(walks in nervously)
I'm...back? (shifty eyes) Umm...i'm real sorry i havent updated in awhile, but it's been kinda hard...you know...my disk broke...and...now Oscar's helping Kate, so he's not here...
(people throw rotten veggies at me)
Unknown Speaker: HAHA! that's funny!
Kaisa: Why don't yah come over here and (SPLAT) HELP!
Unknown Speaker: (annoyed) do i have to?
Kaisa: (is too busy with trying to get rotten tomato out of her hair)
Unknown Speaker: (turns to readers) Well, i might as well introduce myself. (bows) I came here from a galaxy far far away to take over for the old tea pot who went away for a chapter! My boss says i have the maturity of atwelve year old...but that doesnt matter!I am the one who puts the 'star' back in 'starfighter pilot', the one who spikes the punch at formal parties, the one who--
Kaisa: GET ON WITH IT
Unknown Speaker: My, my, arent we moody. I am (dramaticpause)Wes Janson! Don't trip when you come running, ladies...please...
Kaisa: (to readers) Do you see why I came back? To keep this dude in line while Oscar is away...
Anywayz..
Kosmic: Umm, you can tell what i'm thinking? (arent you like Master Fung) (sweatdrops)
dl-sPirit: (sighs) yeah...i know...sorry...got stuff going on...and writer's block too...
Raifan207: Thanks. ;-) the way i try to portray Rai's feelings...let's just say it comes from the heart.
Mako-Magic: Yeah, we love the odd sarcastic comments, lol
Irissagrl: Wes: She...read chapter 12 twice... I didnt read your story at all. Kaisa: ...
And everyone else, here's the update...yes, we like Rai kicking butt, oh yes we do. (OH! I DO NOT OWN XIAOLIN SHOWDOWN! phew, i almost forgot...)
"Raimundo, now will you answer my question?" Omi asked impatiently. The four dragons in training were eating supper, and Omi was now extremely determined to get an answer from Raimundo. Especially since when he told the others about what happened earlier, and they had said that Raimundo was probably making an excuse to get out of the question.
"Umm… What question was that?" Raimundo inquired, not really paying attention.
"Did you gain control over your new power boost yet?"
Raimundo took one glance at the three questioning faces around him and decided he might as well tell them now. He looked down at his plate and said, "Yeah, I did."
The other three gaped in surprise. They hadn't expected that answer.
"But how do you know for sure?" Kimiko asked, being the first one to break the silence.
Raimundo shifted uncomfortably. "I…uh…tested it out the minute I thought I had it."
"How?" Omi questioned.
Raimundo paused. "By doing something that I knew my regular wind couldn't do, but the power boost could…"
"But what exactly did you do?" Kimiko asked.
I almost killed myself, that's what, Raimundo thought. "Omi, you know a few hours ago you said that you thought you saw me high up in a tree while you were training?"
"Yes…"
"Well, you did see me up there. And the reason I got down so quickly was because I tested my power boost…"
"How'd yah test it?" Clay asked, speaking up for the first time in the conversation.
"Ah…you know… I jumped," Raimundo mumbled quickly.
"You what!" the three other exclaimed loudly.
Omi shook his head. "No, that is impossible. You must have been at least fifty feet up in that tree! You could not have jumped, it would have hurt. A lot!"
"We must have heard him wrong, Omi," Kimiko said irritably. "Because if he did jump fifty feet off a tree, that would have been the second stupidest thing he's ever done. I bet he's lying about the whole thing. I bet he really doesn't have control over his new power, and he just wants us to think he's better."
"Why would Raimundo lie to us?" Clay asked.
"He's done it before, loads of times. And I would think he would be able to do it again if he wanted to," Kimiko replied.
"Well, if you think I'm lying, then be that way, because I don't care what you think," Raimundo stated, folding his arms across his chest.
"Oh really?" Kimiko said, knowing that when she went into Raimundo's mind, he was thinking the exact opposite of what he just said. Of course he cared what they thought. "Well then you won't care when I say that I think that you're a huge jerk."
Raimundo shook his head calmly. "No, I don't care. Do you have anything else that you would like to let out?"
Before Kimiko replied, Omi leaned over to Clay and whispered, "What is going on with Raimundo and Kimiko? They are acting like they are still enemies…"
Clay only shrugged in response.
"I also think that you're—" Kimiko started, once again getting angry because Raimundo was hiding his emotions again, and she knew it.
Raimundo held up a hand, cutting her off. "As much as I'd like to listen to you dissing me all night long, some people need to sleep." And with that, he left the room, appearing calm on the outside, but on the inside, it was a whole different story.
"Where is Raimundo?" Master Fung asked the three Xiaolin Apprentices the next morning.
"I do not know, Master," Omi replied. "Besides, it is not his training time, so we should not be concerned."
"Ah, but this morning is different. Raimundo will be training with you today, young one."
"But why? He is not ready to go up against our skills…" Omi paused, and then was struck with a thought. "Did you promote him to Xiaolin Apprentice yet?"
"No, but I have a feeling that Raimundo will not have any problem with keeping up with you today," Master Fung said.
"What are we going to do today, Master Fung?" Kimiko queried as Clay went off to find Raimundo.
"We are going to try something…a little different…a test."
"A test?" Omi exclaimed. "I have not studied!" He looked down at his feet shamefully. "I am doomed to fail!"
"No, Omi, this is a test for Raimundo," Master Fung stated.
Omi immediately perked up. "Do not worry, Master! I will jump and kick and do my best to test Raimundo!"
"You will not be jumping and kicking, young monk, but using a Shen Gong Wu to try and defeat Raimundo."
"Victory will come to me easily!" Omi exclaimed loudly, folding his arms and looking to the ground with a smile spreading across his face.
"Do not underestimate your opponent," Master Fung advised.
Kimiko snorted under her breath. "How could we underestimate him? It's impossible. I bet Omi's overestimating Raimundo right now," she whispered, and only Omi could hear her.
"Okay, I'm here, what do you need me for?" Raimundo asked dully as he approached the others, Clay just behind him.
"We are doing an exercise that includes you," Master Fung responded, ignoring the skepticism in Raimundo's eyes. "First, you will each choose a Shen Gong Wu."
Clay was first to dig into the Shen Gong Wu chest, and he pulled out the Third Arm Sash. Next, Omi chose the Orb of Tornami, and then Kimiko chose the Star Hanabi.
But when Raimundo went to get his Shen Gong Wu, Master Fung stopped him.
"You will not be using a Shen Gong Wu, Raimundo."
This caught Raimundo by surprise. Wasn't he supposed to stand a chance against the others? Or was he just called to 'observe and learn'?
Master Fung shepherded the apprentices away from Raimundo, leaving Raimundo on one side, and the other three facing him. "The object of this exercise is to use your Shen Gong Wu to defeat Raimundo."
Raimundo raised his eyebrows. "Uh, thanks?"
Master Fung ignored Raimundo again. "You will only use your Shen Gong Wu, and Raimundo is not allowed to take any Shen Gong Wu."
This is a Xiaolin Slapdown if I ever saw one, Raimundo thought, wondering what the heck Master Fung was expecting. He shrugged inwardly. Maybe this was the way that Master Fung punished people who turned. Used them for moving practice dummies. Nah, that's more Armando's style, Raimundo mused, remembering one faithful night back in Brazil when—
But before he could finish recalling the whole memory, Master Fung had already signaled that the warriors begin, and there were attacks flying at him already. There was the huge rock fist of the Third Arm Sash combined with Clay's earth element. There was a shot of water from Omi's Orb of Tornami, and Kimiko was shooting fire at him.
He did his best to avoid the attacks, but they just kept coming, and after fifteen minutes of pointless dodging, Raimundo was getting tired. And yet the attacks still came mercilessly.
Whoosh! Kimiko was sending another shot of fire at him. He back flipped over the shot and landed hard on his legs, ignoring the pain from his cut that he had gotten back in Brazil and pretending not to notice that it had reopened and was now tinting his pants with blood.
The others didn't seem to notice, and Omi jumped up. "Orb of Tornami, water!" he shouted, sending a wave of water towards Raimundo.
Raimundo threw up his arms defensively, and he suddenly felt déjà vu. He could block this, couldn't he? He did it last time, after all.
Everything seemed to slow down as Raimundo stared at the water head on and lifted up both hands, palms out. He then willed his element to come…to push the water away.
A swift wind came all a sudden, making Omi's water part in front of Raimundo. It wasn't anything fancy, but it still took Omi by surprise.
Clay then combined his element with the Third Arm Sash to make a huge stone fist, and he sent it straight for Raimundo.
Raimundo barely had time to react. With the fist racing towards him, he didn't have many options but to jump. But with the fist so big, he didn't know if he could jump that high. But right before the fist hit, his arms went to his sides, his hands pointing to the ground. Raimundo clenched his hands into fists and called on his element again. Twin spirals of wind came from his hands and hit the ground so forcefully, it floated Raimundo in the air and out of the way just in time.
He floated in midair for a second, ignoring his friends' confused faces. He then set himself back down, ready for another attack.
"Star Hanabi, FIRE!" Kimiko shouted, sending a wave of fire that was almost impossible to avoid, her element feeding off her anger.
Raimundo once again held up his hands and tried to shelter himself from the fire. "Wind!" he said, urging his element up again. A quick wind picked up and shielded Raimundo from the fire that passed through. Raimundo wasn't exactly sure how the wind had done that, but he was thankful anyway.
He floated himself up, control coming easily. His eyes landed on Omi, who was obviously preparing for another attack.
"Well? Bring it on, little dude," Raimundo said.
"Orb of Tornami, ice!" Omi cried out, sending a sharp hunk of ice at Raimundo.
Raimundo clapped his hands together forcefully, a wave of wind erupting from the tips of his fingers and cutting the ice in half, making it fly by harmlessly.
He dropped himself back onto the ground and saw Kimiko seething, about to throw him another powerful attack. She's probably mad because she realized I was actually telling the truth when I said I had my power boost under control, Raimundo mused.
"Okay, Rai, you asked for it…," she began. "Star Hana—"
"You will stop now," Master Fung cut in. "The exercise is over."
The other four stared at him, not expecting an end to the exercise just yet.
"But…but…we are supposed to defeat Raimundo!" Omi protested.
"We have learned what we wanted to know. Raimundo does indeed have control over his power boost, and is now more powerful… That was the whole point of the exercise. I wanted to see for myself," Master Fung said.
"You coulda just asked me," Raimundo mumbled. "Would have saved a lot of time."
"Maybe, but I would not have received a wonderful demonstration. You did very well, young one," Master Fung replied.
Raimundo raised his eyebrows. Was this…praise? Did Master Fung just praise him? Was he supposed to feel appreciated now? He paused for a long time before saying, "Thanks…" with a hint of hesitancy.
Once Master Fung had left, Omi went up to Raimundo.
"Ha! If we were allowed to use our kung fu, you would have been hot bread!" he exclaimed.
"I think you mean 'toast'," Kimiko said coolly.
"Even better!"
"Whatever," Raimundo responded offhandedly. "I bet you guys weren't even trying. What with me not being an apprentice and all. You wouldn't want to be too hard on the inexperienced guy."
"You are most correct," Omi said with a smile. But his smile quickly turned to a frown. "I see we were too hard on you." He indicated the spot of blood on Raimundo's pants. "Your wound has reopened. I am most ashamed with myself. I did not want to push you too hard, but when you are trying to keep up with apprentices, things can get complicated…"
Raimundo sighed and tried to put a cap on his anger. He hated feeling inferior to everyone, and even with this new power, it still wasn't enough. He was still a failure as far as he could tell. He shrugged to the others. "As I said: whatever. I've experienced worse." He then went back inside, leaving three slightly confused apprentices behind him.
"Uh, Raimundo just showed off a ton of power," Clay started. "But he looks…" He paused, searching for the right word.
"He looks like a sack of sad!" Omi exclaimed. "It serves him right. He should not have that kind of power anyway. It just means that he has more power to betray us again."
"Do you really think he would do that?" Kimiko asked.
"I would not put it past him," Omi replied stubbornly, still a little jealous of Raimundo's power boost.
"He did put Wuya back in that puzzle box," Clay pointed out, speaking in Raimundo's defense.
"But he's the one who turned the old witch flesh in the first place!" Kimiko argued.
"It doesn't mean he's going to betray us again," Clay said.
"I still do not trust him," Omi stated. "He still did betray us, and for a foolish reason too! I would not have helped Wuya simply because I was jealous of my comrades."
Kimiko rolled her eyes. "We all know it was more than that."
"What do you mean?" Clay asked.
"Oh, just something I found out when I used the Red Robin on Raimundo that one night…"
"What! You did what!" Omi exclaimed loudly, disbelief plain in his tone of voice.
"Oh, sorry, Omi," Kimiko apologized. "A few nights ago, I used the Red Robin on Raimundo because I wanted to know what was going on. But he caught me, and that's why he was so angry at me that one day. I did tell Clay, and Master Fung caught me in the vault…"
"You kept me out of the lightness!" Omi cried.
"I think you mean 'in the dark'," Clay grumbled.
"You will tell me everything you witnessed!" Omi commanded, ignoring Clay's correcting and determined to get Kimiko to tell him absolutely everything.
Kimiko shrugged. "Uh, you know…" She wasn't really sure she was ready to spill the whole jar of beans just yet… "Um, it's kind of a long story…and it's hard to explain…yeah."
Omi's eyebrows creased. "Okay… You will tell me later then!"
There you have it... I do have a little more written after this, but...writers block... i'm open for suggestions. can't promise i'll take em, but i love inspiration.
Wes: Yeah, she does. She got the inspiration for this fan fiction from a dream... (looks around sadly) Wait, does this mean i have to leave? that metal dude is coming back? (hides himself) (whispers) haha, i'm not leaving so soon...
Kaisa: (shakes head) Oh, Janson...immature...just like Wedge said... I can't wait til Oscar comes back. (holds up a big pack of CocaOil) see? I got this for him, lol.
So please review...! thanks ;-) and i'll try and update as soon as i can...
-Kaisa