"Laurel Wreath"
By Roby Carr
Part Four: Guess Who's Back, Back Again
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Jack wanted to scream.
No, seriously. He really did want to scream. To be more specific and elaborate a little on this point, he wanted to scream as loudly as he could until his throat was raw and scratchy and then he was go over to the Xiaolin Temple and smack Laurel silly. He still couldn't figure out what she'd done to his Jack-bot to make it immobile. He'd been tweaking wires all over inside of it, but all that succeeded in doing was making the situation more befuddling. Oh yes, Jack Spicer was considerably miffed by this and if he saw Laurel anytime soon-
"Honey!" a familiar voice shrieked and Jack snapped back awake. It took him a moment to realize who it was that had spoken, but when he did figure it out, he groaned. "I'm home!" Laurel appeared in the doorway, sopping wet from the thunderstorm still occurring outside, but sporting a wide grin. "And guess what I brought you?"
Wuya shrieked happily and swooped forward as Laurel unceremoniously dumped the bag she was carrying on the ground. Curiosity ruling over fatigue, Jack stood and joined them, his eyes widening at the sight of the sparkling objects inside the sack.
"That's right," Laurel continued, answering her own question. Her smile turned devious and she nudged the bag farther open with her foot, allowing the items to spill out on the concrete floor, "As you commanded, Wuya. All the Shen-Gong-Wu I could find." Wuya cackled evilly and began praising Laurel for her efforts. The girl turned bright red and her smile began genuinely sincere. Once again, she looked like the same girl that had left the Xiaolin Temple.
"So? Can we go kick some wanna-be loser booty?" Jack asked eagerly, all previous anger at Laurel forgotten. Even he would admit that this was a pretty nice accomplishment and that it deserved some celebration.
"Yesss..." Wuya hissed, "We finally have the Shen-Gong-Wu-" She paused and glanced at Laurel. "-back. Now we can get our revenge!"
Laurel saluted playfully, "Can I change first though? I'm not really into this whole colorful outfit look, y'all know?" Laurel paused when she said this and frowned. She had sounded like... Clay. She didn't actually want to hurt him. She liked the way Clay talked. His voice was nice and soft and she liked the way that he said her name in his Texan accent.
"Uh... Sure," Jack replied. He'd never understood why it was that girls were always so worried about their clothes. It wasn't really that important, "Go ahead, but hurry up. You took long enough just to get the Shen-Gong-Wu." Laurel nodded solemnly and hurried out of the room, towards the rooms she'd slept in before she headed to the Xiaolin Temple.
Why did she suddenly have such a bad feeling about this?
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"Hi, guys," Kimiko greeted as she strode into the kitchen, looking slightly troubled. As she looked over the two boys at the breakfast table, one ready to fall asleep in his bowl of Frosted Flakes and the other busy with picking the marshmallows out of his Lucky Charms, "What's up?"
Raimundo glanced up and grumbled a response before going back to his previous task. Kimiko's frown deepened. Both boys looked worse for the wear. Raimundo wasn't all that different than usual - half-asleep, dressed in his boxers and a t-shirt, hair still wet from a shower before he headed for breakfast. But Clay looked different than usual, his hair tousled, though dressed normally. He pushed his bowl forward and managed to just barely miss it when he drooped face first onto the table. Raimundo turned to look at him, snickered quickly, and pretended that nothing had happened in the first place.
"Clay!" Kimiko gasped, tossing a glare Raimundo's way before sitting at the blonde cowboy's side and tugging him up from the table, "Are you okay?"
"Didn' get much sleep last nigh' 'cause of the storm," Clay managed to explain as his visions focused on his comrade, "Ah'm gonna disappear on back t' bed soon an' hit the hay for another five minutes before trainin' starts up."
"Poor guy..." Kimiko replied and Raimundo grunted sympathetically, "By the way, while we're on the subject of missing Xiaolin warriors... Has anyone seen Laurel or Omi this morning? Normally she's at breakfast and the little guy's all over the place, but I haven't seen either of them this morning."
"Laurel's probably still sleepin'. She was up 'cause o' the storm too an' she stayed up a lil' later than Ah did. It's only logical tha' she'd sleep a lil' longer in the mornin'."
"That's incorrect, Clay," Omi corrected as he, Dojo, and Master Fung appeared in the doorway looking very solemn, "Laurel is no longer at the temple."
"She left?" Raimundo asked, his first coherent sentence that morning, looking up from his cereal.
"Nuh uh, kid," Dojo answered, sighing, "Laurel is just gone."
"Laurel's gone?" Clay repeated, "But Ah was up las' nigh' talkin' t' her. She said she was comin' on in as soon as the rain let up a bit more."
Master Fung nodded solemnly at his disciples. "Not only is she gone, but she has taken with her many of our Shen-Gong-Wu, young monks. For luck, she did pass by some which were locked away deeper in the vault. But I am assured that they will soon attack."
Omi's gaze turned from Raimundo to Kimiko to Clay, all of whom looked hurt by Laurel's betrayal of their trust. "We must then prepare."
All four Dragons nodded in unison and the three others agreed as they headed out to gather the only Shen-Gong-Wu left at the temple.
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"Guess who's back... Back again... Shady's back... Tell a friend..."
The lyrics of a certain popular white rapper resounded loudly through the grounds of the Xiaolin Temple and four pairs of eyes belonging to teenaged Xiaolin warriors shot to the shut door.
"Are you guys ready?" Kimiko asked, her eyes darting across her friends' faces. Omi looked just like he did before every battle - calm, focused, ready to win. Raimundo was furious and had been pacing the length of the room until Kimiko threatened to sit on him. Clay though... Clay was the one who looked most unlike himself. He wasn't being the strong one, the sturdy one who told them all that they could take on Laurel and Jack Spicer and Wuya, no matter how many more Shen-Gong-Wu the bad guys had. Instead, their cowboy looked hurt and confused. He hadn't even seemed so betrayed when Raimundo left them for Wuya.
"Yes, Kimiko," Omi replied and Raimundo nodded, "We're ready to knock their pants off!"
"Socks, Omi... Not pants. We want their pants to stay on." Raimundo rolled his eyes and Kimiko moved to Clay's side as the other two clustered by the door.
"Clay..." she began softly, putting a hand on his shoulder, "You know that you don't have to go out there and fight if you don't want to. We'll try to fight them on our own if you don't think you're ready to face Laurel again. You don't have to worry about-" Clay calmly placed a hand over her mouth and helped himself up. He gave her a weak smile and embraced her.
"Ah do have t' go out there, Kimiko," he told her slowly, "Or else Ah can't ever claim t' be the Xiaolin Dragon of Earth again. A Xiaolin Dragon is brave, even when then don't want to be." Kimiko smiled to herself. Clay was still himself, even when he'd been stabbed in the back by someone they had welcomed so easily.
"Let's go everyone!" Kimiko commanded dutifully as the Dragons each grabbed their Shen-Gong-Wu and opened the door moving out into the bright sunlight. Hardly the type of weather one would expect for a battle against a great evil.
The aforementioned rap song was blasting out of a Jack-bot stationed to the left of a few familiar faces - Laurel, Jack Spicer, and Wuya. Jack was hanging from his now-fixed propellers, Laurel was using the Jet Bootsu to hover in midair and Wuya was just doing her ghost thing. Laurel smacked the Jack-bot in the back of the head and the music shut off immediately.
"Hey there, guys!" she said cheerfully, hooking her arm in Jack's, "I was worried we would have to come in and look for you. And I didn't want to mess up the temple, especially when it's so nice!"
"Hey, losers. You guys ready to lose again to an evil genius and-" He paused to glance over at the perky blonde next to him. "And her?"
"We aren't going to lose to you again, Jack Spicer!" Kimiko spat angrily, "This time we'll win and get the Shen-Gong-Wu back, without any underhanded tricks." A confused look came over Laurel's face, but it was quickly replaced by determination.
"Let's take them down, Jack!" Laurel demanded, glaring at the four warriors fiercely.
"Right! I'll take Kimiko and the short, bald kid!"
"Oh, sure! Give me the big guys, don't you?" Jack rolled his eyes at Laurel's weak protests and she used the Jet Bootsu to zoom over the temple to the other side. "Catch me if you can!" she taunted.
"C'mon!" Raimundo called and he and Clay dashed around the side of the building to face Laurel, who was now standing on the ground, looking very satisfied.
Raimundo turned his death glare on full-power, but couldn't help to not also take a good look at Laurel's new attire. She was dressed in the standard color of all evil - black. Her outfit consisted of a knee-length, ruffled black skirt; a tight black tank-top; a pair of black and white striped arm warmers; and black Converse high-tops. Around her neck was a spiked collar and her make-up was black lipstick and heavy, dark eye make-up. Her hair was still as curly and blonde as ever, one of the few things that convinced Raimundo that this was still Laurel.
As for her Shen-Gong-Wu, she wore the Helmet of Jong with the Rabbit's Ears poking up through it. Around her neck hung the Eye of Dashi and on her feet were the Jet Bootsu. In one hand, she carried a wooden staff topped with hunk of obsidian, something neither boy had seen before.
In Raimundo hand was the Sword of the Storm, his grip tightening as he took in the large amount of Shen-Gong-Wu she wore. He was used to one-on-one battles. Not anything like this. Clay carried the Third Arm Sash, his thoughts similar to Raimundo's, though he also wondered how Omi and Kimiko were doing. They'd had the Serpent's Tail and the Monkey Staff when the group had split.
"Hey boys," Laurel said softly, an echo of the girl that they remembered, "How are you guys doing out here at the dojo? I hope you don't mind that I left early." She flashed a quick, malicious grin at both boys, "You know how I just hate long goodbyes!"
"You betrayed us, chica!" Raimundo snapped angrily, his hand clenching around the grip of the Sword of the Storm, "We accepted you. We trusted you and you tried to hurt us all!"
"That jus' ain't the way things go 'round here, partner," Clay agreed, "Y'all have gotta be hones' and keep yer promises. That's part o' bein' a Xiaolin Dragon."
"Don't you get it?" Laurel replied, "I never was the Xiaolin Dragon of Lightning. There isn't any Xiaolin Dragon of Lightning! I came from my homeland to promote the morality and justice we uphold there and Jack and Wuya have told me all about your crimes! I refuse to let you go unpunished, whether or not you may have changed!" Raimundo and Clay shared confused looks, but Laurel was already attacking again. "EYE OF DASHI!" she shrieked, thrusting it forward as it shot of a blast of lightning.
Raimundo easily dodged the uncontrolled attack and narrowed his eyes at her. "That's it, man!" he said to Clay, "I don't care if she was our friend at one point! Let's kick some booty!"
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In the next chapter of Laurel Wreath -
"Come on, chica! You've gotta know that you're doing the wrong thing! So why are you doing this?" Raimundo asked, slashing the sword out in front of him to demonstrate his point.
"Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? You can't fool me Dragons. The question is, 'Why are you doing this?'" Laurel paused. "I thought you guys seemed nice... I thought you was the good guys and you were my friends and you wouldn't lie to me... But I was wrong and now I'm going to make sure you pay for your crimes."
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"Forget this!" Raimundo finally yelled, his self-restraint breaking, "Clay, you go behind and get her Shen-Gong-Wu. I'm going to keep her distracted." He turned and ground one sneaker into the now-wet dirt below him, "Eat this Laurel Nee: SWORD OF THE STORM
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A crack was heard before a flash of lightning streaked down from the sky, well defined against the blackened clouds. It hit the ground a mere second later, its landing point less than three inches from Raimundo. He looked horrified, his face slightly redder from being so close to the heat.
"You're going to hurt somebody!" Raimundo managed to stammer, still terrified.
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- Roby Carr