Author Notes:
I'm back and sorry for the wait, life's been really busy lately, (which you wouldn't expect seeing as I'm SUPPOSED to be on holidays now). Finally, if anyone wants profiles on any of my original characters or places please ask and I'll send it with the next chapter. Oh, and I do realise that Dojo might be a bit OOC but he is panicking, Jack may be OOC too but I am trying to keep him in character.
Pairings: Eventual Jack/Kimiko (hopefully)
Note: There is a mild reference to my other story (The Gift) in this chapter.
Disclaimer: The author forfeits any and all ownership of Xiaolin Showdown and the characters within it, she does however own the plot and anything or anyone you don't recognise from canon.
Reviews:
Firewu: Thanks, I hope you like this chapter
Anonnie Mousse: Again, I am sorry for not updating sooner, and I agree, there aren't enough Jack-centered stories out there.
Xiaolin Monkey: My goodness (Quickly resuscitates) sorry about the lack of updates, I made this chapter longer to make up for it though :)
Throwing down the Gauntlets'The phrase "throw down the gauntlet" derives from medieval Europe. One knight could challenge another by throwing his gloves (gauntlets) onto the ground before another knight. If the other knight picked up the gauntlets, he accepted the challenge and the two would fight.'
Last Time
"Master Fung, Dojo, as honored as I am to have you have you visit me, may I ask the purpose of your visit here, along with the whereabouts of chosen who should be under your protection?" The aged monk looked older then ever,
"Adelaide, you are aware that recently four of the Shen Gong Wu revealed themselves simultaneously, yes?" At her affirmative nod he continued, "Then you are aware that my young dragons would have gone as is their duty to collect them."
"I am, but that does not explain the reason for your presence" The dragon master exchanged a look with Dojo before taking a deep breath and continuing.
"Spirit Guardian Adelaide," her eyes widened slightly at the formal address, "the purpose of my visit is to request the help of yourself and the help of your soul siblings. The location of my students is unknown to me, as they have been abducted during their last mission."
Do what is right, come what may
Adelaide froze and stared at the aging dragon master incredulously, closing her eyes she quelled the immediate response to demand any and all information from him about the younger dragons. Instead she forced a look of neutrality onto her face as she turned to him again,
"That is, unfortunate Master Fung, however I don't see how I can help. You know the rules, my soul siblings and I are forbidden to interfere in the journeys of the chosen."
Master Fung narrowed his eyes at her,
"I am aware of the rules Spirit Guardian, however sometimes the rules must be broken to ensure that the right thing be done."
Adelaide's mask slipped slightly as a sympathetic look passed over her face,
"Master Fung, I am sorry, but please understand, there is nothing that I or either of my siblings can do. We can not help you." 'No matter how much we may wish we could.' She added mentally.
"You mean you wont, you're too afraid to help."
She flinched at the words but remained where she was. Trembling with fury, the dragon master swept from the room, pausing briefly at the door,
"Adelaide, remember there is always a choice between the path that is easy and the path that is right, I hope you know what you're doing." Adelaide winced as the door slammed shut behind him. Dojo remained, staring at her with an earnest look,
"You can't be serious Adelaide, come one, you have to help. It's the chosen ones, remember? The ones who are going to save us all?"
Adelaide shook her head slowly and turned to leave,
"Again, I am sorry Dojo,"
The tiny dragon exploded into a hissing mass of spark edged soot,
" Sorry? SORRY? Sorry won't save them from Wuya and whatever her designs are! Sorry won't rescue them from Jack Spicer's lair! Sorry won't get them back at the temple WHERE THEY BELONG!" he paused for breath, " You can do what you like but don't stand there looking woeful and saying 'sorry' when you know you could be fucking saving them RIGHT NOW! I don't know what's happened to you Adelaide, you never used to think anything against breaking a couple of out-of-date rules to help others but I suggest you start getting your act together. " While normally a very placid creature by nature considering his species, Dojo was still a dragon and as such was fiercely protective of anything under his charge, including the well being of the four chosen. The small green reptile choked on the end of his words and fled to master's side.
Adelaide sighed and sunk down onto her knees, closing her eyes as she tried to push the harsh words ringing in her ears away and focused on returning into her trance. Moments later she opened her eyes, unable to concentrate as unwanted ideas flashed through her mind. She scrambled to her feet and nervously paced, her latest idea expanding rapidly into a plan. She chewed nervously at her bottom lip, wondering if the others would even agree to this before snatching up her sphere and sending a pair of spirits with her message. Taking a final look around the room, she tightened her grip on the sphere unconsciously before leaving for the meeting point she had sent to the others, consequences be damned.
Jack Spicer, evil boy genius and all around child protégé was a having a good day, or was it night. He paused momentarily in his walk to his lab as he considered the grammatically correct way to say it. He could say it had been a good 24 hours, however as the events had not taken 24 hours it would kind of loose the purpose and really what kind of looser said they were having a good 24 hours. Deciding that he would find the perfect, grammatically correct way of stating his recent good fortune later, he moved on to more important things. He had finished planning his latest creation, built it and named it. He had both updated and reformatted his Jack-bots, he slipped off his goggles and considered them fondly, he couldn't remember who had given them to him or when but they evoked warm feelings from him so he must have liked the person and the emotion tended to strengthen when he tinkered with his Jack-bots. In any case, the best part in recent times, was he had won a Xiaolin Showdown, against Omi of all people, he mentally cheered as it wasn't often he managed to get one up on the little monk. In fact he now had eight new Shen Gong Wu in his vault thanks to his acquaintances, and to top it all off, he had all four Xiaolin dragons captured and locked away in a storage area. The only question now was what to do with them.
In all honesty, it was beyond Jack as to why Wuya would want to capture the dragons as it had been on her orders. Wuya had simply smiled when he asked, well as much as she could while wearing that mask, and told him to leave the dragons for her and the others to deal with. Quite frankly, he was more then a little worried over what might happen to them, Wuya was a known dark, evil and possibly sadistic witch and the others had their own bones to pick with the dragons. He forced himself not to think like that, they would be fine, Wuya was a ghost, she couldn't touch them, and the others were still kids, like him, they wouldn't really hurt them.
He stopped outside the door to his lab and typed the password into keypad, he still hadn't figured out how Catnappe still managed to get in even after he had changed the password several times however he suspected that Wuya might have something to do with it. He pushed the door open and immediately moved to a pile of scrap metal he'd meant to use for his next machine, rummaging through the pile he blinked as his hand brushed against something fairly large, round and rather sharp. Carefully extracting the object he identified it as one of Catnappe's toys that she'd used to destroy several of his Jack-bots during their first meeting. Running a hand just above the bladed edge he recalled his earlier trepidation at leaving the dragons alone with the others. Perhaps he should set up a security alarm in the room the Xiaolin warriors resided in, just in case.
Above his head a sudden shrill siren sound broke through his thoughts, Jack snapped his head towards the alarm and stared at it in bewildered confusion for a moment, trying to remember what it was for exactly before realising it was the house security alarm. He scrambled to his feet, hands flipping switches that sent messages through his network and summoned the Jack-bots to the problem, before tapping the key to turn the alarm off and heading towards the intruder himself. A quick glance over his shoulder told Jack that the others had also heard the alarm and were now on their way too.
Earlier:
Adelaide gathered with her companions outside Jack's estates.
"We should not be here, we are breaking the rules, Master Long will be displeased." Kira whispered fiercely to her long time friend, her eyes made larger with fear. Blake considered Adelaide silently with a contemplating and slightly accusing gaze, however he turned his attention to Kira,
"Perhaps, but in this case the end justifies the means. The safety of the chosen is all that matters."
Adelaide glanced at him surprise; she had half expected him to agree with Kira. She frowned internally and felt a brief spasm of disgust when she realised her own reservations to the plan. There was a time where none of them would have thought twice about breaking the rules, after all to them, rules were nothing more than limitations, she wondered what had happened. Shaking the thoughts from her head, she nodded in agreement to Blake,
"Kira this is more important than a few rules."
Kira pouted lightly but nodded,
"Very well then."
The three leapt to the top of the wall that bordered the house; Blake let out a soft whistle,
"This place has more defenses than Fort Knox, talk about over kill. At least half of this stuff must be custom made." Adelaide arched an eyebrow,
"It's definitely been upgraded since I was here last. What is that, a laser grid?"
"Looks like a distraction to me," Kira grinned lightly from her spot next to Adelaide, "so, how bout we inform the household of our presence?" She exchanged a mischievous look with Blake who returned it with a smirk before the pair jumped down from the wall, deliberately landing on the beams of red light. Almost immediately a shrill siren rang through the area, the commotion swiftly drawing Jack, Wuya and the others to the scene and allowing Adelaide to sink into the shadows and easily bypass them into the house.
Adelaide slunk through the building for the second time, tilting her head to glance down the corridors as she went. She turned down the closest hallway to her left and continued her path before she stopped and glared at the dead end before her. Frowning lightly she summoned a spirit from her orb,
"Show me the way spirit, guide me to the Xiaolin Warriors."
The gently glowing sphere paused before speeding past her and turning left again, Adelaide following as fast as she could. She followed the speck of light down several hallways before it stopped and hovered outside a door, close to the basement if she recalled correctly. Adelaide sighed and wished she had the serpent's tail with her, unfortunately she had no idea of its current location. Shifting her glance, she considered the wall to her right and wondered how she was going to get past the door, not noticing the soft click of the door, nor how it swung open silently. It was not until her summoned spirit was floating next to ear and snickering its non-existent head off that she turned. Her eyebrow quirked and she eyed the spirit, who was now metaphorically rolling on the ground with laughter,
"Funny,"
She banished the spirit and walked through the open doorway, immediately locating the missing Xiaolin dragons chained to the far wall. None of them looked worse for wear, although they all gave her a highly suspicious look when she entered. Giving them a wiry smile she snatched the key ring from where it was hanging on the wall and set about freeing them.
Omi was the first to recover from the shock that had set in upon seeing her and bowed to their rescuer,
"Thank you, most noble rescuer, we are all in great debt to you."
"I've only freed you from you restraints, you're not out the woods yet."
"What do you mean?"
"This is your battle, my friends and I merely lent a hand." The dragon of water frowned,
"But-" Kimiko placed a restraining hand on her friend's shoulder,
"Come on Omi, Jack Spicer and his buddies are just waiting to have their butt's kicked!"
"Yeah Omi, that two faced varmint needs to learn a thing or two about playing fair."
Omi glanced at Adelaide before nodding enthusiastically again,
"Yes, we shall go and smack the shirts off of them!" Raimundo paused for a moment,
"You mean, beat the pants off of them?"
"That to!" announced the shorter monk as he raced to leave the room,
"Dragon of the water, would you pass on a message for me?" He turned to their rescuer,
"What is it?"
"Tell Master Fung, that he was right, and that the Spirit Guardian admits that sometimes rules must be broken. Will you tell him that for me?" Still frowning in confusion Omi nodded. "Thanks."
He eyed her for another second before the call of battle summoned him and he ran to join his friends.
Adelaide watched as the final Xiaolin Warrior left for the battle her siblings had started on the front lawn. Smiling to herself, she left the room and began to retrace her footsteps to the outside world. However, she found herself hesitating in a hallway standing just before a photograph of the residential genius. Frowning slightly she considered the picture, mildly wondering what about the boy had caused Fafner's sudden reaction and subsequent departure. The photo in itself wasn't particularly striking, there was Jack, alone, with a brooding expression on the young teen's face but that wasn't uncommon for one his age, although she found it strange that she had yet to come across one family photo. Her gaze moved to linger on the mark just under the eye, it was of some importance, that much she was sure of, her eyes narrowed as she examined it. A thread of thought niggled at her mind, and her eyes widened slightly as she stepped back, a gasp caught in her throat,
"What the? Oh hell, how is that possible?"
She turned abruptly and picked up her pace as she started down the hallway again, a single thought running through her head, Jack Spicer could not stay here any longer.
Kira and Blake were both waiting for her just outside the entrance, Kira waved to her in greeting,
"Hey Addy, we were just leaving. The chosen can handle the situation from here." Black grunted his agreement, Adelaide shook her head,
"No, they can't. I have something I need to do first."
The twins exchanged looks and Kira glanced at her,
"Adelaide, we agreed we'd come and help the chosen out, and we have. We can't interfere any more then we already have."
Adelaide ignored her, striding swiftly towards the battlefield, Fafner's words ringing in her head,
'You will have to break the rules again.'
She stopped just at the edge of the yard and focused her attention on one single entity. Forcing herself to breathe calmly, Adelaide addressed them,
"Heylin Witch Wuya, I challenge you to a Praesul Macto!"
Jack had to wonder, who the hell were these people trespassing on his property and why were they attacking him? It wasn't as though Jack had any enemies, well ok there were the Xiaolin losers, but they were more like rivals than anything. Perhaps they were kidnapers; here to steal him away and demand a ransom from his folks for his safe return…he snorted, yeah right, as though his parents would even notice his disappearance. He ducked as the chameleon bot flew past him, shifting through several shapes as it went, and mentally whined about the repairs he would have to make. It was strange though, none of the attacks they made were enough to cause any real damage, he shrugged off the observation however and concentrated on the battlefield that used to be his front lawn. He had to bite back snarl, a reaction that startled him, after he noticed the Xiaolin warriors joining into the fray, no doubt he'd be getting some serious flack from Wuya about their escape. Several seconds later, or was it minutes? time seemed to warp during battles he found, an unknown voice rang out across the lawn,
"Heylin Witch Wuya, I challenge you to a Praesul Macto!"
All fighting stopped as the astonished participants turned to the blond figure standing at the front door to the Spicer manor next to the pair who had been attacking Jack and his troop. He hadn't noticed them leaving the battle and even they seemed to be surprised by the blonde's words. Wuya appeared to be in a state of shock as she considered the challenge before narrowing her eyes as much as possible at the challenger,
"What are the stakes?"
Jack felt a sudden rush of inexplicable fear and a need to demand that Wuya ignore the blonde's provocation however he squashed it, even when the smirk on the girl's face increased the sense of fear and the idea that his world was about to collapse.
Fin
The Studio
Chase: Chibi
ChibiChaos: Yes Chase?
Chase: I've been reading over your script and I found something wrong with it
ChibiChaos: (freaks out) WHAT! Wrong with it? (grabs a copy of the script and checks it through) What is it? What's wrong with it?
Chase: (coughs) Well, for starters, I'm not in it, and I know that it's merely a slight oversight on your behalf but I'd like it fixed…NOW!
ChibiChaos: (stops) Um, Chase, you're not in it
Chase: What? (Turns into lizard form and grabs Chibi) Why not?
ChibiChaos: Uh, well, you see…(half an hour later) and I'm sorry Chase, but that's why Wuya's going to be the main villain in this story.
Chase: I can't believe you! That is the lamest excuse ever!
ChibiChaos: I'm sorry, my mind is made up
Chase: (drops her and stomps off)
ChibiChaos: Eh, well that's this chapter's done, I hope it's ok, I think there were several areas which were awkwardly written. And I know, I know I promised more on Jack but I wanted to separate the fight scene and explanations to a different chapter.
Translations
Praesul: (Latin) Protector/ Guardian
Macto: (Latin) Fight