Jack laughed a little as Niso padded at the catnip filled toy he was holding up. The young man was floating above the warrior with his heli-pack buzzing and laughed more as Niso leaped into the air after the toy. Nani let out a soft purr as she walked beside Chase, tempted to join in the little game, but had been ordered to be on guard.
"Who knew panther's like catnip?" Jack chuckled.
"Don't get my warriors addicted to that nonsense. I need them fully focused when needed." Chase stated.
"Yes, sir." Jack said with a hint of humor in his voice. Chase let out a sigh and noticed that Nani was looking at him, brows raised and a smile on her feline lips.
"I do not appreciate that look, Nani." Chase said. Nani shrugged and let out a meow. "Don't remind me of my choice." Chase muttered. "Not like I had much of one in the first place with him, he sticks to you like glue and never lets go." Nani let out another meow, some questioning in it. "No, I don't regret it. Not always at least." Chase admitted. "It will just take some time to adjust to certain things." Nani nodded her head in agreement. "I still can't believe that I'm allowing this to happen." Nani purred and rubbed her head against Chase's leg. "Oh, hush."
"Dude!" Jack's shout of excitement ended Nani's and Chase's conversation, the warrior sprinting ahead to see why Jack yelled. "The lake is so cool!" Chase finally caught up to Jack and saw him staring wide-eyed at the clear lake. "Is that an island out there?"
"It's a pile of rocks, but they're large enough to climb and lay upon." Chase said.
"Have you?"
"Plenty of times. They're very warm on sunny days and the warriors enjoy swimming in the lake."
"I thought cats didn't like water."
"My warriors are not cats."
"Could have fooled me." Jack said under his breath, knowing that Chase could hear him.
"How far into the water is the Wu?" Chase asked instead of arguing further.
"Couple dozen feet." Jack answered, checking his Wu detector. "How deep would that be?"
"Doesn't your elaborate device tell you that?" Chase gestured towards the gadget in Jack's hands.
"My Wu detector only tells me the longitude and latitude, I haven't figured out depth just yet."
"Looks like we're going swimming."
"But I didn't bring my swim trunks or nose plug or sunscreen." Jack protested.
"You do not need all of those items in order to go through water." Chase said.
"You might not, but I do." Jack huffed.
"Do I have to teach you how to swim as well?"
"No! I know how to swim, kind of. I'm just not in the right attire for it."
"We're males. Our attire for swimming is pants or shorts." Chase stated as he started to remove his armor.
"W-What about my cut?" Jack pointed to his shoulder.
"That wound healed a week ago. Stop making excuses and-" Chase stopped and stiffened, the warriors doing the same as well, heads up and ears twitching.
"What?"
"Hush." Chase put a finger to his mouth. Jack watched in confusion as the three looked around, hearing something that he couldn't. "Spicer, take cover."
"Take cover?"
"Go!" Chase's snap was overpowered by a gunshot.
Jack felt his heart leap up into his throat when he saw Niso leap to the side, a bullet going into the ground where he was just at. Nani quickly went towards where the bullet came from. A moment later, four men screamed and ran out into the open. One of them stopped and pointed their gun at the rushing panther, aiming for her head. Jack heard a growl from Chase before the warlord took off. He blinked once and Chase was already in front of the hunter, hand on the barrel of his gun.
"Not you again!" The man cried, gasping as Chase snapped off the end of the barrel as if it was nothing.
"Run." Chase said, his voice barely above a whisper. The man dropped the broken weapon and went after the others. "Stop." Chase ordered Nani and Niso, who were about to go after the men. "Stay with us." He added as he fixed his armor.
"He knows you, why does he know you?" Jack asked.
"They're the ones who killed Raja." Chase explained. The warlord noticed a change in Jack's face, one he's only seen once before; when he was threatening the Xiaolin Monks' lives after he believed that they had ruined his heli-pack. "Do not do anything stupid, Spicer." Chase warned as Jack walked in the direction that the men ran.
"Don't worry. I know what I'm doing." Jack said and pressed a button on his belt.
"I don't know whether this will be entertaining or terrifying." Chase said to himself, following the younger man. "Entertaining it is." He answered himself with a chuckle when he saw the four men trying to fight off several Jack-bots. How did they get here so quickly and why did they seem smaller than usual? Chase found Jack sitting on a low tree branch, tossing a ball into the air and catching it with one hand. Chase assumed that he had his machines carry him up there since it was basically impossible for Jack to climb up there by himself so fast. Chase leaned himself against the tree Jack sat on, deciding it would be amusing to watch what Jack was going to go and gestured for Nani and Niso to do the same. Jack tossed the ball he was playing with and it transformed mid-air, becoming another small Jack-bot.
"May I ask what those are?"
"Mini-bots, I started carrying them around in case of emergencies." Jack snapped his fingers, the bots stopping their attack and floating next to the men, waiting for their next order.
"What are you going to do to us?" One man asked, a trail of blood running out of his nose.
"You killed my friend." Jack stated, his voice flat and serious.
"Your friend? We didn't kill anyone!" Another man protested.
"You killed Raja. The panther." Jack tapped a finger to his neck. "You shot him in the neck, not once, not even twice, but five times." Chase smirked while Jack talked, enjoying the young man's current attitude.
"He's gonna kill us over some cat!" The third man cried.
"Warrior." Jack corrected. "He was a warrior, a fucking fantastic one and you took him away." The genius jumped off of the branch he was on and landed a few feet away from the men. "But I'm not going to kill you. That'd be too nice." Jack crossed his arms. "Plus, a good friend of mine told me that killing for revenge isn't worth it because your suffering would end and you'll never feel that pain we felt when you slaughtered our friend." Jack lowered his arms and walked over to the men as he spoke. "I'm done. For now. You're all bloody and you have a broken nose." Jack pointed at the first man. "And you and you." Jack pointed at the others as well and stopped at the fourth one. The young man clenched his hand and punched the man in the face with no warning. "And now, you too." Jack turned away from the men and let out a soft whine of pain, holding his hand before facing them again, not showing that he had hurt himself. Chase made a mental note to have either Nani or Niso travel ahead to prepare an ice wrap for Jack's hand when they returned. "Now, I suggest that you leave and if I ever see any of you again, I'll capture you. I'll torture you to the brink of death and then bring you back and I'll do that over and over and over again until you beg for me to kill you, but I won't. After that, I'll drop you off in the middle of nowhere and leave it up to you to get back home safely and if I see you again, even after all of that?" Jack chuckled softly. "I can't make any promises of what I'll do then." The men all stared at Jack, not knowing what to do and too afraid to move. "Run." Jack smiled when the men scrambled away, dropping the rest of their guns and leaving them behind. This felt great, he really needed to try doing that more often. Jack waited until he was sure that men were gone before breaking his façade. "That was awesome!" Jack punched his hands into the air as he cheered.
"I must say, Spicer. I'm impressed." Chase admitted. "I never knew that you could act like that."
"Me neither." Jack chuckled weakly. "I kind of just pretended to be you." The young man rubbed his injured hand. "I might have gone a little too far."
"Just a bit." Chase smiled. "Nani, go ahead of us and prepare an ice wrap for Spicer's hand." Nani nodded her head and ran off. Niso walked up to Jack with the cat toy in his mouth and tilted his head in questioning. Jack laughed and grabbed the toy with his good hand and used his heli-pack to float back up and played with Niso on their walk back to the lair with Chase following close behind.
