Omi had always been somewhat of a busy body. New things interested him, new people interested him. Here and there, whenever and wherever there was something to be discovered or learned, Omi was the first one there.
But today, he was a busy body for a new reason. Before the other apprentices had shown up, Omi spent most of his time honing his own skills and meditating. As a result, he was almost always in tune with everything around him; the temple, his friends, even their territory.
But something was amiss.
He'd been spending the last hour or so trying to find his center in his meditation, but his effort was in vain. He couldn't concentrate, not in the slightest. One eye opened, and an exasperated sigh rushed from his lips as his shoulders, calm and weightless only a few moments ago, suddenly carried a biting, heavy tension.
His eyes darted around the room. It was quiet today, and normally he welcomed it. But today, the quiet was causing the air to be still, as though all life around him was becoming paralyzed.
He didn't like this feeling one bit.
He stood slowly so as not to make a sound, closing his eyes to listen for something. Anything.
Moments went by, and Omi remained still.
Footsteps were approaching; three sets of them to be correct. Closer and closer they came, but he drowned them out as he once again tried to establish a mental connection to his surroundings. The door to his room opened, and it was Raimundo who spoke first. "Hey Omi-"
A tiny hand rose, requesting immediate silence. Omi didn't turn back to face his friends as they regarded him quizzically. "Something in the air….. Disturbs my senses, my friends…"
Raimundo smirked and whispered to Kimiko with a nudge. "Maybe he pooted." Kimiko only rolled her eyes and knelt beside the young monk.
"What is it, Omi?" She said softly.
"Stillness." Omi said slowly. He didn't like this feeling at all. He was starting to feel uncomfortable.
"Joking aside," Rai said, "we were coming to tell you the same thing. It was Clay who felt it before me and Kimiko."
Clay only nodded, and even under his hat and his mess of tawny blonde hair, the boy looked uncharacteristically uneasy. "I knew you'd feel it too, Omi… I don't like this one bit. I was gonna go to Master Fung, but him and Dojo went out to gather more supplies for the temple." Even his voice betrayed his usual brave, level-headed composure; it was evident that the stillness was wearing on his senses as well.
Kimiko and Rai surveyed their friends concernedly and looked at each other. They weren't as in tune with nature as Clay and Omi, but either way their anxiousness was infectious. When Omi worried, it was bad. When Clay and Omi worried, it was worse. Kimiko made her way outside and surveyed the temple territory like a hawk, looking for anything suspicious. But then, her gut told her to turn around.
In her gut, she could sense that something was coming.
Warily, she turned in the direction the feeling was coming from..
"What the heck.." Raimundo was making his way out to her, followed by Clay and Omi. They all saw what looked like smoke rising from the horizon. Rai squinted his eyes, concentrating on the faint noise reaching his ears. "Does anyone else…. Hear that humming noise…?"
"I hear it Rai…" Clay said slowly. "And it's getting louder…"
"You mean to say," Omi said, "it is getting closer."
Rai squinted again as he tried to distinguish what it was that was heading for them. But one of the many wonderful things about him was that he had almost uncanny reflexes, which was shown as a glaring red lazer sliced through the night straight at his teammates. In almost no time flat, Rai's body sprung back, switched up his footing, and threw his weight upon Clay, pushing him out of the way just as the lazer burned a hole through the Texan's hat.
"Gosh darn it, that was my favorite hat," Clay frowned, helping Rai to his feet.
"Dude, you've got, like, seven."
"You got lucky there Clay. The next one won't miss." The monks looked up as an ominous figure emerged from the humming cloud of Jack bots above them. Ruby eyes narrowed, the thin mouth pressed tightly into an emotionless flat line. Shoulders that were normally hunched were now rigid, and his hands were balled into tight fists.
"Jack Spicer," Omi said softly as he and his apprentices shifted into their battle formation. "Leave it to your presence to ruin my daily meditation." His eye twitched; what was with that strange, almost unnerving look on Jack's face? That uneasy feeling was creeping up his spine again. Jack's eyes were…. Different.
"Eh, let's not complain Omi," Rai said with a smirk, "it was getting kinda boring around here today anyway. Pounding girly boy's robots is just as good of a stress reliever as meditation, if not better."
"Gonna have to agree with you, partner," Clay affirmed, cracking his knuckles.
"You're wasting your time here, Jack," Kimiko smirked. "This will just be another loss under your belt this week." As she got into her fighting stance, she couldn't help but notice a flicker of rage in Spicer's eyes. 'Why's he being so weird today… I mean, he's weird normally but now… Even more so…'
Keeping his eyes locked on his opponents, Jack raised a hand into the air. "I'll only say this once. I'm not losing. Not anymore." Omi felt his heart skip. That tone in Jack's voice… That cold, bitter, poisonous tone… What was going on..? "Jack bots, attack!" In an instant, the hundreds of robots rushed forth, filling the night sky with the cold glow of metal.
Immediately, the Xiaolin monks took to the malicious robots. The night became filled with the sounds of the scuffle; swift, well-planned footwork, yells of pain and success, the grating sound of cleaving metal, and explosions painted a picture of the intense battle, possibly one of the most intense battles they'd had with the self-proclaimed boy genius.
The air chilled as Omi unleashed an ice blast from the Orb of Tornami, sending water droplets and ice fragments into the air as the devastating blast froze the robots in their tracks. Thick sheets of merciless ice coated them, and those that didn't plummet and shatter were demolished by Omi's almost artistic martial arts. One would never assume, at a glance, that one so small could be so lethal. But it was that assumption by his opponents that always worked to Omi's advantage.
Brilliant streams of fire illuminated the velvet sky as Kimiko commanded the Star Hanabi. The air filled with the scent of burning oil and exhaust as the robots burned and exploded. With Kimiko in control, the Star Hanabi's flames seemed to dance, courting their opponents with their destructive force and leaving only ash in their wake.
The Sword of Storms gleamed within Raimundo's able hands. With one quick movement of his arm, the Wu sprang to life and spawned a great typhoon on the spot. The gale force winds practically stripped the metal off of the robots they swallowed, while their projectile debris reduced nearby robots to lifeless scrap.
Nimble gloved fingers gripped the Big Bang Meteorang, and, rearing back with all of his might, Clay launched it into the sky. It cleaved its way through the cloud of metal menaces, sending them plummeting to the ground below. The Texan smirked; now it was his turn. He rose one powerful leg and drove it into the ground as a Seismic Kick. As if on cue, huge slabs of earth lifted into the sky, smashing the plummeting robots with great force.
Jack had anticipated this. The Xiaolin monks usually made short work of his Jack bots, and seeing as they were done destroying more than 2/3 of them, this was normally the point when he'd start to panic.
But not tonight.
The sky rained the metal carnage of his fallen robots, and yet he remained.
He watched. Waited.
The last bot fell, its head unceremoniously crushed beneath Clay's foot as the monks grouped together. Jack narrowed his eyes and studied them.
They were winded. He smirked.
"Well Jack," Raimundo grinned, trying to mask his fatigue, "as much as we love having this random exercise session, we kinda finished off your army of friends here." He kicked a dismembered arm at Jack's feet. His eye twitched; Jack barely seemed to notice.
"I'll offer my congratulations later," Jack said quietly. "That was only round one." He pressed a button on his chest strap.
Omi tensed; the scraps of metal before him began to budge. He and his apprentices shared a mutual gasp of disbelief as, before their very eyes, the Jack bots began reassembling themselves. The dragon of water stood petrified, his eyes never pulling away from the swirling cloud of reanimating metal scraps. "What… Sorcery is this…?"
"No sorcery Omi. Just my newest versions, made especially for all of you."
"Wow, I feel so special," Kimiko said sarcastically, though it didn't help to mask the worry in her voice.
"And you should," Jack said coldly. "They're a pain to make, but I wanted to save them for a special occasion." His voice lowered. "And this is about as special as it gets."
"Tarnation," Clay said breathlessly, taking a step back. The Xiaolin monks stared in awe and disbelief as the regenerated robot army hummed back to life. A thousand glowing red eyes burned through the dark; they were no more robots than they were savage undead warriors. "Spicer, you twisted son of a-" Clay never finished his sentence. The robots poured from the sky like rain, and once again the battle exploded into life.
Time and time again, Jack watched as his robots fell in battle, only to rise again at his command.
Time and time again, cries of fatigue and frustration filled the air.
Attacks and martial arts which were once well-planned and artistic were now sloppy, weighed down, and sluggish. The battle seemed to drag itself through the dirt as it continued, and Jack watched with steely eyes as the proud, successful Xiaolin warriors were now practically yielding to his might. Soon, one by one, they collapsed from exhaustion.
Except Omi…
It was always Omi.
The small monk panted heavily, his shoulders hunched, and sweat dripped freely from his face. He was so tired he could barely see straight, and his legs threatened to buckle beneath him. However, the knowledge that his friends had fallen only justified that he'd have to remain standing; he'd have to protect them at any cost…
But… Protect them from Jack…?
The monk narrowed his eyes. Jack began to approach him, and a ring of Jack bots was closing in around him and his friends.
"Well, Omi? Say it. Say that I've won, since your friends can't."
Omi didn't like that tone in Jack's voice. It was cold… His whole persona was cold.. "You reek of Chase Young's influence, Jack Spicer… You may have won against us…" His eyes began to waver… "But against him… You will always…. Lose… You are his puppet, nothing more…"
And then, the final monk fell, swallowed by numbing darkness and silence.
Jack eyed Omi's unconscious form in silence. His fists shook with undeniable anger, and heat rose into his pale cheeks. "Jack bots, gather them up and take them." He stood for a moment, watching the vanishing forms of his robots and silently playing Omi's words in his mind. His eyes softened, and a single tear fell to the ground.
Omi was right.