Chapter 34: Lilacs and Sand
To make sure this chapter went smoothly, I looked up a lot about Brazilian culture. Turns out beauty is a big deal there, like, REALLY big. It's gotten to the point where vanity doesn't have a negative connotation like it does everywhere else. They take 'taking care of yourself' to a whole different level. It's not necessarily a bad thing since looking your best is usually a good thing, but it is kind of worrisome that they revere plastic surgery. I don't know; I try not to judge people, but sometimes it's hard not to. I'm only human guys.
Though one great thing about Brazil is how diverse it is. I always knew the country had a high concentration of Poles and Italians due to the Roman Catholicism, but I had no idea they also had African and Asian roots and a whole bunch of other races there. Brazil's one of the few countries where interracial marriage has never been a huge deal because every person living there has mixed ancestry. It's so awesome! XD
Unfortunately, after this chapter this story is going on hiatus. I know you guys are excited to see how I write Chase Young, and I really wanted to post that chapter before I left for college, but that's just not happening. Sorry guys, but you have to wait.
Raimundo wasn't quite sure what he was feeling.
At first, he had been feeling exhausted and frustrated. All of the monks sans Valerie had gone off in search of the Sands of Time to prevent some sort of world destroying catastrophe. After nearly two days of searching, not stopping for rest or food until they stumbled upon a dinner theater set called the Sands of Time (which had been a total waste of time, to be honest); Dojo had detected the Shen Gong Wu…right in the rock gardens of the Temple. So, after going back to where they started and walking up to it, it turned out that Jack had gotten to the Wu first.
So yeah, Raimundo was definitely feeling frustrated.
Of course, it wouldn't do to stay frustrated. That was unproductive. So he and the other three who went on the quest had gone back to the dorms for some much needed showers and clean clothes. They could even spare some time for a nap and a warm meal.
That plan had gone slightly awry thanks to Valerie.
During their absence, she had experimented a bit with hairstyles and cosmetics. Raimundo had grown up with eight brothers and sisters and dozens of other cousins (he had left a pretty large family back in Rio); just about every young female in the Pedrosa clan had shown at least some interest in beauty. They would often paw at their mothers' cosmetics, ignoring the glossy pages of fashion magazines in favor of caking on powder and lipstick. The end result was usually quite comedic and could actually be very frightening, depending on just how much makeup the girl had used.
Valerie hadn't gone that route at all. She must have actually looked up tips from online articles, because the end result was actually really good. She must have spent their absence practicing putting her face on, and it definitely paid off.
The messy hairstyle Valerie had put her long hair in actually suited her very well, since she was normally apathetic about her appearance. Her makeup was light, but it was actually very tasteful: she was wearing violet eye shadow, which brought out the purple flecks in her eyes (Rai didn't even know her eyes could be any color beside forget-me-not blue). She had also put on some sort of rouge on her cheeks, bringing out some color in her normally pallid skin tone. She had even put on some lipstick-it was a dark red color, and it seemed to suit her very well.
Raimundo had to admit it: when his friend put her mind to it, she could be pretty damn hot.
…And that was when the trouble started.
Raimundo had no problem admitting that Valerie was pretty in his mind; it was just that his mouth couldn't voice the words for him. He had been able to tease her once before getting a good long look at her appearance. Every time he had been attracted to her eyes-she always did have nice eyes, why was he just noticing them now? Sometimes his eyes wandered over to her mouth-she had been saying something about never putting on makeup again, but Raimundo hadn't really listened much beyond that. All he could focus on was how bright her teeth were against her lipstick. They shouldn't have been that bright, but they were. And they were also fairly straight. Did Valerie ever wear braces?
It took a while for Raimundo to snap out of it. Kimiko had to change out of her Ancient Egyptian outfit into her monk robes, and she made Valerie promise to stay put so she could get a picture of her all dressed up. That was when he remembered that she was probably never going to go all out like this ever again.
On the one hand, Raimundo was pretty crestfallen about that. Valerie looked good-like, really good, especially since it was most likely Valerie's first time actually dressing up without someone helping her (did Ironman help her in the past, or was there another person in Valerie's life that she chose not to mention?). But on the other hand, Raimundo was also incredibly relieved. He didn't want to admit it, but Valerie was pretty distracting at the moment, and he really didn't want to be distracted during training or anything. And if he had to be perfectly honest, Raimundo thought she was pretty without the paint on her face.
He actually told her that. Right to her face, in fact.
She had given him a surprised look before her lips curled upwards in a mischievous grin. He wasn't prepared for that; he was so used to her normal expression of her lips slightly turned upward, never truly smiling despite obviously wanting to. This devious little smirk on Valerie's face was something completely different, something that thrilled him somewhere deep inside him.
"So, you're saying I'm genuinely pretty?" she had asked.
It was all Raimundo could do to stutter out, "Well, yeah, I guess." At that point he had felt his face heat up and he had to avert his gaze-which was no small feat. He kept staring at her and he was starting to think things that he really shouldn't be thinking about since Valerie was one of his friends. Clay had obviously picked up on it-Jesus Christ he was never going to hear the end of from Clay, was he?
And then Kimiko had come back in her monk ensemble and a digital camera-thank god at least she wasn't there to see him flounder- and they had all taken pictures of Valerie all powdered up. They had tried to get Omi in the game, but he was still too depressed over his failure, so it had just been the four of them, with Kimiko taking at least one picture of Valerie all by herself, then one with her and Kimiko, and then one with the two older boys. Kimiko probably would have forced Valerie to take more, but then Clay's stomach growled and that had been the end of that.
Valerie had tried to weasel away to wash her face, but Clay had offered his arm to escort her to dinner. "I mean, if you're gonna get all fancy, we might as well go all out," he had explained. She had shrugged and said, "Well, just this once," and allowed Clay to lead her out of the dorms.
Just as well; Raimundo was kind of glad that he didn't volunteer himself to walk her down to dinner. He was pretty sure that if she touched him, she would glimpse at all the messed up emotions he was feeling-confusion, happiness, frustration, and something else he dared not put a name on. But there was also a part of him that actually kind of wanted to escort her out of the dorms. Which was completely ridiculous, since Valerie was his friend who he just so happened to enjoy spending a lot of his time with.
And that was all they were. Just friends.
At least, he tried to convince himself of that all throughout dinner.
It actually wasn't that hard, in retrospect. Dinner was Italian that night: minestrone soup and polenta, which was partly cornmeal boiled into porridge, partly some type of cooked meat and vegetables, this time grilled chicken and mushrooms and broccoli in a tomato sauce. The polenta reminded Rai of home; since Brazil was a fusion of Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Germanic, Polish, African, and Asian people, he had grown up with a diverse diet that had been infused with a Brazilian touch. The polenta was just one of many dishes he had tried over his lifetime.
Of course, the food he was eating was completely different from what his grandmother used to make, so Rai could focus on that difference instead of focusing on Valerie. Funny thing though; the girl might have been used to eating funny cuisine, but she didn't often eat with paint on her lips, so a lot of it got smeared. Of course, she might have done that on purpose to get rid of it. Either way, by the end her napkin was covered in red lipstick and some rouge, and her face was much clearer.
That admittedly made it easier for Raimundo to look at her. Sure he had to avoid looking directly into her eyes-she couldn't wipe away her eye shadow as easily as the rest of her makeup-but he didn't focus on her lips so much and it had been much easier to talk to her. By the time the Neapolitan ice cream rolled around-apparently the chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry trio originated from Italy- it was much easier for Raimundo to set aside his tumultuous emotions and focus on the conversation.
And then Omi had come barging in, seemingly bouncing back from his earlier funk and announcing that he had the beginnings of a new plan. Of course, he had demanded he dine first-despite being depressed earlier the guy still needed to eat. Valerie then stole herself back to the dorms before Kimiko could protest. Of course, the second the Asian figured out her plan she went bounding after her, leaving Clay and Raimundo to deal with a hungry Omi.
Of course, since Omi was young and probably wouldn't know what they were talking about, Clay had to smile and say, "So Val looked pretty good today."
Raimundo had scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Course she did. Kimiko took pictures and everything." He took a moment to spy Omi, who was still devouring his polenta. He hadn't noticed that for the first time ever, Valerie had tried to look like a girl. Not that she didn't always look like a girl. But to the little monk, since she didn't condone to the patriarchal society from fifteen hundred years ago, she was as unfeminine as they came. Of course, he said the same thing about Kimiko, and that hadn't turned out so well.
Clay had shrugged his shoulders as innocently as he could. "Well it is a rare treat. Though you seem to find her prettier when she's not wearing that stuff."
Raimundo had wanted to slap that stupid grin right off his face, but he was too busy trying to beat the blush on his cheeks. He had remembered that slip up from earlier-no that wasn't a slip up, he genuinely meant what he said- but he didn't want to remember all those feelings he suddenly got when she smiled that impish smile and those thoughts that suddenly came into his head. He beat them down as hard as he could, trying to justify his reaction to Clay, who still had that stupid grin on his face.
"Yeah, well, it's hard to find someone actually genuine in Brazil," Raimundo had said quickly. Clay gave him a confused look.
The Lusitanic boy was relieved. He now had an excuse for Clay to hopefully get off his back. "In Brazil beauty is everything," he explained. "You know how most cultures have different standards of beauty?" The cowboy had nodded. "Well, it's especially true in Brazil. You have to look your best constantly or people think you're sick or depressed or something awful happened to you. Beauty also has everything to do with your social class. Basically, if you suddenly go from lower class to middle class or higher, you have to change your appearance to fit in, as in going under the knife."
Clay's brow furrowed. "And everyone does this?"
Raimundo had nodded. "Everyone, but especially women. It's basically about social wealth and having the ideal appearance more than anything."
"And this happens a lot," Clay stated as Omi moved onto the ice cream.
"It's a pretty big deal, yeah." Raimundo then got contemplative. "Cosmetic surgery is like a religion in Brazil, so seeing someone comfortable in their own skin is kind of weird. Of course, I got used to it because Val's my friend. But then I see her in makeup…don't get me wrong, she did look really nice," he added quickly, "but I'm more used to her being natural instead of fake, you know?"
Clay slowly nodded. "Well, when you put it that way, yeah."
Raimundo had inwardly sighed. It seemed like he fooled Clay, at least for the time being. Now he didn't have to worry about the cowboy giving him weird looks while he tried to sort out his feelings.
Of course, that was when Valerie had run back into the room with Kimiko hot on her trail. She had apparently scrubbed the rest of the paint off her face, her cheeks still slightly damp from the wash. Raimundo had been somewhat glad about that. He hadn't lied about her being genuinely pretty after all. He was also somewhat thrilled that she had kept the hairstyle. The lazy half braid half pony tail style did seem to suit her.
Valerie had been hiding behind Clay, trying to stay away from Kimiko, who had lipsticks and brushes in between her fingers like claws. She had obviously tried to convince Valerie to put more cosmetics on her face, and when that failed she had resorted to violence. Both girls eyed each other, hissing and giving each other glares.
Thankfully Omi had belched and put away his empty bowl. Wiping his face clean of ice cream he announced the secret attack on Jack Spicer's lair.
Raimundo had grinned evilly. If there was one thing that could temporarily stop those stupid feelings taking over his mind, it was a good old fashioned butt kicking. And who better to serve it to than Jack Spicer?
Later, inside an air vent in Jack's house
"Mrs. Cornhaven, you're embarrassing me in front of my new friends!" Jack whined to an elderly woman with her gray hair in a bun and a ruler in her hands.
"I think someone needs a time out!" Mrs. Cornhaven said, gesturing with her ruler. Pouting, Jack walked over to the corner, his head hanging low.
As Wuya floated over to Jack, everyone inside the air vent listened as Omi announced, "We must get the Sands of Time! There is no time to dally our dillies."
Raimundo gave a long suffering sigh and said, "I think you mean dilly dally."
Omi looked puzzled. "That makes no sense."
"Of course it doesn't," Valerie grumbled sarcastically. She had been really fed up with Omi as of late, though Raimundo figured she had a decent reason to be. She had been right all along when it came to the Sands of Time. They really should have listened to her about that, but then the writers had been so insistent and the characters couldn't go against their creators, not totally.
In any case, Raimundo was glad none of that anger was directed at him. Not that Omi noticed-it was astounding how oblivious he could be. Raimundo himself was on hyper alert, overanalyzing every little thing that was going on inside the air vent. It was surprisingly spacious, the five of them fitting in the space with little difficulty. He was sitting right next to Val, who had kept her face clean save for the dash of lip balm on her lips. It was much softer than what she was wearing before.
In fact, everything about her at the moment was soft. Her hair was still in that weird tousled hybrid hairstyle and she wore a soft wine-colored wool sweater with a slight v-neck and old jeans and moccasins. She even smelled soft, like lilac soap.
Raimundo blinked. He had to snap himself out of it. It was time for an ass whooping.
The five of them popped out of the air vent, shattering the metal covering. They landed in kung fu poses, Omi taking the lead. "We demand the Sands of Time at once…if you please," he added rather respectfully.
Jack waved a dismissive hand. "Ah, we'll get to that. But first, I'd like you to meet some special friends of mine."
"You don't have friends!" Kimiko said spitefully.
Jack mimed the words right back at her as petulantly as he could. "Associates! Whatever!" Snarling could be heard from behind the monks. Out from the shadows loomed four figures: a Mongolian in furs and pelts, quite possibly Attila the Hun; a seedy-looking cowboy that was probably Billy the Kid; a small man in pirate rags with a green parrot on his shoulder-that was probably Blackbeard; and an elderly woman with thick glasses and wearing a frumpy blue dress, most likely Mrs. Cornhaven.
"Evil dream team? Attack!" Jack ordered.
Raimundo himself went up against Blackbeard, but the pirate king had easily overtaken him and thrown him against a metal shelf. He laid there, groaning as Clay was easily thrown aside by his own lasso, courtesy of Billy the Kid. Kimiko had been kicked aside by the hulking brute that was Attila the Hun. Valerie had gone up against Jack Spicer, using boxing moves and other martial arts skills to attack. Jack was somehow able to dodge the whirlwind of fists only to send a couple of Jack-Bots her way. She was quickly thrown aside as well.
Omi himself went up against Mrs. Cornhaven. As usual, with his tactless wit, he said, "Pardon me, old lady, but I-"
"OLD LADY THIS!" the elderly teacher roared. Surprisingly spry despite her appearance she jumped kicked the little guy into the growing pile of defeated Xiaolin Warriors.
Jack Spicer loomed over them, his 'evil dream team' right behind him. "I guess this is the part where I let out my new trademark evil laugh." And then he let it out.
If there was one word to describe it, it would be obnoxious. Or annoying. Either one would have worked. It was also, oddly enough, hilarious, but Raimundo didn't dwell on that.
Once it stopped, everyone stared at him with deadpan expression. And then Valerie said, "That's your new evil laugh? I liked your old one better."
Jack seemed to deflate at this.
"And what's with your so-called 'evil dream team'?" she went on. "Okay, Attila the Hun could be considered an evil dude, but Blackbeard and Billy the Kid were just outlaws. They were bad, but hardly evil. And I'm guessing Mrs. Cornhaven was a personal choice of yours." She nodded towards the old lady.
Valerie then turned back to Jack. "If you really wanted an evil dream team, why didn't you make it up of Hitler and Stalin and Jack the Ripper and H. H. Holmes? Hell, why don't you throw in Elizabeth Bathory into the mix? She's considered history's most prolific female serial killer. She and Holmes would really hammer in how despicable you guys are."
Jack's jaw dropped as his eyes welled up. "I'm evil, but not that evil!"
"Where does that leave me then?" Valerie murmured, confused. This was a conundrum that made Raimundo pause for a moment. She had brought up a very good point. Jack's newly acquired evil team was certainly made up of bad people, but they weren't as foul as the ones she had mentioned. So if even the self-proclaimed evil boy genius refused to use them in battle, what did that make Val, a Xiaolin Warrior sworn to fight evil?
Omi then stood up and pointed a finger. "Not so fast, Jack Spicer!" he announced. "He who is last to be laughing laughs most loudly!"
Taking that as a cue, everyone stood. "What Omi did to that sentence is what we're gonna do to you," Raimundo told them.
"Warriors!" Omi roared. "Dragon X Kumei Formation!"
As four of the Xiaolin monks leaped into the formation, Valerie back flipped away. Raimundo did occasionally wonder where she went off to whenever they did this (at the Temple she was most likely seen reading, but during battle this was unlikely). But this wasn't really the time to think about that. As the four of them began to glow-Kimiko red, Omi blue, Clay green, and himself white-they went forward with the attack.
Kimiko quickly took down Attila the Hun with a well placed kick. Raimundo kicked the sword out of Blackbeard's hand and threw him into a metal shelf. "Take that pirate dude!" he crowed triumphantly.
Omi and Mrs. Cornhaven had a screaming match before jumping upwards. The old lady took out her ruler and whipped it, forcing it to lengthen into a staff. Omi quickly chopped it in half, leaving Mrs. Cornhaven defenseless.
Valerie, despite not having anything to do with the Dragon X Kumei Formation, seemed to be glowing white before the color settled to electric purple. She quickly front flipped towards Jack Spicer, landing a hit on him before he could summon any more of his robots. With a well placed punch she sent him reeling towards the middle of the room.
Clay then took his lasso and swept up Billy the Kid, Attila, Blackbeard, and Mrs. Cornhaven, tying them up in the middle of the room. "And that's how we take care of business kung fu cowboy style!" Clay said triumphantly.
Wuya took that moment to hover near the defeated dream team. "You call yourself the best? You are a disgrace to evil everywhere."
"Makes you glad Jack never took you up on your suggestion, huh?" Kimiko told Valerie from the sidelines.
"Speaking of Jack, where is he?" Raimundo asked out loud.
"You mean, when is Jack?" The evil boy genius stood in front of them holding an hourglass. "Sands of Time!" he sang before disappeared in a golden glow.
It took a moment, but the evil laugh of the boy genius rang out again, this time behind his tied up team. Sporting cliché tourist gear instead of his usual black coat, he finished laughing.
"Why do you look so…different?" Omi had the nerve to ask.
"I took a year off for some downtime and came up with the greatest, super evil plan ever," he said. "Now I'm off to enlist the help of the number one villain of them all. Sands of Time!" he cried out, disappearing with his evil dream team.
Jack didn't return a moment later this time. The monks then decided to leave the Spicer estate, since Dojo was detecting yet another Shen Gong Wu.
"I'm kind of worried about which villain Jack chose to help him," Kimiko said anxiously as they flew through the sky.
"As long as it's not Elizabeth Bathory or H.H. Holmes, I'm good," Valerie said.
"Who are these people, anyway?" Omi asked curiously.
"Elizabeth Bathory was a Hungarian duchess who was so vain and evil she used to bathe in the blood of virgins to gain eternal youth," Valerie explained quickly. "She also had a tendency of taking in new servant girls every few months and then torturing them for their blood. Some accounts say she stabbed victims repeatedly, strung them up on the walls so they would hang, and drank the blood that was slowly running out of the wounds. It got to the point where she's now called the Countess Dracula because of how vampiric her actions were.
"H.H. Holmes, on the other hand, used the 1893 Chicago World's Fair to create a hotel where he trapped numerous women to brutally torture and murder," she went on. "Known as the 'Murder Castle' he locked some guests in soundproof bedrooms with gas lines so they could asphyxiate while others were suffocated in an airtight bank vault. Afterwards the bodies fell down a chute into the basement where they were stripped of their flesh and their skeletons were later sold to medical schools. Other times the corpses fell into lime pits so they would disintegrate or were cremated or dipped in acid. He's now known as America's first serial killer."
Everyone paused to stare at her for a minute as she concluded her little spiel. She looked at them, confused. "What?"
"You said true crime is your favorite reading genre?" Dojo asked hesitantly.
"Yeah…"
"Just making sure," he said. Everyone sighed in relief, Clay even taking off his hat for a moment. Valerie gave a slight pout and turned her attention away from her friends. Raimundo had to shake his head to clear it. He was again thinking weird things, only this time his thoughts were much less of a jumble.
He had come to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, he harbored the slightest crush on Val. He had had crushes in the past, but none of the symptoms ever presented themselves whenever he was around her. Normally his heart would start beating rapidly, he would start sweating, he would get tongue tied, and he would lose the ability to walk. Not so around Valerie; he acted like he normally would around his other friends. Sure his heart might beat a tiny bit faster while she was around, and he certainly enjoyed being around her, but that was the extent of it.
So, instead of thinking he had a full blown crush on her, Raimundo figured he had the beginnings of one. The question now was why.
Valerie was certainly different from the other girls in Rio. Pale, tiny, and with very little curves, she dressed lazily and preferred books to electronics. Other girls in Brazil wanted to use plastic surgery to become beautiful; Valerie seemed generally okay with her appearance. She was sarcastic and logical and rarely let her emotions lead her when it came to decisions. And she had a love for true crime and pulp fiction and occasionally said macabre things that no one else would dare to.
In short, Valerie was the weirdest crush Raimundo ever had.
…Surprisingly enough, he was okay with that.
"I tell ya, I sensed the Sweet Baby among Us somewhere…right around…here!" Dojo exclaimed as he circled downwards towards a cliff. They were in a desert once again, though instead of Death Valley they were somewhere else. Once landed, everyone hopped off Dojo as he shrunk to normal size. He slithered over to the side of the cliff to peer over the edge. "I don't know what to say. It must have been a false alarm. Or those chili peppers I ate last night," he added, clearing his throat.
Clay picked something up off the ground. "I don't think so." He showed them a business card with a graphic of Jack Spicer on it. "I reckon we just got to the rodeo after it closed."
"I fail to understand," Omi said, completely perplexed. "How could Jack Spicer get here so fast?"
"Look down there!" Kimiko pointed to an evil looking hovercraft just below them. Jack was leading the line into it, followed by his evil dream team, finished with an extremely old man with a walker.
Dojo hurried them behind a rock sediment by the hovercraft. Everyone peered over the curve. Omi gasped. "It is old Jack Spicer! Jack Spicer must have brought him back from the future."
"No wonder they got here so fast," Kimiko exclaimed. "He must know the location of every Shen Gong Wu."
"At least until senility kicks in," Valerie pointed out. Omi and Dojo peered through the circular window to see what young Jack Spicer was up to. After a few minutes they jumped back and hid behind the sediment with the others. The vehicle started up and hovered away from them, presumably onto the next quest.
Once everyone was on Dojo, the dragon flew up, tailing the evil vehicle. "Change of plans kids," he said. "Looks like we're going after the Ruby of Ramses. Whoever possesses it has the power to move objects at will."
"Like telekinesis, but without having to use your mind," Valerie explained in further layman's terms.
"I remember seeing it in the head of the pharaoh's statue," Dojo said. "We need to high tail it back to Egypt."
Back in the dinner theater
It was dark when they took their positions. A few seconds later, spotlights beamed down on them, one by one, revealing their location. It would have made for a decent interruption if the theater had actually been open for business.
The manager, a stubby little man with a slow drawl, ran up to them. "Have you returned…to ruin my show…again?"
"We are here to retrieve the Ruby of Ramses," Omi announced. He smiled sheepishly. "And to purchase four tickets please."
"Not so fast, baldy," a familiar whiny voice rang out. Everyone looked to see Jack Spicer and his team right in front of them.
"Judolette Flip: Fire!" Kimiko shouted, sending waves of flames.
"Typhoon Boom: Wind!" Raimundo quickly sent out a flechette storm of air attacks.
Clay stomped the ground, sending out cracks. "Seismic Kick: Earth!"
Valerie's hands glowed purple as she waved them, sending the energy out around her in rings. "Empyrean Drive: Aether!"
Kimiko quickly karate chopped the ruler out of Mrs. Cornhaven's hands. Clay quickly kicked Billy the Kid in the face. Raimundo dodged a sword from Blackbeard and swung a leg at his head. Valerie front flipped towards Attila the Hun and planted both feet on the Mongolian's face, sending him reeling.
Clay screamed. Raimundo turned to see him near the Ruby of Ramses. He was waving his arms, dentures clamped onto his rear end. Omi had disappeared; Rai vaguely heard him talk about going to the future. He had used the Shroud of Shadows, but his footprints were still visible.
It took a few more minutes of fighting, but eventually Omi returned, basking in a golden glow. The Sands of Time were in his hands, and he was accompanied by the incredibly old version of him, the one everyone saw in the holographic image a few days ago.
"Old Jack, meet old Omi," young Omi declared. The two of them started to run up the statue, where young and old Jack had been trying to climb. All four of them touched the Ruby of Ramses at the same time.
"Jacks, we Omis challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown Tsunami," young Omi said.
"You just made that up," Valerie complained.
"I can't find my keys," old Jack said.
"I wager our Third-Arm Sash against your Monkey Staff," young Omi said.
Old Jack held out an ornate red and gold Chinese coin. "Our Mantis Flip Coin against your Thorn of Thunderbolt."
"First group to make it to the top of the pyramid maze wins," old Omi wheezed.
"Bring it on, baldies," young Jack sneered.
"Let's go!" young Omi screamed. "Xiaolin Showdown Tsunami!"
"Stop making things up!" Valerie cried out as the arena glowed white. The dinner theater had turned into an actual pyramid, the Ruby of Ramses right at the very top. The Ruby sent a red beam at the tip, and the pyramid separated into three pieces, all with the inward stones carved into labyrinths.
Two statues erupted from the ground; one had the head of a jackal holding the evil dream team in its open palms, the other with a golden crown carrying the good guys. There was another flash of light, and the separate levels of the pyramid started to spin lethargically.
"GONG YE TAN PAI!" the four opponents shouted. Three of them began to run; old Jack's walker apparently had a motor function, so he could fly without exerting himself. Raimundo had to admit, it was kind of a neat trick.
…though it ended up backfiring when old Jack slammed into a wall. Yeah, it would have worked better for someone with better eyesight.
There was an awful lot of running around in the labyrinth. While it made sense, Raimundo was beginning to see why Valerie sometimes yawned in the middle of a Showdown. In fact, she was even reading a book at the moment, the one she and Jack had been fangirling about a few days ago. It had been odd seeing Valerie act like that-she was normally too stoic to express her emotions so vividly. Sure, it was over a book series, but still.
Right now young Jack was carrying old Jack while flying through the air. They had apparently seen the advantage of flying over the maze to get to the next level, only for the poles in the heli-pack to falter and break apart. It was certainly bad-they had been cheating-but Raimundo probably would have done the same thing. Hell, any of them would, except Omi.
Raimundo bristled at that. Good and evil were supposed to be different sides of the same coin, never interacting. So why was it so easy for the supposed good guys to get into the heads of the bad? Take Valerie's earlier rant on Jack's evil dream team. The current members were certainly bad (Rai didn't know about Mrs. Cornhaven though) but they weren't necessarily evil. It was like Jack went out of his way to not get the most despicable villains in human history.
Raimundo hated to say it, but Jack had more in common with the stereotypical good guy than the monks did.
But what really pissed him off when he thought about the evil boy genius was how he and Valerie had hit it off earlier. She had a taste for the macabre and was a dork when it came to books; he was just a dorky evil villain wannabe. And yet both had fangirled over the same book series. Earlier it had ticked him off to no end and was ecstatic that the satellite had crashed into the Temple a few seconds later. It gave him the excuse to cut their moment short.
He hadn't been sure as to why he'd been so mad earlier, but now Raimundo could see it was jealousy. He sighed inwardly. If he wanted to keep this crush thing a secret, he would have to act like it wouldn't bother him.
Raimundo peered back at the Showdown. This time a mummy had appeared out of the ground right in front of the Omis. It actually looked like a credible threat before old Omi destroyed it with one hand.
"LEVEL TWO: ATTAINED," an announcer said. Raimundo didn't know who said it, but it was clear that the Jacks were already on the second maze. The Omis quickly followed as the first maze began to disintegrate. They were able to get to the second level in time, but there was a dust cloud where the first maze had been.
Again, the two pairs ran through the maze. Again, it was starting to get boring. Raimundo peeked over to what Valerie was reading when she suddenly put her book down. She stared at the Showdown, where the two pairs had met up face to face. They were both right in front of the laser beam that would take them to the third level.
Both ran headlong into the portal just as the ground underneath them collapsed. The young enemies faced off against each other as the old ones just kind of stood lethargically.
"LEVEL THREE: ATTAINED," the announcer said. Raimundo wasn't sure what was happening, but old Omi quickly used the Thorn of Thunderbolt to send the Jacks out of the maze. It was actually pretty funny.
And then the Omis hovered towards the Ruby of Ramses and touched it at the same time. And so the Showdown was wrapped in white as the setting became a dinner theater again.
Everyone cheered as they ran over to the Omis. It took a while, but Omi was eventually able to talk to his older self. "You're bones are old, but you're heart is strong."
"You battle like a true Xiaolin warrior yourself," old Omi told him.
"Course he'd say that to himself," Valerie muttered under her breath. It took all of Raimundo's willpower not to burst out laughing.
"Now if you please, I must…nap." Old Omi immediately began to snore. Young Omi just awkwardly petted him on the head.
Back at the Xiaolin Temple
"I must now return to the future," Old Omi told his young friends, "where I will hide the Sands of Time, never to be found again."
Young Omi sniffled. "Goodbye." The two embraced. "It was most delightful getting to know you. I mean me."
"Sands of Time!" old Omi cried out, glowing gold before disappearing.
"I wonder where he's gonna hide the Sands of Time," Kimiko wondered.
"I know where I would," Omi told her. "I am most impressed with myself. I never would have thought to look there."
"And yet you did," Valerie said dryly. "Fancy that."
Raimundo sniggered as Omi's ego deflated yet again. He was kind of enjoying this little crush he had on Val. He kind of wanted to talk to Clay about it, but then again, he just realized it. It would probably be better if he kept it to himself.
He smirked. He might as well enjoy this for the time being.
In the episode, young!Jack leaved old!Jack in the middle of the desert. So, he basically abandoned his older self to die from the elements. That's pretty fucked up.
Quintessence is now ON HIATUS.