Hah! Didn't think I'd update so soon did you? Well I proved you wrong! Anyway, ON WITH THE FIC!!!! Oh, by the way, keep in mind that in the ad, Jack didn't say anything about Wuya, the Xiaolin dragons or shen gong wu. Kay? Kay. Anyway, ON WITH THE FIC!!!! (For real this time!)

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"Next!"

Jack massaged his forehead. He had seen over twenty people and none of them knew the first thing about his advanced robo-technology. He sighed loudly as he heard footsteps coming towards the interview room. He just knew whoever it was was bound to be another disappointment.

"Um, hi, I'm answering the ad for the assistant?"

Jack looked up in surprise. It was a girl! And his own age no less! He realised he was staring, so he surprised himself by standing and offering his hand to shake.

"Hi," She said awkwardly, "I'm Tala." She was wearing a plain black fleece with a plain black t-shirt underneath and well worn jeans. She had what looked like to be black hair but at closer inspection turned out to be very dark brown. It was long and kept up in a high ponytail.

"Um, Tala huh?" Said Jack, sitting down again, "Sounds foreign."

"It is." Said Tala, sitting down opposite, "It's Native American for wolf." (It is-I checked)

"So Tala," Jack looked at the papers scattered across his desk and picked one up at random. Glancing at the question written on it, he asked "Um, why do you think you'd be a good techno assistant?"

Half and hour passed with Jack asking questions (mostly about machinery) and Tala answering all of them without missing a beat.

By the end of the interview, Jack was convinced she was perfect. There was just the matter of the offered room to be cleared up (In the advertisement he had included the offer of a free room/flat with the job, in case of 'late shifts', aka, a shen gong wu turning up in the middle of the night).

"So will you be taking the room or not?" Asked Jack politely.

Tala nodded sheepishly, then asked quickly, "Do free meals come with it? Or will I have to order take outs?"

"Take outs." Replied Jack instantly. He couldn't afford to pay labour and extra meals.

Tala shrugged, "Fine." She said breezily.

"JACK!" Jack sweat dropped – it was Wuya!

"Ah! I might have forgotten to mention…"

Wuya came through the wall. Tala screamed at the same time Jack tried to grab Wuya and failed, knocking Tala over.

In the confusion, a doorbell rang upstairs. Jack's head shot up. "Crud!" He yelled.

"What's wrong?" Asked Tala, getting to her feet and brushing herself off, eyeing Wuya suspiciously.

Jack was panicking. "My parents are home!" He screamed, eyes bugging out of his head. He pushed Tala towards the door to his workshop. "Hide!" He hissed desperately.

Two shadows appeared on the wall opposite them. Tala looked at Jack's face and ran through the door, closing it quietly behind her.

Once in the workshop she looked around for a place to hide. She saw a skateboard half under a partly built rocket ship. If she hadn't been so rushed Tala would have whistled in appreciation. She was impressed.

She heard the door opening, oh crud! Hide! She thought desperately, sliding under the rocket on the skateboard.

She tried to stay as quiet as possible as the footsteps came closer and closer to her hiding place.

"This is what you do with your time boy?" A male voice, thick with disdain.

"Now, now dear," A female voice, a little hesitant, "I'm sure all this has a purpose. What does this do-"

"No Mom!" Jack, "Don't touch that!" A flash of light, a crackle of electricity and a woman's cry of pain and annoyance.

"Now look what you've done boy!" The male voice again.

"It wasn't my fault," Jack sounded like he was pleading, "I tried to warn her-"

"SILENCE!" The male voice again, "How dare you argue with me!" A thump, and Tala saw Jack's body hit the floor about a yard away.

"Yes sir." Jack was whispering now.

"You see you don't forget it!" A booted foot kicked Jack before turning smartly and walking away, though not fast enough that his passing remark wasn't heard; "Brat!"

Tala was frozen. She didn't know what to do. Jack sniffed. She crawled out.

As she stood up, so did Jack, his back turned to her. He walked away. She followed.

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So? What you think? I never originally planned for the violence. It just came out