Chapter 47: Vipers and Blindfolds
Not gonna lie, this chapter almost didn't get out on time. My classes are a lot more intensive, and I had a bunch of exams to study for the last two weeks. Not to mention I had to quit my job so I could pass my classes. Problem was I couldn't quit right on the spot; since it was a campus job, I had to continue working there for two weeks after I told them I was leaving so that they could find someone to replace me. If I did quit right then and there, I would have been blacklisted from a lot of campus jobs in the future. Not to mention my mom's getting surgery on her leg. It's a normal procedure, but that doesn't make the fact that my mom's going under the knife any less worrisome.
Long story short, I had to rush to get this chapter out on time, so it's not my best work. Sorry in advance.
"For the night is dark and full of terrors," Valerie quoted ominously.
"Oh, would you stop?" Kimiko groused. "It's bad enough with the blindfolds, we don't need your commentary."
She pouted. "You're no fun tonight."
It was in fact nighttime at the Xiaolin Temple. Their lesson had to be conducted at this time, according to Master Fung, so the students were outside in the middle of the night, blindfolds covering their eyes and fire crackling nearby.
"What do you reckon we're learning?" Clay asked curiously, because it was a weirder session than usual.
"Surely it is a lesson in humility," Omi said promptly. "For Raimundo!"
"Oh, ha, ha- oof!" the Lusitanic boy said before slamming into something (probably a tree, by the sounds of the rustled leaves). He was suddenly whimpering about something, but Valerie couldn't see what.
"In order to be a team, each must learn to trust the others fully," Master Fung said in the distance.
"And the blindfolds?" Kimiko asked.
"Sometimes, what you think you see is merely a distraction."
"Sounds more like an illusion if you ask me," Valerie muttered.
"Using only instinct, pass this lit torch and trust that your teammates will not allow you to be burned." Valerie could hear the sounds of crackling fire in front of her, but there was also the sounds of footsteps to go along with it. She could hear Rai tripping over something and falling, and then she heard him grunting as he somersaulted and barrel rolled through the air.
There was another voice grunting, and Valerie was sure it was Omi. The voice was too high-pitched and whiny to be otherwise. She could hear Omi hitting the wall behind them, and then she leaped into the sky to grab the torch out of the little guy's hand.
Somersaulting through the air, Valerie landed on her feet and cartwheeled around, making sure she didn't burn anything with the torch. She then jumped into the air, passing the wood to Kimiko as the Asian flew upwards. Valerie did a three-point landing on the grass and listened.
There was the sound of a fiery comet just above them, growing closer and closer as Kimiko plummeted to the earth. Clay was calm- they could hear Kimiko screaming through gritted teeth as she neared them, but Clay was as silent as stone. The comet noises suddenly stopped, and Valerie took it as a sign to lift up her blindfold.
Clay was holding the torch triumphantly in one hand while Kimiko was tucked into his other arm. She made an adoring gesture at him- which made sense, the guy did save her from crashing into the earth- but then he smelled something delicious coming from the nearby picnic table and promptly dropped her.
"Teriyaki pork," he drawled dreamily, running towards the meal. He sped past Raimundo and Omi, and while the little monk just stared after Clay apathetically, Rai screamed and ran as flames licked at his covered elbow. Clay had evidently forgotten he was holding the torch and let one of his teammates be burned. Jerk.
With a screech of fright Raimundo plunged his arm into the fountain, disrupting the swimming koi fish. As smoke streamed out of the water, Clay tore his gaze away from his food and said, "I-I'm sorry Rai, I couldn't help it, I smelled my favorite meal and I-!" He immediately shoved more pork into his mouth.
"I thought your favorite meal was roast pig with yellow onions," Valerie thought out loud. "Or was it shrimp dumplings?"
Kimiko threw her arms up. "Every meal is your favorite meal, Clay!" She walked away, exasperated.
Clay, finished with devouring his pork, walked over to Rai, torch still in hand. Rai, who was still standing on the fountain, screamed at the sight of the flames and leaned back. He hovered precariously over the water, and only Master Fung's hand clutching at his shirt kept him from getting soaked.
Once steady, Raimundo crossed his arms and glared at Clay. "I can't believe your first loyalty is to a pork chop!"
"You gotta admit, it's a little shitty, dude," Valerie noted, eyeing the black burn mark on Rai's elbow.
Dojo chose that moment to slither over, and because the universe hated Raimundo, his stubby little dragon arms somehow knocked the Brazilian into the fountain. "Hey kids, we got a three-alarm Shen Gong Wu alert…" His nose immediately went to sniffing the air around him. "Mmm, pork chops."
Kimiko leaned over the reptile and glared. "Dojo. Where exactly is this new Wu?" Her statement was emphasized by Rai spitting out water.
In a desert in Texas, apparently
The sun beat mercilessly down on them, the air hot and humid. Cacti sprung from the sand; large rock sediments punctured the blue sky. Valerie tilted the brim of her trucker hat over her eyes and swung her braid over her shoulder. She should have worn sunscreen, her shoulders were bare except for the Kelly green spaghetti straps of her tank top. Her legs weren't any better, with brown shorts ending at her thighs and thin brown moccasins.
"I can't believe we're back home in Texas!" Clay crowed proudly as he got a good look at the desert landscape. "Ain't she beautiful?" he asked as two vultures fought over the bones of a bull.
Dressed in a black and white checkered cowgirl shirt with jean knee-length shorts, dark brown boots, red cowgirl hat and her black hair in pigtails, Kimiko glared and put her hands on her hips. "She is a big, flat, desert prairie."
Walking up to plant, Clay hugged it affectionately. "Yeah, but the cactus all look like kin to me."
"As long as we don't have to deal with Daddy Bailey, I'm good," Valerie said sourly, remembering her dislike for the cattleman. Omi gently patted her back, or tried to at least. He was much shorter than her, after all.
It was at that moment the sounds of motors filtered through the air, and a dust cloud loomed menacingly at them. Clay suddenly turned serious; he knelt down before Dojo and ordered, "Dojo, stash the Wu. We got company."
"What is it Clay?" Kimiko asked worriedly.
"Motorcycles?" Raimundo raised an eyebrow.
"Not just motorcycles," Clay responded tersely. "The Black Vipers."
Said Black Vipers were certainly a motorcycle gang, all of them wearing leather and denim with black helmets covering their heads. Their motorcycles had been tricked out to resemble snakes, with the heads and fangs at the front, the headlights as eyes, and long rattlesnake tails at the back. Whooping wildly, the gang circled around the monks, sending up plumes of dust and trapping them.
"A motorcycle gang? Really?" Valerie muttered under her breath. Couldn't the Wu be somewhere else? Or be the Book of Alexandria? She needed to find that talisman, after all.
Omi, not sensing the danger, walked jovially up to the bikers. "Greetings, friends. My name is-!"
One of the motorists kicked desert sand into his face.
Another was about to run over Dojo. Rai jumped into the air and tried to use the Glove of Jisaku, only to get his ankles caught in a lasso. Kimiko went for a jump kick, only to get her waist wrapped inside another lasso. Valerie's hands glowed and she went for an attack, but her wrists were suddenly covered in rope and the next thing she knew she was eating dirt.
"Golden Tiger Claw- huh?" Omi went as the Wu was suddenly snatched from his hands.
"I'll be takin' that, half-pint!" one of the bikers said as another tied up Omi. In a matter of seconds, all of them had their hands and legs tied sans Clay, the last one still standing.
One of the Vipers went for him. Kimiko shouted, "Clay, look out!" and the cowboy bravely stood his ground. He dodged one lasso by jumping up, dodged another by stepping to the side, and barely untangled himself from a third. As soon as he was still, he lifted a fist in order to attack, but a lasso was instantly around it. He went to get the biker, but then another rope found its way on his other arm.
Frustrated, Clay used his immense strength and pulled his arms together. The two bikers went flying at each other, smacking on impact and landing painfully on the hot sand. He gave a satisfied smile at that.
"Nice move, cowboy," one of the Vipers sneered. "But too little too late." A lasso suddenly snatched Clay's hat away, which naturally left the blond distraught. And then another rope wrapped itself around his torso and he was pulled to the ground, defeated. One of the Vipers set his hat on his rear as a degrading cherry on top.
"We're the Black Vipers," the supposed leader of the gang told them all. "And you've just been snaked."
Later
It couldn't have been the Book of Alexandria. It just couldn't have been. They could have been in a nice, air conditioned library, or someplace else that wasn't here.
Valerie continued her bitter train of thought as she and the other monks rode on what she could only describe as a roller coaster. It most likely wasn't, but the rattling of the cart and the precarious way everyone was leaning forward was certainly reminiscent of one. It didn't help that Valerie and the others were blindfolded, this time without their consent.
"Okay, I am so over the whole blindfold thing," Kimiko groused, voicing Val's thoughts quite nicely.
Suddenly the cart jerked dangerously forward, its side hitting the ground. The monks cried out as they flew through the air and tumbled onto cold, hard rock. Valerie landed painfully on her side. She wanted to rub at her aching arm, but her hands were still tied.
"Well, well, what have we hear?" an obnoxious female voice rang out in the cave- was it a cave? The dampness in the atmosphere as well as the coolness of the rock said so. It would have made a great lair for a biker gang.
A hand roughly grabbed the cloth over Valerie's eyes, and Valerie glared at the girls that made up the Black Vipers, specifically one chubby blonde female that seemed oddly familiar. She was dressed in jeans and black cowgirl boots, a red button up top that showed off her stomach under an oversized leather jacket. She had on a small black cowgirl hat, one that barely covered her mop of hair.
"Leapin' lizards!" the blonde girl cried out in shock. "Clay? Is that you?"
"Uh, do I know you?" Clay asked, bewildered.
"Oh, well, now I'm hurt," she drawled. She shifted her lantern closer to her face. "Don't you recognize your own sister?"
"Sister?!" four of the five monks shrieked in surprise.
Clay gave an exaggerated gasp. "Jesse?"
"I am very confused," Valerie stated, looking at Clay in concern.
"You never told us you had a sister," Omi piped up.
"Would you want people knowin' you were related to a no good varmint?" Clay snarled. His sister got all up in his face.
"You think I'm a varmint?" she drawled in a low voice.
"Well, I'd sooner think you'd tip a cow than milk it."
Glaring, Jesse pointed a finger into her brother's face. "You never understood what it was like growing up in the shadows of such a perfect older sibling."
Clay shook his head incredulously. "Oh, not this old saw again."
"Oh, you were the best at everythin'," Jesse went on, walking away from the monks and indulging in her story. "Choppin' wood, shoeing horses, chasin' pigs… Ma and Pa always thought you were the pick of the litter."
"You chased pigs?" Kimiko asked Clay disgustedly.
"And whatever I wanted, you got!" Jesse pointed an accusing finger at him.
Clay stood up and loomed over his sister. "Well, I always got things first because I was the oldest."
But Jesse wasn't done yet. "And then when it came to goin' to monk school, guess who they picked?"
"Who?" Omi asked guilelessly.
"The big hero," Jesse sneered. "It was like I didn't even exist. No matter how much I tried I could never beat him."
"So instead of being the best of the best, you decided to join the Vipers and be the best of the worst," Clay sneered back, giving his little sister the most disappointed glare he could muster.
"I'm the best, period!" Jesse yelled. "Hey, I say we settle this right now, like men." She held up her fists in a fighting position. "You and me!"
"Hey, I've done some things I'm not proud of, but I'm not gettin' into a fist fight with my baby sister," Clay insisted.
"You're just yellow cause you know I'd whoop your butt," Jesse taunted before kicking Clay right in the rear. He was sent flying at the rest of the monks, landing painfully in front of them.
Omi tutted and crawled on his fingers toward the blonde girl. "Brother and sister should not be fighting. Is there no warmth in your heart-!"
Jesse picked Omi by the head said, "Butt out!" before throwing him back into the mine cart he had come in. Clay was about to set Jesse straight, but then iron bars were in front of his face and he was dangling upside down with all his friends. Valerie struggled against the ropes, but her feet and wrists were tied expertly together. Apparently, biker gangs didn't joke around in Texas.
One of the Black Vipers- a toned girl with bright red hair- sneered at them before turning to her leader. "So, what do ya wanna do with 'em?"
Jesse grabbed Clay's face and brought over to her, saying, "I'll make you a deal." And then she let his face go, and his body was sent back towards the others, hitting them like Newton's cradle balance balls. "If you scrap with me and win, you and your monkey friends are free to go look for your Shen Gong warts."
"Shen Gong Wu," Valerie said flatly. "And it's monks, not monkeys." She raised an eyebrow. "Did you even look up anything about the Xiaolin Temple? Or did you just complain about not being able to go because you were jealous of Clay?"
Jesse turned her sights on her and grabbed her braid, pulling her close. "You got yourself a big yap, don't ya?"
"Obviously," Valerie said, distinctly unimpressed. A thought occurred to her. "Do you even know any martial arts? I'm guessing you don't, because the discipline for training is great for anger problems."
Jesse's nostrils flared. "What're you getting at?"
She shrugged, blatantly ignoring the gang leader's rising temper. "I'm just saying that maybe you weren't picked to be a Xiaolin Dragon wasn't because Clay was better than you, but because of your piss-poor attitude."
There was a beat of silence- you could hear a pin drop. And then Jesse snorted derisively. "Oh, you think you're so clever, ain't ya? Thinking you can talk me out of fightin' my older brother?"
Valerie shrugged. "It was worth a shot."
Jesse roughly knocked her back into the others, recreating the balance balls effect. And then the blonde went over to a hidden cage just a few feet away from the jail cell. "And just to let you know, I'm serious. If Clay loses-" she withdrew the curtain, and loud screeching could be heard as avian predators glared hungrily at them- "y'all gonna be buzzard bait!"
As the others gasped in shock, Valerie spat out, "I hate your family, Clay!"
Once the malicious laughter died down, Jesse sauntered over to the cell and gave a triumphant grin. "What do ya say, big brother? We gonna throw down, or what?"
Gritting his teeth, Clay shot back, "You keep asking me, I'm gonna keep saying the same thing: I'm not fighting you, just ain't right!"
Jesse turned to her lieutenant. "Well, it looks like our uninvited guests have decided on an extended stay in the hospitality suite."
As the two girls left, Omi called after them, "Why thank you! That sounds most inviting! Where do we go?"
"Omi," Raimundo sighed, "we're already in the hospitality suite."
"Oh, I see." Omi looked contemplative. "Perhaps I am misunderstanding the meaning of 'hospitality.'"
"Or the meaning of 'sarcasm'!" Kimiko said exasperatedly.
"You know, that thing I use all the time," Valerie pointed out flatly.
"No, you swear all the time," Omi told her, bewildered.
"…Good point."
"Come on Clay!" Raimundo griped. "Just accept the challenge and beat the crap out of your sister so we can get out of here!"
"Nope," Clay stated. "I'm sorry, but I can't hit a girl."
"She doesn't even look like a girl," Raimundo shot back. "She looks like you with lipstick."
"Besides, I know another way out of here," Clay said, smiling slyly. "We've got a secret skeleton key."
"Or dragon key!" Clay's hat lifted to reveal a smug Dojo coiling himself on top of blond hair.
"Dojo!" Kimiko cheered as the others grinned.
"Where have you been?" Omi had to ask.
Now out of Clay's hat, he answered, "Laying low since things started getting ugly." Elongating a claw, he swiped at the rope that tethered Clay to the ceiling. As the cowboy fell, Dojo swung towards Omi, freeing him, before using his claws to free the rest of them. Valerie quickly crashed to the ground, quickly sending up dirt. She fumbled with her ropes, quickly trying to untie the expert knots and succeeding.
Standing up and rubbing at her chafed wrists, she said, "Kimiko, please tell me you brought lotion."
"I wish," the Asian girl whined, rubbing at her poor ankles.
"She and her gang really know their way around a knot," Raimundo pointed out, gently prodding the tender skin of his wrist.
"Yeah, it's good to be free," Clay said, frowning at the thought of the gang.
Kimiko walked over to the bars. "One small problem: we're not."
"Not to worry." Omi dug through his robes and brought out a pair of chopsticks. "I still have one Shen Gong Wu with me. CHANGING CHOPSTICKS!" The Wu glowed brightly, and Omi rapidly shrunk into the size of a grain of rice. It would have been an awesome plan, if he were closer to the bars.
Apparently, he noticed the problem. "Uh, a little help to the keyhole, please?" he squeaked sheepishly. Clay knelt down and put his hand on the ground, and Omi leaped into his giant palm. Gently lifting the little guy up, the cowboy carried him to the keyhole. Using his finger as a springboard, Omi jumped off Clay's hand and into the carved hole.
"Uh, you sure you know what you're doing?" Raimundo had to ask, putting a hand on his hip. Valerie peered over Clay's shoulder to look at the miniscule monk.
"I do not have the slightest idea," Omi replied honestly. "But that has never stopped me before!"
"He's got a point," Valerie admitted, shrugging.
Inside the keyhole, Omi was shouting victorious war cries. They could hear the sounds of fists and feet hitting the metallic machinations that would normally only work if the right key was inserted inside. As soon as it started, the noises ended, and Omi leaped out to the other side of the bars, shouting, "Changing Chopsticks!" Once he was his normal pint-size, the monk leaned suavely against the jail cell and opened the door.
"Way to go, Omi!" Raimundo cheered, his gleeful expression matching everyone else's. As they all walked out of the cell and high-fived him, the Lusitanic boy added, "You're first prison break, I'm so proud!" He pretended to wipe away a tear.
"All he needs to do now is start a prison riot and he'll be complete," Valerie joked. Rai gave her a fist bump for that.
"A Xiaolin warrior is prepared for anything," Omi declared as they all walked away from the jail. "Including a so-called 'prison riot.'"
"Let's hope we won't need to cause one," Dojo said, slithering along with them.
As they all walked quickly through the mine tunnels, Valerie hung back a bit to match Rai's pace. "Something you said earlier has me wondering," she said quietly to him.
He slowed a bit so that they could talk easily while still keep up with the others. He leaned over slightly and asked, "What's on your mind?"
"Would you have no problem fighting me if I were Jesse?"
"…What?"
"If I looked like Clay with lipstick and wanted to fight, would you have a problem fighting me?" Valerie elaborated, her voice quiet and neutral.
Raimundo raised an eyebrow. "Of course I wouldn't. Unlike Clay, I know chivalry's dead. Besides, I was saying all that to get him to fight his sister."
"I knew that," she said hurriedly. "Though chivalry never existed. The whole 'knight in shining armor' is just romantic fairy tale fodder."
His eyes widened a bit. "Really?"
She nodded. "Yeah, look up the definition of chivalry sometime. It was originally a code of conduct for knighthood from 1170 to 1220. It came from the Old French word chevalier, which meant, and I quote, 'a man of aristocratic standing, and probably of noble ancestry, who is capable, if called upon, of equipping himself with a war horse and the arms of heavy cavalryman and who has been through certain rituals that make him what he is.' The meaning changed over time, but it wasn't until recently that it meant someone being a gentlemen and saving the weak and innocent."
"So how would chivalry apply now?" Raimundo asked curiously.
Valerie thought for a moment. "I guess if Clay wanted to be truly chivalrous, he'd stick a lance in his sister and just kill her."
He stared incredulously at her before whispering, "God, you're weird." She would have retorted back, but then she saw the fond smile he was failing to hide, and the sharp words died in Valerie's throat.
Raimundo suddenly turned to her, his fond smile replaced with a smirk. "I'll give you five bucks if you tell Clay the truth."
She rolled her eyes. "Uh, no, I'm not breaking his heart for five bucks."
"Ten?"
A smile flickered at her lips. "Oh my god, Rai."
I like to think the relationship built between Rai and Val is one of honesty. Like, Val knows Raimundo's not going to hold back in a fight just because she's a girl, and she respects that. She just wanted to be sure. Although, he may have problems fighting a friend if the situation wasn't a friendly spar...
So, thoughts anyone?