Uploaded: 11th September 2004


Chapter 6: And when the crow caws ...

Drorpions were winged dragon-headed creatures, but with the muscular body and hardened hooves of wild stallions, and long, thin whip-like tails. With impetuous and impatient tempers, they were generally one of the most fiercest creatures to contend with, especially when on the defensive. But the werewolf didn't care. He leapt up high, snarling as he rushed at the Drorpion. The Drorpion turned around, lashed out its whip-like tail and struck the wolf cleanly. A second Drorpion opened its dragon mouth and breathed fire at three imps and a goblin, causing their bodies to catch fire.

A dark-haired man in a caped hood stood from afar. There had been ten of them attacking the main gates in total, but the anzu had been headbutted into a harpy and a troll against the walls of the cave; the goblin had put out the fire but was staying back warily; while, thanks to the hit by the Drorpion's tail, the werewolf was reeling backwards. The three imps were still running around, trying to put their fires out, and the chimaera was having trouble standing, having taken a blow in its lion's head from one of the Drorpion's diamond hooves.

The man cursed his luck. If these were the best forces that Sando'ip could assemble, then they might as well give themselves up right now. This was the third time they had tried to penetrate the Dwarves' prison, and every time they had been impeded by these unruly Drorpions. It was time to try a different tack.

He held up a strange golden-rimmed ruby, which was part of a necklace. It was the sacred jewel of the Shoka tribe, protected from the world for many hundreds of years. Once, he had been forced to uphold their tradition as guardians of the jewel. He could never return there now. He had turned his back on the Shoka way of life and stolen it one day, leaving his village in the hopes of gaining power. But it had all been for nothing, because he had not been able to figure out how it worked. He knew it was an object that held great magical power – a Shen Gong Wu – but he had no idea how to operate it.

He stepped out of the shadows. "Retreat," he called despondently.

The goblin whirled round in surprise. "What? But we – "

"We're not strong enough to defeat them," the man cut in. At least without the aid of magic, anyway.

"Fine," said the goblin sulkily. The various monsters gave up their attack, and ran away from the main gate of the Dwarves' prison, limping and whimpering as they did so.

Moments later the large golden gate opened, and an old grey-haired man in blue and golden robes came out, followed by a red and gold serpentine dragon.

"What happened?" the old man demanded. "What was all that noise?"

"It was Sando'ip and the monsters' leaders trying to break the prisoners free again," one of the Drorpions replied.

"Again?" rumbled the dragon. "How often has this happened?"

"Three times, now, in the last week. We cannot leave our post to apprehend them because Kadolf and all the Dwarves have been affected by the poisoned water."

"Sando'ip? Who is this Sando'ip?" asked the robed man.

"He is the Chief goblin," replied the dragon. "He escaped the Dwarves' prison some weeks ago with some of the other leaders. Was DarkClaw with them?"

"Yes, he sounded the retreat. But we need reinforcements, Long! They may not have been able to advance very far, but that means nothing. We are currently the only line of defence. If Sando'ip manages to get more rogue monsters rallied to his side, we will not stand a chance."

"Ah, now I see why your chief called us both in this morning," said Long, and the man nodded. "She would not tell me why she wanted me to remain here all day; she only mentioned the problems with the contaminated water. But I realise that she must have wanted us to see for ourselves how dire the situation has become. She must want fighters to help her cause."

"Yes ... that must be why she has called you both here."

"Alas," the old man said sadly, "I do not have any students with elements. They have all chosen to train at the Xiaolin temple. I fear Wuya's infamy has forever tarnished the reputation of the Heylin temple."

"But where, then, is the master of the Xiaolin temple?"

"Chief Akala had asked for him to come also," Long replied. "I believe he had sent the Chosen Ones to recover a stolen Shen Gong Wu very early this morning and he did not want to leave the temple until they had returned safely. But it is becoming late in the day and we have not yet received word from him. That concerns me slightly."

"Do you think something has happened to the Chosen Ones?" the old man asked him.

"I don't know ..."

"In the meantime," said the first Drorpion, eager to keep the conversation on something that he felt was a more important topic, "would you not be able to give us a hand in capturing the escapees?"

The red dragon shook his head, his golden lion-like mane rippling as he did so. "I will be able to remain here for the rest of today, but ... I cannot leave Pîg-jing for good. I must protect that village, for it is one of the few safe havens."

The second Drorpion stamped an angry hoof in frustration. This answer was unacceptable, even coming from Long! "So what are we to do? We cannot let the monsters break out of the Dwarves' prison! They will cause havoc amongst the humans, most of whom do not even believe such things exist!"

"Yes, I am aware of that. Sando'ip was obviously responsible for poisoning the sweet water, I know that now."

"Oh, that is what I wanted to tell you before we were interrupted," the man said to Long. "You know that I sent some of the water to Befana. She has replied with an analysis. The water has a high concentration of pixie-dust."

Long let out a deep breath. "It would appear, then, that Sando'ip has managed to get his grimy little hands on pixie-dust. As you all know, pixie-dust is very rare, and can only be found in one place – Luceville. How would Sando'ip know how to get there? Very few people know of its location."

"I do not know," the first Drorpion responded, "but we need help – and soon."

The master of the Heylin temple nodded. "I will speak to Befana again, and let her know how serious the situation has become. She is in a better position than I am to contact others and ask for their assistance. Hopefully she will be in the process of making an antidote as well."

"And what should we do until then?"

Long growled. "Pray Sando'ip hasn't gotten any smarter over the last hundred years."


Dojo was thinking hard, trying to remember how to cure the Huai-Ren's stop spell. It had been such a long time since they had ever needed to use it. His father had asked him to join Grand Master Dashi and SilverClaw on their quest, and, because of his ability to sense active Shen Gong Wu, he had turned out to be a valuable asset, too. Once Wuya had been defeated, he had helped Dashi hide away the Shen Gong Wu, and the Shen Gong Wu scroll was to be kept inside the Xiaolin temple, so he became its designated guardian. SilverClaw had kept a few of the Shen Gong Wu herself, and had gone to seek out the rest of her kind, the Shoka. They had been scattered across the world, not by Wuya, but by Li Jin.

Poor little Omi ... Dojo hadn't even realised that Wuya would attack so soon with her Huai-Ren, as they used up a lot of chi energy to create. But the one he had seen was different to the ones he remembered ...

And Wuya had been acting weird, as well. So unconcerned, when taunting Jack ... The Wuya he knew would have easily taken the Horn from him. Despite what she'd said to him, she had been holding back.

So why had she let Jack keep the Horn of Qilin? She was usually overly obsessive when it came to Shen Gong Wu – especially the Horn, because she also had the Reversing Mirror. Maybe, deep down, she had a soft spot for Jack, since he was the one who released her in the first place? Dojo doubted it. Wuya had a track record that would make a serial killer run for the hills. She was probably just playing with him. That seemed the more likely explanation.

Unless ... she didn't have her powers any more. Maybe the Puzzle of Gui Xian had drained her of her energy ... except that ... that didn't explain why the skies had gone all dark, or why there was no electrical power, or why the trees had withered away. Those things had EVERYTHING to do with Wuya's powers.

Well, something wasn't adding up. There must have been something up with her, but what? What was so special about the Horn of Qilin? It was nagging at the back of his mind, just like the strange tugging he was feeling right now. It was the same feeling he felt whenever a Shen Gong Wu activated. And then it hit him – the Horn of Qilin's magic was always active, even when it was inactive! And now it had activated fully. That meant that as long as Jack had it on him, Wuya would be able to sense his whereabouts.

It was, in fact, the Horn of Qilin he was sensing right now. He hadn't been found Clay and Kimiko at the meeting point, so he was on his way to Jack's house; but Jack had overtaken him when he had stopped. Dojo could feel that the Horn was directly in front of him. He was going to have to hurry if he was going to get the others out of there before Jack did anything stupid.

Like attacking them.


Kimiko flew through the corridors with the Jet Bootsu, her heart beating wildly. She could hear both the creatures snarling, and the wingless one's fast-paced clinking on the ground. She took a sharp left into a room, and the creatures shot past, thinking she had gone straight ahead.

She breathed a short sigh of relief, and then the confusion started to kick in. What were those things? Maybe it was Jack who had gone a bit TOO far with the security system.

But she hardly had time to think anything else when she felt a cold breeze surround her, as the feathered one materialised through the wall almost directly behind her. She clumsily turned around to see the creature's snout inches from her face. It grinned, a toothy reptilian smile, and said, "Huo," in a guttural, almost unintelligible manner.

She stepped backwards – but a second growl behind her alerted her to the fact that the other creature had appeared from the other side. How, she had no idea, but she was now surrounded by the two, and she was going to have to fight.

Fine, she thought, if it's a fight they want

"Ting!" said the feathered one. The air started to throb, and the silver ray came out of its mouth, but unlike the Huai-Ren that had attacked Omi, they did not have the element of surprise. Kimiko was staring straight at the creature; she jumped up to dodge, and flew towards it, aiming to strike it with a hard kick – but the other creature came forward in two quick strides, snapping at her with its crocodile head. It managed to catch the Shroud of Shadows, and it jerked its head, managing to take it from her hands. The winged Huai-Ren struck her down from behind with a quick swipe, knocking her to the ground.

It placed its clawed foot down on her right leg, and she struggled, but the creature grinned once again, and then opened its mouth, preparing to freeze her.

And then suddenly it started to screech. From the floor, Kimiko saw the Huai-Ren's body fall to the ground right beside her with a thump!. The second one's eyes narrowed, and its body tensed as it prepared to charge at the interferer, but a purple lightning bolt came from outside the door, and it howled in pain as it too fell down, dropping the Shroud of Shadows.

"So it's you," came a female voice, from outside the room. Kimiko picked herself up, and saw Katnappe in her black cat-costume, holding what looked to be a laser gun. It was probably one of Jack's inventions.

"Katnappe," Kimiko hissed. "What are you doing here?"

"Funny, I was about to ask you the very same thing." Katnappe cast a downwards glance at the fallen monsters. "We should talk somewhere else. We'd better get out of here, before they recover."

Kimiko looked at her suspiciously. Kimiko could be quite hot-headed at times, and more often than not she would say whatever was on her mind, but she was generally quite easy-going when it came to meeting new people. She did try to get along as best as she could – provided she didn't let her temper get the better of her.

But ever since she'd first met Katnappe, she'd found her annoying in every possible way. Maybe it was her tacky outfit, or annoying voice, or attitude – or the fact that she was a bad-ass fighter, despite all that – but whatever the reason, Katnappe really irked Kimiko just by being there. It hadn't helped that they had been on opposing sides when they had first met, but even if they hadn't, Katnappe would have irritated her with all her cat references. Kimiko had nothing against cats – in fact, her best friend Keiko had a pet Burmese – but there was such a thing as going too far.

Kimiko's dislike for Katnappe had grown immensely after the alligator showdown for the Lotus Twister. After the showdown, Katnappe had captured her inside a net and then taken her to Wuya inside this very house. How did she know she wasn't working for Wuya now?

"Why should I trust you?"

"Fine," said Katnappe, waving a hand dismissively as she started to walk away. "Be that way. Be ungrateful that I saved your life. But if you get eaten, or frozen, or maimed, don't come crying to me."

Kimiko had to admit that if Katnappe was working for Wuya, she wouldn't have saved her from those ... monsters. Kimiko picked up the Shroud of Shadows (which was, disgustingly, a little wet) and reluctantly followed the other girl through Jack's house. First Raimundo had managed to steal the Serpent's Tail; then Wuya had been resurrected and they'd been forced to flee; then she was being chased by some hellish rejects from a monster movie; and now she was having to put blind trust in one of the last people she'd ever want to be stuck with. What a nightmare of a day this was turning out to be.

They both noiselessly entered a new room, cautiously checking for signs of life. The room itself was a tip, just like the other room had been. Clothes, jewellery, papers – all were strewn across the floor, along with a sideways turned wardrobe and an upside down double-bed. Katnappe said, "They can go through walls, so I'm not sure how safe we'll be here. We need to figure out a way to take them down permanently."

They both decided to sit behind the overturned wardrobe, and Kimiko asked, "Why are you helping me?"

Katnappe shrugged. "Do you want to get killed? Besides, those freaks froze two of my kittens and my parents, and I'm not about to let them get away with that. Just call this a temporary truce."

"Okay, then," Kimiko accepted, somewhat begrudgingly. She never thought she'd be working with Katnappe ... but it could be worse. Instead of being here with an annoying cat fanatic, she could be here with creepy Jack.

"What's happened here? Are those things robots? One of Jack's experiments gone wrong?"

"I doubt it," said Katnappe vaguely, unsure of how much to tell Kimiko. She paused slightly, and then decided that Kimiko was one of the Xiaolin warriors, after all. If anyone could fix this mess, it'd be one of them

"They're after the Shen Gong Wu. I know that much. There were four of them. We were all in the same room – my parents, Jack's parents, and me and Jack. Jack made some lame excuse to leave, and then after that Jack's parents left, so I was left in the room with my parents.

"Then those monsters just suddenly appeared through the walls and asked me and my parents if we knew where any Shen Gong Wu were, and then when my parents freaked out, they started trashing the place. They breathed out some kind of weird paralysing ray. It made a ting! noise. They froze my parents, and two of my kittens, like I said." She pulled out two white kittens from her little back pack. "Look, see?"

Kimiko looked at the frozen kittens, and couldn't help wondering if this was similar to what she'd looked like when she had been turned into a statue by the Sapphire Dragon. If so, then that might have meant a Shen Gong Wu had been involved. Jack would have gone after the Horn of Qilin so that would leave – Wuya.

She sure didn't waste any time, Kimiko thought darkly.

Katnappe placed the kittens back in her bag. "But I managed to escape," she continued, "and I'd brought my costume, and tools, so I got changed. One of my kittens ran away, and I was looking for it, and then I bumped into some of Jack's robots, and then you."

Kimiko thought for a moment. The minute she had been spotted, she had immediately been attacked. "They asked? They didn't attack right away?"

"Well, more like growled. I don't know where Jack's parents went ... They'd excused themselves, but when they'd left the room you could hear them arguing."

"They've been frozen too, I saw them."

"And as for Jack, well I haven't a clue where he went. Said he was going to his room to study – but he probably went to his lab to work on those robots of his."

"What's that?" Kimiko asked, pointing to the small gun Katnappe had used.

"It shoots out bolts of lightning. Electricity seems to stun those monsters temporarily. I think it's a prototype for some really special cannon gun thing that Jack kept going on about. It was something I noticed when I first met Jack, actually. I kinda ... borrowed it from him the last time I was here."

Katnappe looked at Kimiko seriously. "Now let me ask you something. What are you doing here?"

Kimiko hesitated, and then said, "I'm here to get a Shen Gong Wu off Jack."

Katnappe laughed a laugh that Kimiko found REALLY annoying. "You? Came here? To steal a Shen Gong Wu? And I thought you were supposed to be one of the good guys."

"It's a really important Shen Gong Wu!" Kimiko snapped, indignant as to why she should have to defend her actions, that were for the greater good, against someone who stole things for the thrill of it. "If Jack tries to use it, he'll probably screw it up."

"I know that's true," Katnappe said, giving the other girl an odd look – they were both actually agreeing on something.

"Sure wish I had the Eye of Dashi," said Kimiko. "What about if we go in Jack's lab? He might have some of his Shen Gong Wu there."

"We won't be able to get in. I tried before. Bonehead's put some kind of force-field around it. Hey, you!" she whisper-called to a small brown bird which had flown inside the room. "Where have you been?

The bird mechanically transformed into a silver mannequin-like robot. Kimiko recognised it as Jack's Chameleon-bot, although she didn't know what version he'd got up to. 3.0, perhaps?

"Scouting the house, as you requested," the robot replied. "The master is not present anywhere, and I've detected eight creatures, four of whom have been disabled."

Katnappe shook her head. "For goodness sake! Where did he go?"

"Gone off to get the Horn of Qilin, I'd imagine," said Kimiko.

"Idiot! His house is getting smashed and all he can think about is those Shen Gong Wu. Wait ... did you say eight?"

"Affirmative."

"But I only saw four ..."

"Two of the anomalous creatures are inside the dining room, and two are outside the wall perimeter."

Oh no, thought Kimiko. Clay ...


Clay turned around, and was backhanded roughly in the stomach by a dark scaly arm. His back collided with a tree, which was in such a withered condition that it collapsed under his weight. He looked up. In the darkness, it was difficult to make out what had attacked him, but he could see its outline: a black, spiny two-legged lizard with hollowed, darkened eyes staring back at him.

The chameleon-bot? he thought. What gives? He'd been sitting down calmly for the past twenty-five minutes, waiting for Omi to come back with the Horn of Qilin, for Kimiko to come out of Jack's house, mindin' his own beeswax, and this stupid robot had attacked him out of the blue. Well, now it'd have Clay Bailey to deal with.

He quickly stood up, while the lizard picked up the Shen Gong Wu chest in its forearms.

"Oh no you don't," said Clay, swinging round his lasso, and roping it around the chest. There was a tug-of-war contest as the creature pulled back. Clay was pulled suddenly, and there was a tearing sound, since his trousers had been caught on one of the tree's gnarled roots. Clay used the Third Arm Sash to grab on also, and pulled hard one last time, and the Huai-Ren lost the chest; it tipped on its side, its lid opening and some of the Shen Gong Wu falling out.

The Huai-Ren showed its teeth, and took the fallen Longi Kite in its arms. Clay ran closer – it opened its mouth to say ting! – but this time Clay used the Third-Arm Sash and his Earth element to smash it in the face, and he followed this up with a Clay rushing body-blow, slamming it against the wall.

"Phew ..."

Clay took a moment to think. Robots generally moved in jerky movements, but it seemed too ... animal-like, too fluid in its motions to have been a robot. Jack must have done a really good upgrade.

He bent down, starting to put the Shen Gong Wu back inside the chest, when a second Huai-Ren appeared through the wall, a vulture-like creature that swooped swiftly, heading for the Shen Gong Wu. Clay could feel a cool breeze and heard a whoosh! noise as it flew by, grabbing the Sun Chi Lantern and the Heart of Jong in its talons.

Clay grabbed the Eye of Dashi and tried a lightning blast, but the vulture was more agile than it looked, and it ducked and weaved, avoiding the bolts. It flew away from the house, increasing Clay's suspicions that these things were not actually anything to do with Jack.

Meanwhile, the lizard growled, "Longi Kite," and it used the Kite to fly down, taking the Star Hanabi and the Fist of Tebigong while Clay was distracted. Clay turned around only to see it flying off, also high and away from the house.

He sighed, lamenting the loss of the Shen Gong Wu. They must have been something to do with Wuya. That had to be it. They looked like darkness and evil personified – at least in Clay's opinion, although it wasn't too far off from the truth.

He had just finished gathering up the rest of the Shen Gong Wu when loud rock music flared. Clay looked up, and saw himself surrounded by some of Jack's robots. There were less of them than usual, but it was still a pain to have to fight once more, after what had just happened. And now Clay was certain that those monsters were Wuya's doing.

Jack was looking VERY pleased with himself. "Well, now," he grinned from his hovercar, "what DO we have here? Clay with – " he tittered with laughter " – his pants down!"

Clay turned to look down, and saw that there was a large hole in the back of his trousers, revealing boxers with cowboy hats on them. Jack was banging against the side of his hovercar, howling with mocking laughter.

"Cut that out!" Clay growled, trying to patch over the hole – but Jack wasn't going to be laughing for much longer. Two more Huai-Ren materialised through the outer wall (these were larger and more dragon-like in appearance). One of them smashed through Jack's remaining robots as if they weren't even there; the other one booted Jack's hovercar like a football and sent it flying into the horizon. Jack ejected just in time, but he wasn't going to be seeing his hovercar again any time soon.

Jack landed next to Clay, and said, "They look like that dragon thing I fought," sounding surprised.

" 'S more of them evil things," said Clay, almost at the same time.

They exchanged quick glances and then they said: "You've fought them too?"

"No time!" said Clay, as the two dragons flew towards them.

"No problem," said Jack with a smug smile, taking out the Horn of Qilin. The entire area lit up as he did so, and they could now see both dragons clearly. "Horn of Qilin!" The Horn shot a beam and one dragon was destroyed; Jack shot a second beam of light, easily getting rid of the second one, too.

"Ah didn't know it could do that," said Clay, who, despite his great dislike of Jack, was a little impressed.

"I'll bet you didn't." He paused. "But ... why were they inside my house?"

"Wait, somethin' else is comin'!" Clay exclaimed, pointing to a large form in the sky.

Jack instinctively held the Horn of Qilin out, but it turned out to be Dojo, holding Omi. Dojo landed, carefully placing Omi on the ground. He shrunk in size, and was immediately surrounded by Jack and Clay.

Jack was the first to speak. "WHAT is going on?"


Thanks to PrincessViv, EvilDiva and Borgy for some of these translations

pingjing – tranquil

ping – even, level; peaceful

jing – tranquil, serene

wuya – crow or raven ... hence the name of the chapter.

wu – black; crow

ya – crow, raven

I looked up the Chinese characters, so, once again, if there're any mistakes, tell me, and I'll correct them. But no flames. Constructiveness only, please.

Mythical creatures

anzu – a mythical creature that is winged and four-legged; it has the head, front paws and body-shape of a lion, but has the back legs and tail of an eagle, and its body is feathered.

drorpion – I described these already, but the thing to note is that I made these up. Me. Myself. I. They're long-necked, dragon-headed horses.

shoka – not really a mythical creature, but a form of Japanese flower-arranging. I just picked the name because it fits. I made the Shoka forest-dwelling folk.

Li Jin – made this name up. I don't know if it means anything.