the contestants came rushing back with agitation.

Phillip looked at the one closest to him, Kimiko at the time. " What's going one?" Kimiko just pointed in front of them. Phillip looked past the group to see the newest foe.

Spiders the size of small houses began climbing out of the cavern entrance. There was no time to save the Hoduku Mouse as the ground under the pedestal broke apart, sending the Hoduku Mouse into a pit.

Dojo appeared from under Clay's hat. " Run!" The group used any form of attack they could muster to slip past the spiders and into the cavern. Phillip used the Eye of Dashi to create an new path, but lead the ceiling to crumble. The group barely got through, especially Jack who came in last and was nearly squashed along the way.

_Scene Change_

" I have heard of these mythical creatures," Master Fung said while stroking his beard, "but until now, no one has actually seen one." Jack flew back home when the group resurfaced, saying he needed a bath, or shower, or whatever. This left the group to confront Master Fung for answers.

Fung removed a book from one of the various shelves the library had. " I had hoped they were only folklore."

" Well they're not! I got two kinds of proof:" Raimundo turned to show that the spiders got him on his posterior . " black and blue." Kimiko shielded her eyes from Rai's blue underwear, that was seen from the torn parts.

Master Fung flipped through the book. " According to legend, the spiders are neither good nor evil. They are simply consumers. They consume vegetation, animals, buildings, even the Earth itself. They eat until there is nothing left to eat."

Phillip shuddered. ' Great. Another thing to add to my ever growing hated for spiders.'

" Aw. Is the little boy scared over a little bug?"

' Shut up, Black.'

Phillip looked around for the other's reactions. Jermaine took the fast road back NYC after the first training sessions. Phillip couldn't blame him though. It surprised Phillip the others didn't follow suit. Though, that left some desired improvements since they were one man down.

An earthquake shook the foundation. Fung ordered the group to relocate at the Meditation Temple. Needless to say, they didn't need to be told twice.

Once they got there, however, the earthquakes grew stronger. Strong enough to destroy one of the towers without any sign of destruction. Soon, the Meditation Temple began to follow. Lucky for them that Phillip placed the Wu into his shadow.

Dojo began hyperventilating as well. " IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD! IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD! I've seen it all happen! IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!"

Omi yelled over to the dragon from his spot on the ceiling. " Dojo, you must push yourself together!"

" Young monks!" Fung ran up to the entrance. " Leave at once! And do not return until you find the Hoduku Mouse!"

Kimiko called from the other end of the room. " What about you!?"

" I will be alright! Remember: the fate of the world rests with you!"

Raimundo removed some of the stress. " Is it me, or does the fate of the world rests with us a lot?" A pillar slammed in front of him, closing off any connection with Fung.

Kimiko nearly ran other to the pillar, but Phillip held her back. " Don't! We need to stay close for right now! All we can do is hope Master Fung will survive this!"

" He will! He always does!" Omi yelled.

Phillip whispered to himself, " I hope you're right, Omi." The ground collapsed and they were sent into darkness

_Scene Change_

Phillip heard Kimiko speak first. " Where are we?"

Rai didn't give the best of answers. " Somewhere dark?"

" Well, howdy duh!" Phillip snickered at Clay's reply.

" I can't see a thing!" Kimiko said. Phillip's eyes adjusted to the darkness and gave him perfect view of everyone.

Phillip called out. " Over here! Follow my voice!" They got close to him, allowing them a moment of relief. " Omi, get your chi going. We need some light." A flash later and the room was filled with light.

Omi smiled at this while letting six glowing circles give off the light. " It appears that Lady Luck is finally spitting on us!"

Phillip corrected this. " ' Shining on us'." The rock that the Xiaolin Warriors started to shatter before breaking completely, sending the group into the air.

Clay looked over to Phillip while in midair. " I think the little guy had it right the first place." They all fell back to the floor afterwords. They hit the ground hard, causing a small smoke screen to appear.

Raimundo pointed over to someplace when he recovered. " Hey, guys! Look! It's the Hoduku Mouse!" Sure enough, the Wu sat on it's pedestal a little away from them.

A flash of light interrupted their train of sight and Jack's voice spoke. " Too late, Xiaolin has-bins! The Hoduku Mouse is mine." There must have been someone with him if he was talking like that.

Omi got into the act fast. " Jack Spicer. You picked a most unwise time for me to wash your timepiece."

Chase's voice spoke up. " We face a common enemy. We must set aside good and evil."

Wuya's voice followed. " Chase is right. Jack, go get the Hoduku Mouse!" Phillip's eye finally adjusted to the light and found the Heylin side in front of him. They all sat with a machine that looked something like Jack's old drill

Jack mimicked Wuya. " 'Go get the Hoduku Mouse.' Why don't you make me?" Steam came out of Wuya's head as she growled.

" Enough." said Chase as he removed himself from Jack's new drill. " There is no time for your squabbling. There a mistake that Jack has to fix, and I would like it to be done now!" Jack pulled his eyelid down and blew a raspberry at Chase before walking over to the Hoduku Mouse. Just as he was about to use it, however, a spider's web enveloped the Wu and yanked it away. Four spiders jumped from the wall behind Jack: one on to the pedestal and three landing around it.

Wuya pulled a Dojo. " It's the end of the world!" That was when the ground gave way, sending the spiders into a lava pit and separating everyone into two groups: Omi, Jack, Clay, Kimiko, Raimundo, and Wuya were left on one side of the new chasm and Phillip and Chase on the other. Phillip dropped the Tiger Claws upon escape but Kim seemed to have caught it in time. The ceiling started to follow the ground below it as it let pieces of itself fall down on the groups.

Kimiko called from the other side. " Phillip! Catch!" The Golden Tiger Claws was thrown across and land onto Phillip's hand. With a wave of the Claws, a portal appeared and let Phillip and Chase out of the cave.

_Scene Change_

As they exited the portal, Chase and Phillip set up battle stances for anything might have followed them. The only thing that did was a couple rocks and a boulder that came from the ceiling. Phillip relaxed and locked around. " Well, seems hell decided to visit." The field that the fled to was covered in small craters.

Chase crossed his arms around his back and looked at Phillip. " If the world is to be saved, WE must be the ones to save it. There still may be an answer."

Phillip returned the look. " Fountain of Hui?"

Chase nodded. " And the Eagle's Scoop."

_Scene Change_

" Nope. Not that one. Hold a sec- nope. I was wondering where I put that one."

" Will you stop wasting time?" said Chase, annoyance written into his features.

Phillip turned to him. " Excuse me. Stuffing objects into one's shadow and moving will make stuff jumble around. It's hard to find stuff when they're not where you remembered them to be."

Chase turned away. " How do you have this ability anyhow?"

" I mastered my element completely. This allows me the ability to do anything with shadows and darkness when needed." Chase just grunted at the answer. Phillips continued to shuffle around in his shadow before it felt the shape of the needed object. " Got it." A pull and the Fountain came out, though the Black Beetle and Tongue of Saiping came out. Chase pulled the Eagle's scoop from behind his back.

Chase spoke. " Before we proceed, you must promise on your word as a Xiaolin Warrior to ONLY to look for a way to destroy the spiders, not evil."

Phillip bowed and said, " As you wish."

" Fountain of Hui!" A dome of of electricity surrounded the two while blue lights spun around them at high speeds.

" Eagle's Scope!" The blue lights slowed down and showed images of everything found in the universe.

Phillip whistled. " Here's a scholar's dream."

Chase called from beside him. " Phillip! Concentrate on the knowledge we seek." The two closed their eyes and focused the question through the Fountain. An motion picture showed through their mind of spiders and their eggs hatching. It also showed that, as the spiders walked in past a volcano, the spiders would turn to stone if lava flowed past them.

Phillip smiled. " Now we know why the were found under the Earth's crust."

Chase smirked instead. " Well then, let's be on our way." Phillip nodded and made a portal with Tiger Claws to where their friends were.

_Scene Change_

They arrived at some ruins with only statues to great them. Phillip groaned. " I was hoping for an easy search."

That's when they heard a weird song coming from within. " I have a horse, his name is Boo! Shh! We all live in his shoe!" Phillip traced the song to Dojo, who was slithering up and down a pole with crazy in his eyes. The dragon hummed a couple lines inaudibly before Phillip pulled him off the pole.

Phillip smacked Dojo. " Dude, stop."

Dojo groaned before grabbing Phillip by the shirt. " Where am I? What year is it? How long have I been living like a rat in a hole?!"

" Couple minutes."

Dojo stroked his beard. " Funny. Time moves a lot slower down here."

Chase walked up to the two. " Where are the others?"

Dojo freaked. " The spiders got them! They were everywhere! It was awful!" Dojo dropped back for Phillip to catch him while speaking without true words.

Dojo got out of his spunk to realize something. " Hey, you're one of the bad guys." Chase walked on

Phillip dropped Dojo to follow Chase. " We need to find the egg chamber. Though I doubt the queen is going to make things easy."

Chase spoke without turning his attention away from the path. " I'm hoping he doesn't." Dojo caught up to them as they entered a new part of the ruins.

Dojo looked around. " I heard this place really use to rock on Saturday night."Phillip shook his head at this.

Chase stopped the two. " Stay near. We must been getting close to the nest." Phillip looked up and saw the spiders climbing down the walls and dropping from the ceilings. Chase stopped the the falling of the spider just above him with a push. He stabbed another with his fingers before punching it away. Another fell with stomp from the famed villain.

Several spiders jumped at Phillip. He stomped the first one in to the floor and kept it there with his foot. The second received a round house kick to the face for it's efforts while Phillip used the first as a pivot. A third landed behind him. It turned around for another attack but got a sweep kick instead. A forth would have jumped onto him if Phillip hadn't switched his foot for a hand and laid a barrage of kicks into it's abdomen. Phillip grabbed the first and sent it into a couple of spiders that were walking in. Any remaining spiders have already fled.

Phillip turned to the fallen spiders. " Well. That was easy."

Chase said, " Don't curse us now, young monk." Chase walked over to one spider that was getting up and held in back down by the neck. " Looks like we captured our first prisoner."

Phillip pulled out the Tongue of Saiping and spoke to the spider. " Where is the egg chamber?"

The spider didn't take talk very well and spoke with several voices. " You can kiss my eight feet! When the egg chamber- wait. What are you do-" The spider shrieked in pain as Phillip discharged a couple volts of lightning into the creature with a touch. Not enough to kill it, just get the point across.

Phillip spoke through the Tongue again. " Where is the chamber?" The spider just pointed down the corridor with a weak and shivering finger.

The group followed the path until the walls turned into soil and green puss. Webs hung from the floor to the ceiling.

Chase said, " We're definitely inside the queen's chamber."

Phillip looked around. "You sure? I don't see an egg sack anywhere." He felt Dojo grab his shirt again. " Yes?"

Dojo pointed to the ceiling and said. " We're going to need help!" Phillip looked up and found what he was looking for.

A mass of hundred of eggs sat on the ceiling. Eggs that were big enough to kill cows if dropped. Baby spiders sat in the green fluids the filled the eggs. A collective screams carried down the corridor. Phillip and Chase ran down the hall with Dojo in the back. When they got to the source, they only found Clay's hat on the ground, so they looked up.

Jack, Kimiko, Raymundo, Omi, and Clay were tied up and was hanging from the ceiling by spider webbing.

Phillip looked up at them with amusement. " And how exactly did you guys get run over by the spiders? Because it seems you neglected my training schedules."

" That's right. Rub it in. Now how about GETTING US DOWN FROM HERE!?" Jack yelled. Chase flashed around the circular form of the cave to cut the web that held them to the ceiling. Jack fell first, followed by Kimiko, Raimundo, and Clay, each falling onto the last. Everyone except Jack, who took most of the damage, sat up. Phillip gave very shallow cuts to the web to avoid hurting the others. They wiggled out of the webbing as Phillip told them of the plan to drill to the core and fill the chamber around them with lava to encase the spiders forever more.

Jack pointed out the flaw. " Peachy plan. But who ever you send will wind up as toast!" Phillip pointed up to the drill above them, which also got stuck up there by the web.

Jack understood. " Aw, not my baby!" He flew up to hug the thing. " I just gave the Molar 2000 a wax job. You can't do it!"

" Spiders eat the world."

" Fair enough."

Chase cut the drill from the webs and allowed it drop to the ground. As Jack gave the man a scolding, Phillip opened the cockpit, reached in, and turned the auto-pilot on. The drill went a few feet before drilling downwards.

Chase turned and spoke with an urgent town. " We must leave before the queen returns." Omi took the lead and bumped into a brown ball that blocked the exit. Parts of the ball opened to reveal several black eyes staring at the group.

Phillip pointed from the back of the group. " Found it!" Four of the queen's legs entered the corridor as she hissed to smash the group. However, they were already retreating and the queen's attack missed. The queen pulled herself free from the exit and ran after the group, allowing a couple hundred spiders to follow. Omi, Rai, Kim, and Clay looked back to see what was going on but Phillip took them by the shirt to return to retreating. Jack hopped on to Phillip's back while he grabbed Chase at the chest plate. With push of chi, Phillip zoomed out of the chamber in a second. Luck for Clay that he already got his hat, or he wouldn't have chance to get it.

As soon as the got out side, Phillip released everyone and turned to watch the fireworks that would eventually appear in three.

Two...

One.

In a blaze, an explosion of lava burst from the ruins. Slowly but surely, the lava covered up the entire ruins and began to advance on the waiting alliance. Phillip threw down the Black Beetle, which turned into a large float upon activation. The group got on it and the lava pushed into the water that surrounded the ruins. As smoke began to cloud their vision, a geyser pushed them upwards.

Soon, they were forced through a hole in the ground that was surrounded by tourists. Phillip noticed a sign near it and believed it to be one of the land geysers. An old man took out a camera and took a picture. Soon, the water beneath them forced them out of the hole and into the air.

Raimundo gave Phillip a high five. " Killer ride, dude!"

Kimiko hugged him around his neck. " Phillip, you did it!" Clay off comment about him catching a fish helped lower Phillip's small blush.

' I'm never going to be rid of this nervousness around girls, am I?'

" Probability not."

' Rhetorical question, Lightning.'

Phillip looked at Chase and held out his hand. " Thanks."

Chase didn't acknowledged the hand. " Don't thank me just yet. We still have some battles to fight." With that, Chase jumped from the float and disappeared from sight before hitting the ground.

The geyser stopped and the group landed on the ground to receive cheers from very one around them. Phillip hid himself behind the others to avoid the unwanted and unneeded attention.

Raimundo called him out on this while waving to everyone. " Dude, what are you doing?"

Phillip looked at the back of Rai's head. " I don't like attention I don't need." ' Or want.'

Jack waved the most vigorous of the group. " Suit yourself. Man, if this is the way a hero is rewarded, keep me in the business!"

_Scene Change_

Phillip looked down at the blueprints. ' In the speed we're working, we'll have the Temple up and running in no time.' Phillip looked up to find Jack-bots carrying most of the bamboo needed to rebuild the Meditation Temple. ' I love getting Jack and his Constructo-bots to help.'

Jack called over one of his bots. " Be careful with the paint!" Said bot swung the paint can in Jack's direction, causing the genius to become blue. Jack flew over to wrestle with the bot. This was stopped when a scream echoed through the grounds. Jack and Phillip ran over to the source to find Dojo wrapped around Kimiko's legs with most of his skin off and Raimundo with a giant spider on his shoulders.

Phillip looked over to Jack. " Got that Spider-bot working?" Jack smirked and pulled out a controller. With a press of a button, a small mechanical spider popped out of the heli-bot. Using the steering wheel, Jack steered the spider in front of Raimundo before pressing a button to make the bot jump onto Rai's face. Just as this happened, a real spider landed on his hand. Rai gave a scream before ditching his clothes and hiding behind some woven barrels in only his underwear while shaking up a storm. Phillip and Jack laughed on the roof while Omi gave five to the spider in the tree.

That's a wrap!

Constructive Criticism is asked for and would be greatly appreciated.

Let the rants begin!