Chapter 12: Dragon Masters and Sapphire Children
The Sapphire Dragon scares me.
Seriously; when the episode first aired, I was literally shaking in my seat whenever it appeared. And I was still scared when I re-watched the episode to write this chapter. I don't even know why I'm afraid of it, I just am.
Also, Valerie has a very small role this chapter. But don't worry, she'll reappear in the end. On with the chapter!
A Half Hour Later
"It's a mouse."
"I know, b-but it could have been armed. You just never know these days," Dojo stuttered out as he clung onto Clay's shoulder. The cowboy was walking around the grounds, a lit candle in his hands because the Temple didn't allow a whole lot of that newfangled technology that was taking over the modern world.
"Dojo, why you acting jumpier than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs?" Clay asked curiously.
Dojo sighed heavily. "Because Raimundo's right; when it comes to fighting I'm all soot and no sizzle."
"Aw, now don't let Rai get you down," Clay said kindly. "You got a fire inside you just waitin' to come out."
Dojo gave him big sparkly eyes. "You think?"
"Well sure." Clay got out the red bottle from his pants. "And if you ever need help findin' your sizzle, just hit my stash of my grand-pappy's Texas Tin-Horn Sizzlin' Salsa Sauce."
Dojo heard a slithering coming from the alley beside Clay. The cowboy himself was too distracted to notice. But the little reptile could see dangerous glowing blue eyes just above Clay's head, and he could just make out large, sharp teeth.
Dojo began to shake. "C-Clay!" He then began to sputter, his voice failing him. He made wheezing sounds and flapped an arm around, pointing to the big blue dragon that was about to kill Clay.
"What's goin' on little buddy?" Clay asked as the dragon began to tower over him. He turned around and threw the candle and the sauce bottle to the side. "WHAT IN TARNATION?!"
Ice cold blue flames smothered Clay, burning his skin as he turned to solid sapphire. He was forever stuck with his spine stiff straight, his face turned upwards to the enemy as his mouth contorted to scream out for help. Deep blue clouds of smoke billowed out from around him, shrouding the maleficent dragon as it slithered around.
Dojo had leaped out of the way of the flames, too terrified to join his friend in his sapphire prison. He was shaking behind a pillar, his beady eyes darting around for any sign of blue scales. As the smoke cleared, he slithered over to Clay, hoping beyond hope that the cowboy hadn't been turned to solid sapphire. It was to no avail.
Suddenly the indigo smoke was being sucked away. The blue dragon was sucking the fumes into his nostrils. It was a beautiful creature, with bright glowing eyes and gleaming blue scales. Dojo didn't let that distract him when the giant dragon turned its sights on him.
Dojo took one look at the bigger dragon and screamed. He slithered for his life, rushing past Clay. The dragon followed him, its reptilian face betraying no emotion. Dojo screamed again and he faintly heard the sounds of someone running toward him. Feet were slapping onto the cobbled pavement, a swift wind rushing towards him.
And then he saw a man slam his fist right into the blue dragon's snout. Dojo stopped screaming and just stared, dumbstruck.
As the blue dragon jerked away and shook away the pain, Dojo took a good look at his savior. He was fairly ripped, with muscles straining a bit through the fabric of his green button-up shirt. He was dressed smartly in black slacks and loafers with his black hair thick and falling down his neck. From what Dojo could see he had an olive complexion and a five o'clock shadow, and when the man turned he could see bright green eyes burning a hole through him.
"Are you Dojo?" the man asked the lizard.
The little dragon nodded as he noticed the blue dragon regrouping. He pointed a finger and shouted, "WATCH OUT!"
The dragon lunged at the man, and he leaped upwards. He landed on the dragon's head, throwing punches all the way. The dragon gave a mighty roar as it tried to throw him off, but the man clung on with steely determination.
"Think you're so tough, asswipe?" the man taunted. "I eat monsters like you for breakfast." He slid down the dragon's head and put it in a headlock. The dragon tried to roar again, only the man was trying to close its throat. The dragon tried to shake him off, throwing itself onto the ground and jerking about. Its tail hit the ground with a crash, and it leaned its head around to try and shake them man off.
The man wasn't having any of that. He stubbornly hung on, whooping war sounds as the dragon tried to pummel him into the concrete. Dojo could hear the sounds of people running toward the commotion, alarmed voices cutting through the sounds of demolition.
"WE'RE OVER HERE!" Dojo shouted over the noise. And then he saw the dragon get flipped onto its back, crashing to the ground loudly. Its eyes were closed and it lay still.
The man huffed over the body, his body covered in dirt and sweat. He rolled his sleeves up and Dojo could see the purple stains of bruises all over them. But despite the pain he was in, the man shouted:
"WHO'S YOUR DADDY NOW, BITCH?!"
The dragon's eyes snapped open, narrowing into slits. With a furious growl the dragon spewed out icy blue flames. Dojo hid behind the column again and the man back flipped out of the way. Indigo smoke billowed out from the dragon's mouth, creating an opaque cloud that covered its body. With the scraping of large scales over the cobbled roads, Dojo deduced that it was retreating. With the beating it had received, it was probably leaving to lick its wounds.
Footsteps stopped in front of the crash site. Raimundo and Omi were standing over the imprint the dragon made, mouths hanging open and eyes blinking like fish. They slowly made their way over to the man, who had his hands on his knees and was panting rather audibly.
Omi found his voice first. "I thank you for your assistance, kind stranger, in helping us defeat the person who has attacked our temple. Do you by any chance require medical attention?"
The man waved a dismissive arm, using the other to straighten his back out. "Nah, I got into worse scrapes when I was doing mixed martial arts. Though I never fought against a dragon before," he added as an afterthought.
Omi blinked. "A dragon?"
"Yeah, dude." Raimundo pointed to the imprint. "There is no way a person made this mess."
"Unless it was a magical person," the little monk said obstinately.
Dojo chose that moment to slither out from behind the column. "No, it was definitely a dragon."
"Where were you?" Raimundo accused him eyes narrowed into slits. "You could have helped."
"He didn't need any." Dojo pointed to the beat up man. "Thanks for the save. But how do you know my name?" he added curiously.
"We've met before. Back in Switzerland, remember?"
Dojo's jaw dropped. Raimundo stared at the man. Omi just looked confused. "Can someone please explain to me what is going on? How could one person defeat a dragon just by himself? And who are you?" He pointed a finger at the man.
"Eric Cunningham," the man said. He smiled through bloody teeth. "Val sent me."
The Xiaolin Dragons immediately helped Eric to the sick bay, where he could clean his wounds. Chan, the temple's nurse, was nowhere to be found. That didn't deter the boys; they quickly found the industrial-sized first aid kit and tore it apart, finding salves and bandages and other medical goodies.
As Eric poured clear-colored salve onto his bruised arms, he asked, "Do you guys know where Val is? I'm really worried."
The human boys shook their heads while Dojo said, "I was with Clay the whole time."
"But if Valerie sent you, why did you come here so fast?" Raimundo asked curiously.
"Did you magically teleport here from Switzerland?" Omi asked in wonderment.
"Ah, no," Eric said sheepishly. "Val seemed kind of down recently, so I thought a surprise visit might cheer her up. I was in the Chengdu airport when she called half an hour ago."
"Oh, that was nice of you," Dojo said, respecting Eric more and more. "But why was she bummed?"
"I think it's because of the lack of Shen Gong Wu you guys have."
"Naturally," Omi said.
"Speaking of Shen Gong Wu," Raimundo interjected, "how are we going to stop that huge dragon?"
"Valerie might know something," Eric said helpfully. "If we find her she can help us."
"Where did that girl go?" Raimundo snapped as the four of them walked through the halls of the main temple. "If I find her in her room catching up on Big Brother…"
"Valerie has a brother?" Omi asked naively.
"He means the Orwell book," Eric said quickly, dialing Valerie's phone yet again. So far it kept ringing and ringing before going to voicemail, and the dark cloud over Eric's head was growing bigger every minute.
Dojo, who was clinging onto Eric's shoulder, asked, "Well, what was Valerie doing when she called you? She might have let something slip."
"She was looking up your new Wu," Eric remembered. "She was frustrated that you guys shut down her idea of a moving Shen Gong Wu and went to investigate."
"Nice going, chrome dome," Raimundo said meanly as Omi huffed.
"It was a foolish idea!"
"A foolish idea that turned out to be right," Eric pointed out. Omi's bottom lip quivered.
"She must have gone to the Ancient Scroll of the Shen Gong Wu!" Dojo declared, pointing a finger down the hall. Everyone began running until they heard a cell phone ringing from the dorm rooms just to their left.
In Clay's bedroom, right on the tan rug with horses galloping across it was a simple black cell phone with the caller ID revealing the name Eric.
Eric shut off his phone and held up Valerie's. "What's this doing here?"
"Why is Valerie's phone in Clay's bedroom?" Omi asked specifically.
"Who's Clay?"
"The cowboy," Raimundo elaborated.
"You mean the guy who got turned into a statue?"
"Along with Kimiko," Omi added solemnly.
Eric looked out from the hallway into all the dorms. "Is this a co-ed dorm?"
Raimundo put a hand over Omi's open mouth and said, "Nope!"
Eric narrowed his eyes. "Just another reason why she shouldn't have come here," he muttered under his breath. Dojo heard and growled.
"Listen here, mister," he snapped, wagging a finger. "Val's got a destiny to fulfill. Keeping her away from here won't change a thing. Sooner or later she would have found her way here and there is no way you can stop that."
Eric glared at him before spitting out, "Where's the damn scroll?"
"This is the Ancient Scroll of the Shen Gong Wu?" Eric asked as they peered over the text. "So it wasn't just a stalker scroll?"
"It wasn't-! Uh, never mind," Dojo grumbled as the circular blue window in the scroll swirled to reveal the Sapphire Dragon. In the magical moving picture the dragon was blowing blue flames at the stick figure, turning it into a statue. And then the statue started moving again.
"How could one little dragon do this much evil?" Raimundo asked, shuddering.
Omi tapped his chin for a moment before shouting, "It was covered in volcanic soot!"
"That's why we couldn't find it in the scroll at all!" Raimundo realized. "It isn't black at all."
"Its sapphire blue," Eric said solemnly. His eyes snapped open wide. "And Valerie was the only one who figured it out. The dragon must have gone after her after she found out." He took out his phone and muttered sadly, "That explains so much."
"I can see why it went after her," Dojo said logically. "It doesn't want to turn back into a useless Shen Gong Wu. It's only supposed to be used as a last resort, because it's the most dangerous one of all."
"Where's it say that?" Eric asked, looking over the ancient text. "I can't read Chinese."
"I will explain," Omi said patronizingly. "The Sapphire Dragon will turn your enemy into a sapphire statue-"
"And the guy next door and the old lady down the street and the kids at the playground…" Raimundo added spitefully.
Dojo put on a pair of horn-rimmed glasses and skimmed the ancient text. "It turns everyone-good, evil, or indifferent- to sapphire." He took off his glasses and gazed at the ceiling ominously. "And with each new victim, it grows more powerful."
"Until it's got an army of sapphire zombies," Eric muttered. Everyone looked at him. "That's what Val told me," he added quickly.
"Since when could Valerie read Chinese characters?" Omi asked him. "She has such trouble with it."
"Forget that! We gotta stop this thing before everyone turns to sapphire!" Raimundo yelled. He ran to the doorway and waved for the others to follow him. "We gotta tell Master Fung!"
"OH MY GOD MASTER FUNG!" Dojo screamed helplessly as he spied the petrified martial artist sitting around the incense pot with the other sapphire monks.
"VAL!" Eric cried as he spied the girl standing near the entrance. She was in a fighting pose, feet arched as if about to spring upwards, arms in a boxing position. She was looking up to face her attacker. When Eric turned to see her further, he was surprised at the expression: Valerie obviously tried to look fierce, but the widening of her eyes threw the whole thing off. She seemed not exactly scared-Eric knew her well enough- but surprised. Vaguely he wondered why; it wasn't like she didn't see it coming. But now wasn't the time for speculation.
Mustering up as much courage as he could, Eric said stoically, "She must have come here after finding out the truth. But by the time she got here…" He turned to Dojo, who was weeping in Master Fung's lap.
And then they all heard a whooshing sound, like air being sucked into a vacuum cleaner. Dojo finished his sobbing and said, "Uh, guys?" He pointed downward at the indigo smoke swerving around them, looping around the statues as it was sucked into the nostrils of the Sapphire Dragon.
"Should've seen that coming," Eric said dryly as the dragon belched out blue flames at them. They jumped out of the way as the fire blew at them. Raimundo grabbed Dojo out of the air and with Omi the three of them hid behind a monk statue with glasses. Eric jumped behind a rather larger monk and looked at the dragon from there.
"You'd think he'd be thankful that we rescued him from the volcano," Raimundo muttered sourly to Omi. He then cried out when blue flames erupted out of the dragon's mouth. But they weren't aimed at him. Eric slunk down behind the large monk as the ice cold flames licked at him from the front of the statue.
"You three get out of here!" Eric ordered the three of them. "I'll give this guy what he wants." He then leaped out from behind the statue and bellowed out, "ROUND TWO: FIGHT!"
The monks and the little dragon made a break for it as Eric tackled the Sapphire Dragon by himself. They ran out the door but stood around the corner, desperately waiting for Eric to come out. They heard the sounds of fighting, scales hitting concrete-or was it fists hitting scales?
And then Eric shouted, "I knew I should have taken that zombie survival class in college!" Omi and Raimundo looked at each other fearfully while Dojo bit his fingernails off. And then they heard the scream, blue smoke billowing out from the empty doorframe.
A snout poked out into the hallway, followed by glowing blue eyes, which was followed by a long scaly body. The Sapphire Dragon slowly turned its face at the monks. Raimundo and Omi looked at each other grimly before stepping out towards the dragon.
"Wise up, guys!" Dojo said from down the hallway. "This thing's too powerful."
"That may be true, Dojo, but it is our duty to try and stop it," Omi said seriously.
"Hey, if Eric can pop in a few lucky shots, then so can we," Raimundo said cockily, smirking at the dragon. The dragon roared, sending out its blue flames at the young monks. Raimundo jumped upward while Omi dodged to the side.
Raimundo flew through the air, palms outward as he tried to get all up in the dragon's face. With a snap of its head the boy was thrown downward. He landed with a painful crash, moaning as he tried to gather himself together. The dragon quickly belched out more fire, sending Raimundo to sapphire hell.
The Sapphire Dragon blew more flames at Omi, but the yellow monk ducked down. The six dots on his oversized forehead glowed, and he shouted, "WATER!" He flew up towards the ceiling, standing on the roof's inner frame. And then, like a pinball, he zigzagged all over the ceiling, hitting the wooden frames so that chunks of debris quickly fell over the dragon. The wood toppled the dragon over, smothering it in debris and black smoke.
As the smoke began to clear, Dojo could just make out a wagging blue tail out of the wood pile. "Great ghost of Dashi, you did it Omi!" the little dragon said happily, slithering up to the little monk as he landed.
"The Sapphire Dragon will trouble us no more," Omi declared, wiping his hands together to get the dirt off. With a proud swagger he walked away. Dojo took a moment to gloat over the remains.
"Yeah, this is whatcha get for turnin' on a brother!" he said, referring to himself. "But look, play your cards right and I'll put in a good word for ya." He chuckled. "Maybe."
The pile of debris rumbled and through the darkness blue eyes and glowing fangs stared out at Dojo. Angrily gnashing its teeth, the Sapphire Dragon roared out blue fire. Dojo ducked his head just in time, but the flames hit Omi instead. He never saw it coming.
"NO, OMI!" Dojo cried as he slithered over to him. He threw himself over the statue and sobbed, "Not my best buddy Omi! You've been turned into a sapphire statue!" As he continued to sob, Omi's arm slowly began to twitch. Startled, Dojo said, "That ain't so frozen."
And then he saw them: the sapphire statues of the fallen, holding their arms out in front of them like zombies.
"Oh, right, I think Eric mentioned that," Dojo said as he slid to the floor. The Sapphire Dragon flashed him a triumphant smile and loomed over its minions as they continued to walk towards him. Dojo fell onto his back and crawled on two arms away, never keeping his eyes off the zombies in front of him.
And then he felt something block his path. He looked up to see Sapphire Clay glaring down at him. He was soon joined by sapphire versions of Raimundo, Kimiko, Valerie, and Omi.
"Hey, guys," Dojo said shakily. "Remember me?" Clay grabbed him by the tail and held him up. One by one the young monks grabbed onto him, slowly choking him. And then the lizard shot out of their grasps and clamped onto the wooden frame above. "Ha! Didn't expect that, did ya?" he yelled triumphantly. He then jumped away from the sapphire children and slithered away as fast as he could.
As the zombie monks searched down the hall, Dojo hid behind a cooking pan in the kitchen. As they stalked down the hall, Dojo slowly began to calm down. Giving a sigh of relief, he tried to get out, only to have the pan tip over and clatter to the floor. Dojo lied there under the pan, heart beating erratically, breathing ragged. After a second, he peeked out from under the pan and slid out into the open. He didn't notice the zombie children until it was almost too late.
In a last ditch effort to save himself, Dojo tried to summon fire from deep within him. He could feel something hot in his gut, a fiery desperation. He closed his eyes, opened his mouth, and…belched out soot.
The little cloud of soot blew into Omi's face and he groaned, trying to flap away the cloud. The other four zombies backed away, hissing.
"Soot! That's why Dashi hid the dragon in the volcano!" Dojo realized happily. "If some soot is on the dragon, then it shrinks back into a bobble and everyone turns back to normal!" Burping an extra large cloud of soot, Dojo made his escape, nearly alerting Sapphire Eric to his presence.
After visiting Clay's room and donning an extra small cowboy hat-why did Clay have that again? - Dojo was ready for action. Strapping on the leather holsters, he put in two bottles of Clay's Texas Tin-Horn Sizzlin' Salsa Sauce and grabbed a third, just in case. Inserting a toothpick in his mouth, he slithered out into the garden where the Sapphire Dragon was.
Said dragon was near the temple's front gates, its horde of zombies behind it. He was about to set out into the world to turn the population into sapphire statues when Dojo stopped him. He whistled and the bigger dragon turned around.
"I'm calling you out," Dojo growled. The zombies stuck to the sidelines to give the two dragons room for the showdown.
The dragon blew smoke out of one nostril. Dojo played with his toothpick until it stabbed him in the gums. He quickly picked it out and turned back to the Sapphire Dragon.
The dragon blew fire out of the other nostril. Dojo popped the cap off one of the red bottles and began to gulp the sauce down. The bigger dragon loomed over him.
Red in the face and sweating like crazy, Dojo threw away the now empty bottle and uncapped the second, gulping it down even faster. The Sapphire Dragon got all up in Dojo's space, blue smoke billowing from its mouth. Flames licked out of its mouth before erupting into a fiery laser.
Red hot flames erupted out of Dojo's mouth, meeting the attack halfway. The impact threw Dojo the wall, pinning him there as the fire blast continued. The Sapphire Dragon struggled, belching out more flames, until it was finally overcome by Dojo's fire power.
When it was finally over, the Sapphire Dragon was covered in black soot. It stood still for a moment, jaws hanging open. And then it shrunk, becoming one-tenth its size before turning back into the black dragon.
Just as dawn broke out over the horizon, Dojo slid down the wall onto the ground. He blinked, but his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. The sapphire zombies were turning back into his human friends.
All Valerie could remember was glowing blue eyes boring into her, followed by a cold nothingness. And then she saw the warm break of dawn sear over the Temple, warming her as the last of the sapphire residue slid off her. She tried to walk, only to feel incredibly lightheaded. Before she could tumble to the ground, though, an arm caught her and lifted her up, spinning her into the air.
"Eric!" Valerie cried out happily, hugging him painfully. "How'd you get here from Switzerland so fast?"
Eric broke out a smile. "Surprise!"
"You jerk!" she cried out as he set her down. Both of them peered over at Dojo, who held a full bottle of Clay's sauce in his little hand.
"I believe we owe our salvation to Dojo," Omi announced.
Clay tipped his hat. "I always knew he had a real fire brewin' in him."
"About sixteen ounces, to be exact," Dojo said.
So how many of you guys like Eric? Yes, he beat up the Sapphire Dragon the first time around-giving him Gary Stu powers- but he was badly injured from the attack and was defeated in the second round. I wanted to make him seem stronger than he looks like Master Fung.
Hmm, a Master Fung vs. Eric showdown. I wonder who would win that.
As for Eric's role in the story: I feel like in a lot of stories, the parents aren't around to help their kids. I think parents play a crucial role in their kids' lives, so never seeing them may stunt their emotional growth or their need for interdependence. And while Valerie's parents are out of the picture (for the most part) I think Eric makes a great father figure as he's always there when she needs him. I don't see a whole lot of that in young adult novels, so I tried to incorporate here. Hopefully that worked.