Summary and other info is in the first chapter, blah-blah-blah.
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Crystalas: Once again, thanks. I hope this one is pretty good for length, though: )
JackSpicersKindaGirlPretty killer character, that Jackie-boy. The only reason I started watching the show. 1-2-3-Obsess!
It was getting late, and the five had used the claws to arrive on a path to the temple, and were wandering towards it temple, trading childhood stories.
At present, they were listening to Jack. He was telling a story about, when he was in second grade, his father had taken him on a business trip to a small village in China where there had been mention of expanding the company to include several offices in the country-which would, if things worked correctly, improve the local economy, and make the village a city within a matter of years.
"…Now, this was a little while after I'd decided I was gonna take over the world-"
"And how are you doing on that, now?" Kimiko smirked at him, teasingly, and he scowled, a highly annoyed look pasting itself across his features.
"Pretty good, actually. I have a pretty solid plan I've been working on lately, and it'll be great." He smirked at her. "You'll never be able to stop this one…Anyway-" He stretched the word out, making the first syllable last several seconds-"As I was saying, before Kimiko interrupted, this was just after I'd decided to take over the world."
He paused, expecting another interruption, grinned as he found that there were none to be heard, and continued to tell his story-making random hand-motions as he thought were necessary to emphasize his words as he spoke.
"I was a bit annoyed about being dragged on a trip, but the place was neat enough. I'd managed to get my dad to give me some spare machine parts, and I was toying with them-I'd managed to make a neat combination-paralysis-knockout device-It looked like a remote-controlled car, by the way, so no one would suspect it's true use-and was starting on another 'bot when a girl ran into me…"
"Ah!" Omi nodded. "So this is why you tell us this story!"
Jack glowered at the small monk, then shook his head. "Can I tell my story? Please? Kay-Thanks-Bye." He rolled his eyes. "And that's not why…I just thought I might as well tell one of mine while all of you were doing the same…"
He paused, then shrugged, and started up again. "Anyway, this girl runs into me-she told me, later, that she'd been running for a good while, maybe an hour, maybe even two. I stagger back, and get a good look at her, and I just think 'Golly! She looks like she could be my sister…Or…Or…Or what I'd look like if I was a girl!'" He paused at the sound of a snicker, and scowled. "I was, like, seven, I didn't know any better exclamations…So, anyway, she staggers back, then snarls at me…."
-Flashback-
"Why don't you watch where you're going, you stupid little twerp!" The girl's voice hit a high, desperate pitch, then she growled, and started to speak again, then froze, murmuring to herself, under her breath-"That's no fair…"
Young Jack, confused, and with his hair-a bit shorter than it is at his current age, and plastered to his head by gel, courtesy of his mother, but out of place despite of it-falling into his eyes, stares at her, the small metal machine in one hand, and a wrench in the other. His eyes flicker over the girl before he blurts out, stupidly, "What's not fair?"
The girl stared at him, bright amber eyes watching him intently, then she grinned, her mouth stretching to accommodate for it's intensity. "I don't get to beat you senseless, of course…"
Jack, his eyes wide startled, girlish shriek at that, then let out another, one that was louder and shriller than the first, as he stared at her hair-the colour of shifts before his eyes, turning from the same brilliant red as his own to a deep black, with a fat shock of white that ran down in front of her left eye. He noticed, after a moment, that a few more features had changed, but was trying to ignore that fact, lest his brain explode from the shock.
The girl gave him a miserable look, and half-bowed at him-a custom that had him bewildered, as it wasn't a custom in his homeland. "I-I'm sorry…Spider isn't a very nice person…My name's Jodii…" She trailed off, uncertain, and he examined her face a moment more.
She was obviously European, but she had a heavy asian accent-her parents were probably immigrants, or something…
"Jack. Jack Spicer." He stashed his work, and his wrench, and held out his hand.
The girl paused, then her amber eyes stared up at him, and she giggled uncontrollably for a few moments. "You look like a boy version of Spider, did you know that?" She paused, then trailed off, caught his hand, and shook it, firmly. He smiled at this-she seemed pretty trustworthy, after all, his dad had said you could trust people with strong handshakes, and hers was painfully tight.
She paused, then shifted her weight from foot to foot, then, with the horrible trusting nature of a seven-year-old, spoke again. "Can you help me? Someone hurt my family and I need to get out of here…I…I think the villagers helped the bad people and they have something I need, but-" Her words started to rush together, and Jack interrupted, deciding to play at being an antihero.
"…What does it look like?" He grinned at the look that snapped across her features. "I can't help if you don't tell me…."
The girl gave him another surprised look, but yielded to his wheedling voice. "It's…hard to describe."
"O-Kay...I suppose you can help me find it for you, then." Jack faked annoyance, but stopped as the angry voice of 'Spider' spoke, out of nowhere.
"Why would you help us?"
He paused, then shrugged. "Well, normally I wouldn't, but, seeing as I'm gonna rule thr world one day, I might as well make a few allies as I go, right?"
The girl raised an eyebrow. "Rule in a good way or a bad way?"
"…I'm evil, but I don't think murder is really my thing…I think shock treatment would be better-people live if you do that, y'know." He grinned, then trailed off at her disbelieving stare. "What?"
"…Right…You don't act evil, y'know. Evil people don't help others…"
Jack rolled his eyes, then poked her forehead. "You want me to help you or not?"
The girl paused, then nodded, and trailed after a confident young Jack who strode forwards the second she nodded, and the two headed into the village. It took a few short minutes, and a liberal use of his new 'remote control car', but he-and Jodii-found and retrieved the object.
Ten minutes later, the two were sitting beside the Spicer family jet-the Spicers were surprisingly rich-and the girl was staring at the ground, the object of their search-a large, flat coin, with a weird inscription that Jack didn't understand on one side-hidden away in one of the pockets in the girl's pants. She sighed, and toyed unhappily with a the red gem that dangled from the large gold necklace she wore around her neck.
At length. She spoke. "My Mother was wearing this last time I saw her…I don't know how I got it…"
Jack gave the girl a bewildered look. "Why not?"
She glanced back at him, and he froze, seeing the telltale glitter of tears in her eyes. "I-I was running away. The bad people were coming, and Snake and Spider told me to run…And I glanced back, and I saw mommy-and she was wearing the necklace, and then I realized I was too…It's not possible…"
She started to sob, then buried her face in her hands. "She could be d-d-d-dead!" Her voice hit a high, piercing note on the last word, and Jack flinched.
"Uh…" Jack paused, looking away from the sobbing girl, then leaned against the side of the jet, an uneasy look on his features, and toyed with his wrench-which he'd pulled from his pocket at the first sign of tears. "Well…You wanna come with us, then, for awhile?"
"W-what?" The girl gaped at him, her mouth opening into a surprised little 'o' of…well…surprise. "Your parents w-w-w-would let m-me?
He decided lying was the best option, after all 'They wouldn't have a chance to find out, since I'm such a sneaky little kid' wasn't a reassuring thing to say.
"Of course."
She paused, then stared at the reassuring smile on his face, and nodded slowly. "Well…I don't have anything left here…" She wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her shirt, then sniffled. "S-sure."
-End Flashback-
"…And I snuck her along for awhile, and, when we were in Ireland, I helped her get a house-don't ask me how, I'm still not sure-and I haven't seen her much since…" Jack sighed. "Sometimes I get a letter, and sometimes I send her one, and sometimes I just wonder how she's doing…."
He didn't hear Raimundo's mutter of "First Crush." to Kimiko, but heard her giggle, and threw the two a bewildered look, but was promptly distracted by the smallest of the monks, who tugged on his jacket to catch his attention.
"Huh?" He glanced down. "Yeah? What's up?"
Omi grinned, widely, at him. "Friend Spicer, do you want to stay the night with us, at the temple?"
"Huh?" Jack dealt the small monk a bewildered stare for a moment, before the question registered. "Oh..yeah, sure!"
Alright. The next bit will take awhile-this was all typed, and just needed a good once-over and editing, but the rest is handwritten in a notebook.
So my hands are gonna start to hurt. : o