Disclaimer: I do not own Xiaolin Showdown.

In this chapter, things are heating up in the chase to catch Blaise, and there is lot's of rooftop jumping!

A Game of Cat and Mouse

Blaise shot upwards to the roof of the nearest white building and began to jump from building to building. Dazed by her agility, Omi looked around to find Chase, only to find him jumping after her. He found it hard to focus on the two blurs just dashing after each other on the rooftops.

"Come on Omi!" Someone shouted, but he couldn't tell who it was. Trying to keep up, he bounded about the rooftops hoping for someone to pass him by, until he saw Blaise shooting across the wall of the cave. Her legs were moving at incredible speeds. She thrust out from the wall and landed sideward on the building, hung there for just enough time to wink at him, and bounded off, jumping from roof to roof as if they were stepping stones. She jumped up to the top of the cave and pushed herself down. As she landed, the ground cracked and shook from the force. She ran up the walls of a building, Chase, was doing his level best to keep up, not far behind.

Omi jumped after her, neck and neck with Chase, but Blaise made a sharp turn onto the cave wall again and Chase had not expected it. He skidded to a halt and began his pursuit again. Omi, being small, had not needed to stop and had almost caught up with her until she once again jumped onto the ceiling and thrust to the ground.

Chase stopped and stood in the middle of the room, his eyes shut, his hands together, just concentrating.

Getting a sudden idea, Omi watched Blaise running around the walls. She wasn't that fast when she was on the walls, and the fastest attack Omi knew was his Tsunami strike. If he took after her while using his tsunami strike…

"TSUNAMI STRIKE WATER!"

The powerful jet of water propelled him after her on the walls. Seeing him in hot pursuit, she sped up and gave a great jump from one side of the cave to the other, she lost speed slightly, and landed on the wall in a stance that was like she landed on level ground. Omi circled right around and headed straight for her, propelled by the vicious force of water. She hung for a moment and just as they were about to collide, she jumped to the ceiling again so that Omi slammed head first into the wall with an almighty bang. He fell to the ground, knocked out cold.

"Ouch!" she laughed, and looked around for Chase.

Even when Omi hit the wall, Chase still had his eyes closed. He now knew what to do. He knew what would happen next. He knew how to win. After years of chasing her around this cave to the point where he was nearly collapsing, Omi had helped him figure it out. He just needed the right moment to strike.

Spotting Chase, Blaise ran around him in a tight circle so fast that she just became a pale white and green blur. Pulling his hair and cackling unmercifully, she was almost taunting him. But Chase knew how to do it now. She ran in a pattern, a circular motion and when she pulled his hair, she did it every second time she ran around him. Using his left arm, just after she had pulled his long black hair again he swiped her around the waist so that she was pulled close to him, her hands rested on his chest and her hips just slightly against his. There was a slight, barely audible chink of metal. Chase felt something close on his hand, but he decided to ignore it and celebrate his victory.

"Boo." He breathed. Up close, he could just barely make out the few freckles on her nose and on the apple of her cheeks.

"Oh, no fair!" she cried.

Chase twitched slightly. Whatever had caught his hand; it was squeezing his fingers together and twisting his wrist.

"Looks like I win! You are no longer the fastest." He had a wide smirk on his face, obviously very pleased with himself, despite the slowly worsening pain in his hand.

"Oh, it's not fair! How did you figure out my pattern?"

"It was Omi who helped me figure it out, you both move in the same basic pattern."

"Very clever!"

"Where is Omi?" Chase looked around, his left arm still caught in whatever was on Blaise's waist and the pain was getting worse.

"He hit the wall when he was chasing me. He's knocked out on the floor over there." She pointed at Omi, still out cold with a now reddening lump on his forehead.

"Can you heal him?"

"Well I could," She looked at him, her hips were still slightly leaned against his, "if you would let me go."

"I… can't." His eyebrow twitched, his hand felt as though it was going to break.

"Why?" She laughed.

"My hand is caught on something on your back and I can't break free." He looked a little embarrassed. Blaise looked shocked.

"I am so sorry! I forgot to take it off. Well it's a little trap in case anyone tries to steal money from me when I go into town. I am so sorry!"

"It's okay, just please," he twitched again, "take it off, it's quite painful."

"Okay, now hold still because this is gonna feel a little weird."