Uploaded: 13th October 2004


Chapter 9: The House that Jack built

Once a little argument over the Orb of Tornami had been settled (both Katnappe and Kimiko - with one good arm - had held Jack down, and Clay had threatened to knock the living daylights out of Jack if he didn't return it), Katnappe had left with the Chameleon-bot to look for her missing kitten, and Clay and Dojo had gone with the Eye of Dashi and Jack's remaining robots to bring Jack and Ashley's parents to the lab. That left Kimiko and Jack; and Jack had surprised Kimiko by taking her to the bathroom and fixing up her arm with bandages for her. They were back inside the library, now mulling over the discovery of the new Shen Gong Wu.

The Stallion Medallion, a silver medal with a picture of a horse's head on it; it allowed you to switch Shen Gong Wu with someone.

The Wolf's Fang, a small white tooth with odd, red, rectangular markings; it gave one the ability to transform into a were-animal.

The Feather of Feng Huang, a red feather with a yellow rim; with this, one could levitate objects.

The Vial of Light, a tiny see-through bottle with a clear liquid inside that could heal any physical injury.

They were all inactive, but they were all Shen Gong Wu, which Jack had never known his father had owned. Dojo had also seen the False Fleece, which allowed one to create illusions, and the Magic Magnet, which gave one the ability to guide the direction of magic spells, but Wuya had those ones now. Whether the Huai-Ren had taken any other Shen Gong Wu, Dojo wasn't sure, but they would have to be very careful, if she had the False Fleece.

Kimiko watched as Jack searched the overturned shelf, which had been the only part that the Huai-Ren had messed up, strangely enough; the rest of the library had been left intact.

"Are there any more of them?" Kimiko asked, hoping that the Puzzle of Gui Xian had not been stored here previously, and then been stolen by the Huai-Ren.

Jack was crouched down, with his back to her. "No, but ... I did find this ..." He held up a small book, which looked old and tattered in places. "My father's notes."

Kimiko was about to ask what was in the book, but Jack suddenly stood up, turned around and started walking away, not looking like he really wanted to talk about it.

"C'mon, let's go," he said. "I'm sure you're anxious to see Opie."

"OMI."

"Whatever."

They reached the door to his lab, where Jack flicked his wrist-watch, disabling the blue force-field that surrounded it. He placed the Horn of Qilin on the ground outside the door. Dojo had been adamant that they leave it outside the lab, but he hadn't told them why. He had seemed worried, though, and Jack and Kimiko had a suspicion that it was something to do with another Shen Gong Wu side-effect.

"It's a good thing I managed to get the force-field up and running this morning," he said to her, a little quirky smile on his face. "And Wuya told me it wouldn't work out here!" He posed dramatically. "Ha, to her!"

"Are all your Shen Gong Wu in there?"

"Yep. Well, except the Mantis Flip Coin."

They walked inside. The inside of Jackster's lab was just as Kimiko remembered it – dark, creepy and full of evil genius paraphernalia. But she looked beyond all that, as there was one person she noticed straight away. She gasped, and ran to Omi, bending down to give him a little hug.

"Omi ..."

She knew from Dojo that there was a way to heal this, but she couldn't help feeling worried all the same. He had promised her he would be careful before he'd left for the Horn of Qilin ... what was it he had been so determined to do, all by himself? And what if he'd been killed? She would have been devastated if anything like that had happened to the little guy ... Like the other two dragons-in-training, Kimiko had found Omi a bit overbearing when they had first met, but his sweet innocence and mile-a-minute questions had eventually won her over. Although he was an excellent fighter, all his years at the Xiaolin temple meant he had known hardly anything about the outside world, and they had both taught each other many things during the last few months.

"We'll get you healed soon ..." she told him, even though she knew he couldn't hear her. "I promise ..."

Jack pouted, as he went to a shelf where all his Shen Gong Wu were kept. Did he have to get frozen before she'd give him that kind of attention? Well, it didn't matter anyway. At the moment, he needed to focus on a way to get rid of Wuya so things could go back to the way they were before this whole mess started.

He picked up his Shen Gong Wu, and placed them on the long table in the centre of his lab. The Changing Chopsticks, the Tangle Web Comb, the Ring of the Nine Dragons and the Falcon's Eye ... He added the Mantis Flip Coin, and the Lotus Twister that he'd won in the showdown against Raimundo, and then the new inactive ones ... the Stallion Medallion, the Wolf's Fang, the Feather of Feng Huang and the Vial of Light.

He sighed and flicked through his father's book, stopping on a picture of the puzzle-box. He remembered his father had asked him if he had been able to open it ... He had lied, of course, saying that he'd kept the box all the same, but he couldn't get his father's disappointed look out of his head now. Had his dad known about Wuya? Is that why he'd sent him the puzzle-box? And, if so, why would he do such a thing?

"I'm sorry about Omi," he said, putting the book down on the table.

Kimiko stood up, turning around to look at him. "Why?"

"... Seems like such a waste. Omi's the kind of guy who wouldn't go down without a fight, so Wuya had to resort to taking him by surprise. Happened before I got there, but your little lizard friend was telling me and Clay about it."

"Okay," said Kimiko, going right up to him and pointing in his face, "who are you and what have you done with the real Jack Spicer?"

"In case you forgot, Wuya's gone and frozen my parents. They never even did anything to her. They've got nothing to do with this."

At least, I thought they didn't ...

Kimiko was surprised. Maybe Jack wasn't as heartless as he always made himself out to be. She watched him frowning down at his father's book.

"Jack ... you ..."

"Hmm?"

"You ran at that monster ... You were worried about me?"

"No big deal. Why?" And then he grinned. "Were you impressed by my bravery?"

Kimiko let out a frustrated sigh. No rest for the wicked.

"Bet you were and you just don't wanna admit it."

"You wish!"

Looks like Jack's back to his old self already.

"What were you doing here, anyway?" He pulled the straps of his goggles, still grinning cheekily at her. "Couldn't get enough of yours truly?"

"Oh, get over yourself, Jack. I came here to get the puzzle-box."

"Ha to you too, then! You'd never have been able to get past my force-field."

"Yeah, well, I know that now."

"Tell you what," he said, a mischievous little glint in his red little eyes, "I'll give it to you, but you have to promise to go out on a date with me."

Kimiko was sure that, at that moment, she could hear three sets of sniggers coming from the door.

"Are you guys listening in to our conversation?"

The door opened and Katnappe came in, holding her kitten; Dojo was riding Clay's back; they were followed by Jack's robots carrying four sets of statues; and the Chameleon-bot (which had assumed the form of a brown-haired teenaged girl in a light blue T-shirt and jeans) brought up the rear.

Clay smiled guiltily at Kimiko, and Dojo was still sniggering, both remembering the conversation they'd had about the Puzzle prior to the Horn of Qilin's activation.

Katnappe said, "No way in hell would she go out with a dork like you."

"Hey, can't blame a guy for trying."

"In case you forgot," Kimiko told Jack, her fiery anger flaring up, "Wuya's turned the whole world to darkness, every tree on Earth is wasted away, and nothing electrical works! Where the hell would we go?"

Katnappe frowned sharply. It was Wuya's fault the sky outside was so dark? How had she managed to do that? Ashley herself had only visited the Spicers' house a week ago; she'd won her showdown against Kimiko and captured her, acting upon Wuya's instructions, although Omi had later come to rescue Kim and the other dragons. But Ashley hadn't been to Jack's house since. What had happened here in the last week?

"Oh, come on," said Jack, "there must be somewhere on Earth that's still okay."

"There is, actually," said Dojo, who had slithered to the floor, and everyone's head turned down towards him. "Well there is! There's quite a few places protected against Darkness."

Jack gave Kimiko a "there – see?" look, and she pouted in response.

Katnappe looked down at the unconscious kitten in her hands. It was a regular kitten, not one of her genetically modified ones, and it hadn't deserved to be in any of this. She walked over to the table and sat down, making herself comfortable in Jack's "evil" chair.

"What do you think you're doing?" snapped Jack, who didn't give a monkey's ass about Katnappe's kittens. "Get out of my chair, Ash-ley!"

"Make me, robo-freak."

"Be happy to!"

"Enough with the arguing!" Dojo exclaimed.

Jack pouted sullenly. "But that's my chair ..."

The look on everyone else's faces was a universal "no-one cares".

Katnappe frowned again. "I'm going to make those monster things pay for this," she said, looking at her kitten in her lap.

"Well, Wuya sent them, so you should take it up with her," said Dojo. "But I wouldn't recommend it."

"What?" She turned round in the chair to face Jack. "Oh, so you are behind all this, are you? Getting back at me for eating your pudding?"

The boy genius looked positively outraged. "Don't go pointing the finger at ME! This has got nothing to do with me! Why the hell would I paralyse my own parents?"

"I thought you were s'posed to be evil, Jack," Clay pointed out, voice calm as a summer breeze.

"I AM! But I wouldn't trash my own house just to prove a point. Even I'm not that obsessive."

"Er – excuse me?" Kimiko snapped at him, giving him an incredulous look. "You sure about that? I mean, you did, somehow, find out my number, send me a text, got that robot to replace me and no one else; you locked me up in a birdcage and hit on me – "

"And what about those robots you're always workin' on, Jack?" Clay put in. "Talk about over the top ..."

Katnappe ticked off on her fingers: "And then there's that signed autograph of yourself in your room, not to mention posters of you, calendar – of you, cute plushies of you, carpet with you – you've even got Jack Spicer underwear, for crying out loud."

"Why is everyone picking on me? This is all Wuya's fault! Go tell her off, if you dare!"

"No, Jack," said Katnappe, "this is your fault, for opening that stupid puzzle-box! That stupid ghost's more trouble than she's worth."

"Get with the times, Ash-ley," Jack said scornfully, eager to get her back for revealing the contents of his room to the Xiaolin show-offs. And for the pudding. "Wuya's not a ghost any more. She's been brought back to life."

This took Katnappe by surprise. Somehow, throughout their little escapades through Jack's house, Kimiko had neglected to mention that little detail to her. "What? And how'd that happen?"

"Dunno, actually," Jack was forced to admit. He turned to the two Xiaolin warriors. "You guys never told me. How did she get her body back?"

Clay and Kimiko both looked at the ground, scowling deeply.

"Oh I get it," Jack grinned, always happy at the chance to have a dig at the Xiaolin warriors, " – it was Raimundo, wasn't it?"

"The Wind guy?" Katnappe asked, getting more confused by the minute. "But I thought he was on their side?"

"He, er, defected," Jack said.

"Defected? And he brought Wuya to life?"

"Guess so," said Jack when neither Kimiko nor Clay responded. Dojo said, "It was this morning ...We were there when it happened. We tried to stop them, but ... we failed."

"Stupid idiot. Why on earth did he go and do that for? Wuya was annoying enough when she was a ghost, but now she's back to life she'll be ten times more likely to get on my nerves – and that isn't because she's a witch, either. She's just so bossy."

Jack nodded in an odd moment of complete agreement, remembering that he'd thought exactly the same thing about Wuya.

"I've a feeling he did it to get back at us," Kimiko said bitterly. Raimundo's betrayal had hit her hard, and had affected her much more than Clay and Omi. Much more than she was willing to admit, anyway.

"You guys fell out," snorted Katnappe. "Oh, this just keeps getting better."

"But how did Raimundo do it?" Jack wanted to know. Despite the fact that he would never go back to Wuya now, he couldn't help feeling that the whole Shen Gong Wu hunt would have been a heck of a lot easier for him if Wuya had been solid to begin with.

"The Reversing Mirror and the Serpent's Tail," said Dojo.

"Reversing Mirror?" Katnappe repeated. "And the Serpent's Tail?"

"I never did find out what that mirror did," Jack added. "How does it work?"

"When used on another Shen Gong Wu, the Reversing Mirror reverses the effect of that Shen Gong Wu," Clay explained.

"The Jet Bootsu would be like magnetic boots on a metallic surface – always sticking to the ground," said Kimiko. "And instead of making you invisible, the Shroud of Shadows would make you stick out like some kind of neon light."

Jack looked at his Changing Chopsticks. "So ... if I used it with these, I'd get really big instead?"

"Yeah, that's right," said Clay, and Dojo nodded, while Jack continued the current line of thought.

"And normally the Serpent's Tail makes you transparent, but if reversed – oh, it would make you solid. I see. So that's how Wuya did it."

"And where were you, Jack, when this happened?" Katnappe asked.

"Here, I s'pose, if it happened this morning."

"And why was Wuya with Raimundo instead of you, Jack?"

This time Jack looked down towards the ground with a frown, and Katnappe couldn't help but laugh. "Oh, so you two fell out, as well? And now everyone's switched sides?"

"Not us," said Kimiko, once again becoming indignant at Katnappe's flippant remarks. Or maybe it was just that laugh. "We've always been the good guys."

"Hey!" said Jack, also realising what Katnappe had said. He hadn't switched sides either. "There's no way I'm teaming up with a bunch of losers like you."

"Well, if we're all against Wuya, we should be on the same side," said Dojo thoughtfully.

"Ha! I'm not afraid to be by myself. Unlike you loser-freaks, I'm not scared of Wuya."

"Well, you should be!" snapped Dojo. Didn't Jack realise how serious this whole thing really was?

"I got the Horn of Qilin from her," Jack said haughtily, starting to strut around the lab in a pretentious manner. (Katnappe muttered, "Bonehead.") "You were there," he told Dojo. "In fact, I saved you. Admit it, I was cool. And what does that say about Little Miss Bossy?"

"It says that you were really lucky, Jack," said Dojo, shaking his head, his tone still angry. Jack's shameless arrogance was going to get him killed. "I don't think Wuya is at full power, yet."

"WHAT?" Kimiko exploded. This was news to her ears. "Not at full power? And why didn't you tell us this before?"

"I didn't want to get your hopes up. I mean, even without all her powers, she's still extremely dangerous."

"But why do you think she's not got all her powers back?" Katnappe asked.

"Because ... We were lucky to escape her. We got caught, Omi and I, but Jack came in and saved us in the nick of time. And then she was acting weird with Jack ... she didn't use her powers."

"What are you talking about?" Jack demanded. "Wuya stole the Horn of Qilin from me, and went and knocked me out! What the hell were all those death balls about?"

"That was her using dark magic; but that's not what I meant. She didn't use her chi energy in the way she normally would have. In fact, she didn't use her chi at all."

"I don't believe this," said Kimiko, also now shaking her head. "Do you mean to tell me that we fought Wuya, and LOST, and she wasn't even using her full powers against us?"

There was another Jack grin. "Ha, you guys are even bigger losers than I thought. I won against her."

"Not all of us have fancy gadgets like you, Jack," Dojo countered. "Besides, she wasn't being serious with you, you know. She let you keep the Horn. It looked like she wanted you to use it, which is very unlike her. I thought she was just going to take it from you. It's not like her to fool around."

Everyone watched as Jack thought for a moment. He remembered how indifferent Wuya had been about the Horn of Qilin, and ... Dojo was right. That had been odd, because usually she was so crazed with obtaining Shen Gong Wu. She'd hardly ever talked about anything else while she'd been at his house. And, now that he thought about it, he remembered that he'd thought the same thing, too, about Wuya wanting him to use the Horn. She also hadn't even been angry when Raimundo had lost the showdown – which Jack found unfair. Every time he'd lost a showdown, he'd got shouted at for it. And she'd only been a ghost!

He glanced at his dad. His father must have known about the Shen Gong Wu, too ... and the only way to find out more was to join the Xiaolin warriors. Dojo had mentioned that there was a way to heal this ...

"Fine ... I'll tag along with you losers for now. But only because I intend to rule the world. I'm not gonna let Wuya rain on my parade."

Clay adjusted his hat. "Well, how long till Wuya's back to what ya call normal, Dojo?"

"Well, I don't know ... It's not like this has ever happened before."

"Are you gonna tell us why you wanted us to leave the Horn of Qilin outside?" Kimiko asked.

"Yeah," added Jack, sounding sulky now that his victory over Wuya had been deflated somewhat, "is there something else we should know?"

"The Horn of Qilin is always active, even when it's inactive."

"So what? That's pretty much what Wuya told me," Jack shrugged.

"Yeah, but what she didn't tell you was that she can sense its location all the time."

"Meaning?"

Dojo sighed. "Meaning, she can use it to spy on you and use magic to attack you at any time."

"WHAT?"

"And now you see why she didn't mind that Raimundo lost the showdown," said Dojo.

"But why did you want us to get it, then, Dojo?" Kimiko asked.

"Because, as bad as it is having the Horn of Qilin with you, it's even worse if Wuya has it, because she's got the Reversing Mirror."

"Talk about your cursed Shen Gong Wu," said Katnappe. "Wuya would have won either way."

"That old hag is seriously starting to get on my nerves," Jack hissed, now angry because he knew exactly why Wuya had been playing around with him.

"So what now?" Katnappe said, looking fed up as she stood up out of Jack's chair. "Are we just gonna stand around here talking all day, waiting for Bossy-much to attack us, or what?"

"Oh yeah," said Kimiko, remembering why she'd come to Jack's house, "the Puzzle of Gui Xian. You said you've still got it, didn't you Jack?"

"What ...? Wait, don't tell me the puzzle-box is a Shen Gong Wu, as well ..."

"Sure is," said Clay.

"Wuya never told me ..."

"Maybe she was afraid you'd trap her in it again if you figured out how to use it," Kimiko said.

"Yeah, we reckon our best chance is to trap her inside it again," Clay said.

"But what if some other moron opens it in fifteen hundred years time?" Katnappe interjected.

"Shut up, Ashley," Jack said brusquely, walking to another shelf. He picked up the yellow and brown box, looking at its strange markings for all of ten seconds, before turning around to face the others.

"You want me to just give this to you ...? I don't think so. I think I'm gonna keep it."

"Why?" Kimiko asked. "You were gonna give it in exchange for a date."

"Well, I've changed my mind."

Clay sighed. "How 'bout we give you the Orb of Tornami in exchange? Fair's fair."

"No deal."

"Don't be such an idiot, Jack," said Katnappe, looking as if she asking for the impossible.

Jack didn't even bother replying to this one. "... I'll give it to you for the Orb, then, but you gotta unfreeze my parents, too. My dad gave this to me ... and I wanna find out why ..."

"We were gonna do that anyway," said Kimiko. "We're the good guys, remember?"

"Let's get going, then," said Katnappe somewhat bossily, "because the sooner we trap that witch inside the puzzle-box, the sooner things can get back to normal." Not that she wanted things to be boring again, but ... frozen parents and kittens were a bit too much. Actually, deep down, Katnappe was feeling quite alive with the buzz for adventure, so once her parents and kittens were restored, she was going to leave the Xiaolin dorks and see for herself what was going on in the world. She was just itching to leave Jack's lab.

"Where can we get them unfrozen?" she asked Dojo.

"I'm not sure, but I'll take you to someone who'll be able to help. He's guardian of a village called Ping-jing, which is heavily protected from Darkness."

Dojo frowned then; Ping-jing was that one place he'd sworn he would never return to ... But he had to brush his own feelings aside. Because right now, Omi needed his help.

"We'll be safe from Wuya there, even with the Horn of Qilin."

"But – Ping-jing," said Kimiko suddenly, as she realised something. "That's ..."

"Yeah," said Dojo, nodding. "Omi's hometown."