Jack's father wouldn't leave until he made sure Jack called the professor and arranged a date for visiting. After he left, Jack waited until the maids brought his clean clothes. He checked on his Wu alert, since he had turned the volume off since the day before, and realized he had lost yet another one. He groaned in frustration. As if he needed to get even more left behind on the wu hunting. He checked the news and saw that it had been a pretty bad fight before any of them got a hold of the wu. A fire tornado and a hole in the ground. Raimundo and Kimiko seemedto be working much better together, but the hole in the ground (at the center of the tornado, he noticed) had to have been Chase. If he got back to the house right now, he could finish setting up a new batch of robots and get things ready for the next Shen Gon Wu, pehaps even get some info on the two wus he had lost.

He put on his clothes and reached for his helipad. Which of course wasn't there. It was back home on the floor of his room where he had thrown it after taking off his coat. Cue facepalming moment. All he had was that awfull black jacket and his set of emergency tools he always carried in his usual pants. Not much, but it would have to do.

He looked at the tv, the dvd player and the room phone, quickly putting together all the components in his head and figuring he could build himself a half decent communicator to send messages to his computer back home. He would just need to use the screen from his cell phone. He took it out and saw a message from his mom, from last night.

Hi baby! I'm in Paris. You want anything from here? I got you a beautiful black coat like the ones you like, but if you want anything else just ask.

Alarms started going of in Jack's head. So his mom had been in Paris at the time of the battle? He checked the news more throughly and found her "Miranda Spicer, wife of the famed multimillionaire escapes strange explosion in Paris."

"No...no, no, no..." he repeated as he called his mom's number. It rang a couple times and a woman's voice picked up.

"Hello, this is Miranda Spi-"

"Pass me my mom, Sara," ordered Jack. There was a pause at the other end of the line. His mom's assistant knew better than to talk to Jack.

"Hi honey!," said his mom, voice high and chipper like always.

"Mom, are you alright?! I just saw the news on the showd- err, the explosion!"

"Oh, dear. I'm fine. Perfectly fine, don't worry. We were just passing by when some gas ducts or something exploded on a nearby street. Gave me a good fright, but nothing else honey".

Jack sighed. "Oh, well, good thing. Where are you right now?"

"Just finished a boring meeting with some old geezer. Oh, but you won't believe who I met earlier! Your friend Chase Young!"

Jack's legs gave out.

"R-really?," he asked from the floor. His hands were shaking. "Is he still there?"

"Oh, no. We talked a bit and then I had to leave. But he is just as charming as you described him! And twice as handsome!"

Jack crawled towards the dvd and started dismantling it. He needed to get his robots, his helipad, his everything as soon as possible.

"Heh, heh, I know right? Did he want to talk about someting specific with you?" Jack tried to keep the paranoia in his voice to a minimum. Chase had fought for a Shen Gon Wu (most likely he had won it, too) and had then gone to meet his mom. Why? It didn't make any sense at all. Chase hated him and didn't even care about his existence! Why would he-?

"Oh, no. We ran into each other at a restaurant and he said that I reminded him of his friend Jack. The world is so small, don't you think?"

"Yeah, so small," Chase at a restaurant? And saying that Jack was his friend? That sounded like Wuya dressing up and trying to play an ugly prank on him. Wouldn't be the first time, either. He gritted his teeth when he thought of it. Wuya knew better than to mess with his parents. Or at least she should.

"I can see why you like him so much. I wish I could have stayed longer".

"Are you still in Paris? I'm in Austria. I went with dad to a party last night. Do you think you could pass by to get me?" he had to make sure Wuya hadn't done anything weird to his mom.

There was silence in the line, and Jack paused on dismantling the tv. "Mom?"

"He told you to go to a party in Austria?"

"Uh? Well, he went home to get me."

"Hmp. I see. Is he still there?"

"No, he had some work somewhere else. I was supposed to take a plane home, but-"

"Oh, no, don't worry dear. I'll be there, wait for me. Hold on," Jack could hear muffled shouting from the other end, and knew his mom would probably be shouting orders to her staff. It sounded like everything was as normal as usual, but he still wanted to check for himself. He got up and started taking apart the touch screen for the A/C controls, since he wouldn't be able to use his cell phone now.

His mom's voice came back. "I'll be there tonight darling. Can you take a cab to the airport or do you want me to call them?"

"Uh, I-"

A cold hand fell on his shoulder.

"You should let her call it. You'd just get lost," said a female voice behind him. Jack froze, and looked to the long, sharp nails on his shoulder.

"I'll get there myself mom. Bye," and he hung up.

Wuya let go of him. "Taking a vacation with your parents? How cute," she said.

"What do you want Wuya?" asked Jack, suddenly too aware of how he had left all his things back home. Wuya sat back on the couch. "Can't I come visit you Jackie dear? You haven't been around for the Showdowns, so I decided to come and see how you were doing".

"Really? Ah, well, you know. Busy and stuff. Dad wanted me to get out of the house, heh, heh...,"

"Taking you out for a walk? You do look like you need fresh air," said Wuya, and looked at her nails with a bored expression. Jack knew that they were just dancing around each other at this point. Waiting for the other one to take that one false step. It would be Jack, of course. But he liked to fall down his own way.

"Yeah, sort of...You know how they are".

He connected a couple cables and realized he wasn't getting anywhere with it in time for it to be useful.

"Actually, I don't. But it seems Chase does. Mind telling him why he was so interested in your mom, that he lost a Shen Gon Wu?"

"What? I don't-"

"Don't lie, Jack. You are so bad at it. I heard your mom tell you she had met with Chase," she got up from the couch, and Jack stepped back. The touch screen was still connected to the A/C, and with a couple touches he had already overcharged it. "You can tell me everything now, or we can go somewhere more...private".

The entire A/C connection in the room went off. The air vents started smoking, and the fire alarm went off at the time the fire extinguisher drenched them.

"Jaaaaack!," shouted Wuya, striking at him among the smoke and the water.

Jack sidestepped, stumbled over a chair and fell down. Wuya pushed her wet hair off her face and Jack used that moment to push the breakfast table from his spot on the floor. It hit her full on and Jack ran out the hotel were already out to see what was going out, but Jack ignored everyone and dashed down the stairs. Thankfully this was some kind of boutique hotel with only a few floors, but he knew there was no way to outrun Wuya on his own. He was already feeling breathless when he reached the street outside. He could hear Wuya tearing things apart inside the hotel.

He extended his arm to stop a taxi and got inside. "Go straight, as fast as you can. Now!" The driver gave him a strange look, but sped up. Jack sat back and breathed deeply. "Take the longest way to the airport, but don't slow down." he noticed the cd player in the taxi and tore it off the dashboard.

"Kid, don't you-!"

"I'll pay for it too! Just keep driving!" he gave the man a couple hundred dollar bills that his father had given him. He still had a couple credit cards but he had to finish his communicator before Wuya caught up with him and no matter what he did she would be at the airport when his mom arrived.

And furious.

She would be completely furious.