Hi. Today, I was told that my story had shriveled. I'm sorry. I promise action in today's chapter, however, after today, I will most definitely NOT update for one week. I've been stressed over this story and one of my friends recommended a leave of absence. So I will return in one week with a kickass chapter. She told me to consider it a bday gift to myself, and I will, even tho my bday means nothing to me this year for some reason. SO, without further ado, the tenth chapter, of Yin and Yang.
Brooke watched as the long green thing she had just seen flying in the sky suddenly shrank and slid up a very short boy's sleeves. The four kids began to close the twenty foot gap between them and Chase and Chase only folded his arms as the wind once again swept lightly across the sand.
"Chase Young," the kid who the green thing crawled up said, as the other three kids trailed close behind, "what are you doing here?" He had a small body, but an outrageously large, yellow head. (Three guesses who)
The three kids standing behind him weren't exactly typical either. There was a short Asian girl who seemed a little over accessorized, a particularly lean tan boy who seemed to be around the same height as Chase a tall, and husky looking blonde with dressed like a cowboy, hat and everything.
"Whoo-wee, this place is hotter than a rodeo on the sun in the middle of July." (God help my sucky clay idioms)
He even talks like one...
"What do you think I'm doing out here, Young Omi?" He asked with a smirk.
Brooke heard the sand hissing behind her and she turned and saw Wuya still frantically searching for whatever it was they were all looking for. She then turned her attention back to the kids.
Were these the monks they spoke of? They were so young.
Almost as though they could hear her thinking, all of the kid's eyes shifted to her.
"Got yourself a new apprentice?" The Asian girl asked folding her arms and scowling at Brooke.
So apparently these monks have attitudes. Brooke thought as she returned the scowl indignantly.
Chase didn't bother looking at Brooke.
"She is none of your concern," Chase said impatiently. "Your enemy is me."
The monks now decided to look around.
"Where's the wu?" The tanned kid asked scanning over the sand.
Wu?
The next second, a green lizard thing popped out of the short kid's red robe.
"Its here!" It spoke and Brooke nearly passed out, "I can definitely sense it nearby."
"Looks like it might be under all this sand," the cowboy suggested, tipping his hat slightly.
Just then a light breeze glided over the area once more, causing Brooke to realize for the first time since she'd been there, that her overtop was still missing, as the sudden chill sent shivers along her skin. The breeze also caused a slight shift in the sand, and Brooke felt something pulling her gaze at the corner of her eyes. She glanced to the side and saw the corner of something jutting out of the sand.
Her first instinct was to bring it to Chase's attention, but doing that would bring it to the others attention as well. She was in a rut. She looked over her shoulder and saw that Wuya had now stood back up and was looking worriedly around. Brooke had no other choice; she'd have to go for it herself.
In three, two, one.
Brooke suddenly rounded off to the side into a back hand spring, and then into a back tuck (sister of a gymnast...) until she landed in front of the glinting piece of something. She placed her hand on it and lifted it out of the sand to reveal its strap-like appearance. She suddenly felt a slight tremor in the sand in front of her. She looked up and saw the tanned kid crouching in front of her with his own hand wrapped around the belt shaped object. To her surprise, it suddenly lit up.
He looked at her with determination in his eyes, and then they suddenly narrowed.
"Uh..." He began, "What's your name?"
"Brooke."
"Brooke!" He shouted with renewed strength in his voice, "I challenge you to a Xiaolin showdown."
Brooke stared at him in confusion.
"I'm sorry," she said shaking her head, "You challenge me to a Xiaolin what now?"
"A showdown." He repeated.
Brooke was utterly confused and was just about to let go of the thing when he began to shout again.
"I wager my cannon blaster." He said pulling out this weird thing from his back pocket which much resembled a miniature cannon. "And you?"
"I-"
"Brooke wagers the serpents tail," Chase intervened, and tossed her a funny looking little green stick thing. Brooke caught it with ease, but wore a severely bewildered expression.
What the hell is going on?
"The challenge is, first to reach the bottom loses."
Challenge? As in something she had to win.
"Let's go!" He shouted again "XIAOLIN SHOWDOWN!"
"The f-" Brooke uttered as the ground beneath her began to shake violently. In flashes, the dusky sky that once was now resembled that of eternal night and invisible glass walls in the shape of an hourglass began to close in around her and the boy. All the sand was in the top half. Brooke looked up and saw everyone standing atop of the glass looking down at her and the boy.
What the hell was going on? She was in a giant hourglass that hovering in the middle of space. She glanced over and saw that the boy was now wearing some kind of blue outfit. The thing they were holding onto, the strap is what he called it, flew out of their hands and disappeared. The boy suddenly looked Brooke square in the eyes again through the mask he now had on.
"Gon Yi Tempai!" He shouted at Brooke, who just stared in return. He looked around, as though waiting for her to respond. "It means ready, set, go!" He said placing his fists on his sides.
"Oh," Brooke said, and suddenly the sand began to sink beneath the two of them. The both jumped upward to avoid falling in with it, but they just landed back within the hissing form. She couldn't keep it up forever, she could barely keep up with it now, if she wanted to win this thing, she'd have to knock this boy down. Good guy or not, right now, she was the guy she had to defeat.
Brooke landed on the constantly shifting mass and instantly hopped back upwards. She looked up and saw him doing the same thing.
"You can do it Raimundo!" She heard that Asian girl's voice call from above in a muffled volume. The glass that separated them made her barely audible.
So Raimundo was his name. Hmm.
Brooke groaned in frustration. This would be so much easier if she could use her magic. She hopped back up and looked at what she had forgotten she was holding.
It looked like a little green stick which curled up to at one end, and pointed at another.
"The serpent's tail," She muttered to herself what she'd heard Chase call it. She now refocused her attention back to the sand as she was about to land on top of it again. As she was about to hop back up off of the sand, she instead fell straight through.
She screamed outloud trying to comprehend what had just happened. Reflexively she let go off the thing in her hands and her entire body illuminated in the white bask of her signature color.
Brooke shot up through the sand in a burst, causing a small trail to temporarily follow her as she exited the tiny body of sand. She heard a round of gasps as she hovered over the arena inside of the glass and Raimundo, still hopping on and off of the sand.
In one rapid feeling, her right upper arm ignited and she felt like she would explode from the pain any second. But she hadn't won yet, she still had to knock that Raimundo kid down. Well, she was already using her magic. Struggling to stay afloat in the air, Brooke extended her left arm out towards Raimundo, who, in turn, lit up similar to the way Brooke had.
Yet another rush of searing pain jetted into Brooke's arm, and she wavered in the air. Quickly regaining most of her control, she lifted Raimundo off the sand and into mid air. In one quick motion, she slammed him down, into the sand, crashing through the hole, and slamming into the bottom of the hour glass.
"You lose," she uttered softly, barely able to stay in the air. The pain in her arm, she felt, was literally killing her. She hadn't meant to be so rough with the boy, but at that moment, she literally had no control over her powers. "I win."
Chase's P.O.V.
Chase watched the entire thing and found himself in a state of sudden relief. He feared that when she had touched the strap, that she might lose the showdown. As it turns out, she didn't really need the serpent's tail.
In flashes similar to those at the start of the match, the giant hour glass suddenly disappeared and everything was back as it was before the start of the showdown.
Chase and everyone else looked up as the three involved shen gong wu flew up to Brooke, who was still suspended in mid air. She reached out and grabbed them and Chase dragged his eyes away from her. He glanced over and saw Raimundo lying unconscious on the ground. Slyly, Chase made his way over to him undetected.
Everyone seemed to gasp however, when Brooke's shine suddenly faded and she began to fall from 60 feet in the air. Without thinking, Chase hurried to stand where she would fall and catch her in his arms, leaving Raimundo there, but nor forgotten.
As Brooke fell into his arms, Chase threw Brooke over his shoulders and grabbed Wuya by her wrist, dragging her over to where Raimundo lie. He let go of Wuya, who seemed to latch onto his shoulder instead.
"Another time Monks," he said before crouching down at Raimundo's side and placing his free hand on him. Before the others could respond, Chase had vanished, along with Brooke, Wuya, the Shen Gong Wu, and Raimundo.
Brooke's P.O.V.
Caliph looked over at the beagle in front of their door in suspicion as Ace recovered from being shoved backwards.
"Hey!" he shouted before Brooke walked over to him and placed a hand on his mouth.
"Shh," she urged as Caliph's slowly treaded the four of five steps from the center of the living room to the door. As he was about to poke the dog with his foot, it suddenly ignited a bright yellow and Caliph instantly activated his own magic, along with Brooke and Ace.
The dog's body suddenly morphed into the glowing yellow outline of a male human and in seconds his body became solid, but it didn't stop glowing that blinding yellow color of his.
"Who the hell-" Brooke heard Ace begin, but fell silent when his face was recognized. Suddenly all three teenagers in the room turned off their magic and got down on one knee, kneeling before the elderly man in front of them.
"Good morning Kiranu-sama." They all said to the floor in unison.
Standing before all of them was the Soyan family leader, Kiranu Soyan. He wasn't a particularly tall man, but he had short grey hair and wore traditional Japanese clothing. A plain yellow robe held together by a black band around his waste and rather plain yellow pants.
Instead of the usual 'rise children' that came after their greeting the family's leader, Brooke felt a sharp pain at the top of her head and went hurdling backwards across her living room floor. She heard a crash as she looked over and managed to see Ace being sent flying through the coffee table.
"Kiranu-sama," she heard Caliph gasp in shock as she hit the wall, "What are you doing?"
Suddenly Caliph's agonized cries filled her ears as she peeled open her eyes and saw Caliph disappearing into a vortex of swirling yellow light, apparently passed out. He was being carried in by Kiranu-sama.
-Why?- she thought as she struggled to get up, but ultimately failed. Brooke watched as the yellow mass of energy in her living room disappeared, leaving nothing in its wake. Brooke closed her eyes in concentration.
-Stand up…- she thought to herself, -stand up damnit!-
"Need some help," she heard a voice call from above her. She opened her eyes and saw Ace standing above her with his hand extended out. Brooke stared at him wide-eyed for a second before taking his hand.
He lifted her up off of her back, but that didn't prove to useful, because she couldn't even stand on her feet. But he got hit with the same attack, how could he be standing perfectly fine and she barely standing at all. Rested against his chest for support, Brooke looked up at him.
"How-"
"I managed to block most of the attack," He began answering her question before she could even get it out, "But the force of it still sent me hurdling back." Ace walked her around the pile of broken wood that was once her coffee table and sat her down on the couch.
"Caliph," she said, "He took Caliph, why did he take Caliph!" she was becoming hysterical and tears were forming in her eyes.
"Shh…"Ace said putting his index finger to her lips and wiping her tears away with his other. "We're gonna get him back."
He put on a smile that Brooke knew was fake, but she returned it anyway. He was right, she was gonna get Caliph back, no matter what.
Right, so I'm out for the week, hop you enjoyed this. OH, and I'd like to say thank you to ALLL of you for reviewing. Love you all and please keep it up, peace. Toodles, eternal smooches, all that.