Here we are again. School is over for me, finally! I've got nothing to do with my life, so here I am writing…

Chapter Four

Stuff…yeah, you wanna make something of it?

It was late when Clay returned to the Dragon's rooms. He looked in at Jocelyn. Her red hair was splayed out behind her as she lay on her side. Soft classical music flowed from her small radio. He sighed. Jocie mumbled something in her sleep making him jump. He sighed again and moved on to bed.

The next morning, Jocie lay on the wall of the koi pond. Her finger made strange arbitrary shapes on the liquid's surface. The huge dark koi would often swim up to her wandering finger and nibble it with mild curiosity. She would then run her fingers over the fish's smooth wet scales. After a few second, the fish would dart off toward the dark pond bottom and its kin. Jocie faced the sky. She "looked" around at the energy of nearby beings. There were the koi in the pond beside her. The elder monks were in the meditation hall, as always. There was a huge blinding source of energy from the Shen Gong Wu vault, obviously. A lot of Shen Gong Wu put in one place gave off an amount of energy seconded only by the sun which beat down on her face. Jocie turned her attention toward the bed chambers. Raimundo was still asleep. Omi and Clay were watching him, as she'd asked them to do. Dojo snoozed in the sun on the outskirts of the temple. Master Fung was with the room filled with the ancient scrolls doing whatever he did during the day. Jocie didn't bother looked for Kimiko, she didn't care where that little slut was. She suddenly felt a stirring as the shape of pale energy that was, in her eyes, Raimundo. He was awake. Jocie was quickly on her feet and headed for him.

Raimundo sat up and groaned holding his shoulder. "What happened last night?" he asked Clay and Omi.

"You had your butt handed to you by Jocie," Clay said grinning. His mind still lingered in her swift kiss to his lips last night.

"Well, well, well," there came a voice from the door. All three looked to see Jocelyn leaning against the door frame with a mischievous gleam in her gray eyes. "Look who's conscious. Can you go tell Kim that you're alive, she won't believe me…or talk to me," Her playful glitter hardened into a glare of loathing. A couple of sparks materialized on her fingers. She gave a quiet angry snort and turned out. Clay and Omi quickly followed leaving Rai to find Kimiko.

He did find her sitting outside the temple walls staring at a small blue flower. Rai cleared his throat loudly. "Rai!" she exclaimed jumping up and throwing her arms around him. "I thought that bitch had killed you."

"Nope," he replied smiling, "That must have been one hell of a fight though; I can barely remember a thing." He rubbed his head still smiling. "She's quite a fighter that one. You wanna go back to the grounds?"

"No," she abruptly sat back down pulling Rai down with her, "I don't want to see her face,"

"Because she was right,"

"What?"

"She was right, I'm not dead. You just don't want to face her to accept that you were wrong."

"There you are," Omi ran up to them. "Dojo has sensed a new Shen Gong Wu. We must leave at once." He led them to the sixty foot long dragon. Clay and Jocie were already on board. They climbed on and were off. "The Bow of Artemis," Omi read from the scroll. "Its shots are deathly accurate, missing target only once out of ten thousand shots,"

Dojo flew them to Salem, Massachusetts, a relatively small seaside city. A light breeze blew off the sea. "Over there," Jocie shouted and pointed at a statue of Roger Conant, the founder of Salem. AN: Real guy, real statue. The base was covered in ivy. Jack Spicer stood up to his elbows in the vegetation digging for something. Wuya hovered beside him yelling for him to hurry up. Dojo landed and shrunk. Jack gave a huge tug and a four foot long bow emerged from the ivy. It was black wood with elaborate carvings covering it.

"So long Xiaolin losers!" He began sprinting down the busy street with the Dragons not far behind. Jack activated his heli-pack which gave him a speed boost. Jocie whipped off a few shocks, none hit their Gothic target. Clay wondered briefly why he hadn't flown off. They reached the docks of the harbor. It was only then that Jack became airborne and flew off keeping close to the water's surface.

"That water is highly acidic," Jocie said looking down at it. "It's not safe. That's why Jackie came here before taking off. And why he's staying so close to the water's surface. The water's full of sulfur dioxide from the power plants. It's got insane amounts of energy coming off of it, bad energy. We'd be crazy to follow him."

"You're crazier to let him get away!" Rai yelled.

"No I'm not. I don't want to die. Do you?" she replied getting no answer, she continued, "Jack's never handled a bow, anyway. That Shen Gong Wu is useless to him. We'll just win it back next time."

They returned to the temple in the late afternoon. Kim quickly wandered away to check her email. Jocie sat calmly on the fountain wall and waved her hand back and forth. Small ripples of energy zipped around her hand and up her arm. "How do you do that?" Rai sat beside her and watched.

"Everything that exists has existed or that ever will exist, even the air, is made of energy, there are two kinds if energy, yin and yang. They blend together in everything and make it so. Some, but, very, very few can separate the two energies. Naturally, once separated, the energy wants to be together again. They'll come crashing back together and in the extremely short window of time before they bind again, one can guide the energy at a target. But you do not control it; you are simply its humble guide." She gave a small wave of her hand and the ripples flew off aimed at a pot. It smashed and the water that was once inside flowed freely. "Not only can I use the natural energy around me; I can use other people's energy too." She put a hand on Clay's shoulder and tapped her foot several times in rapid succession on the ground. The pieces slowly reassembled into the same pot as before. She took her hand from Clay and put it on Omi's head. With a smooth gesture, the puddle the pot now sat in glided up and in an elegant stream and reentered its original place.

"How'd ya rebuild the pot?" Clay asked scratching his head.

"It's made of porcelain, is it not?" she asked; he nodded. "Porcelain is made of clay from the earth. Earth is your element, isn't it?" She smirked. He nodded again feeling at little bit stupid.

"How did you learn to do that?" Omi asked.

"Master Fung taught me a few things yesterday while you guys were doing your little target practice thing. Now if you don't mind," she stood up and stretched, "I'm going for a walk," she strode away with her hands in her pockets.

Jocie sat on the western wall watching the sun set between the mountains. Kimiko walked up slowly. She had to apologize. Rai was right. As she approached, she heard Jocie singing, "When you're talking to me, don't be cryin' the blues 'cause don't nobody bring me no bad news. You can verbalize and vocalize, but just bring me the clues, but don't nobody bring me no bad news," Kim cleared her throat softly. "I know you're there, Kimiko," Jocie stopped singing and looked down, "I felt your ashamed presence, do you have something to say?"

Kimiko nodded and climbed onto the wall. She sighed and began. "I'm," she stopped and took a deep breath, "I'm sorry about what I said yesterday, you were right. Rai's fine. I just," she stopped again; "I get worried for him. He gets himself into fights like that; sometimes I think he does it on purpose."

"Well, number one, apology accepted, thank you. Number two, guys are just like that, they seek conflict. I like conflict too, in moderation naturally. Jack's a freak about stuff like that, cries whenever he loses. We had a race once to see who could put together one of his robots faster. I was done in forty five minutes, it took Jackie two hours. He demanded a redo, I won again. I spent the whole day disassembling and reassembling the same robot. He couldn't beat me at building something he designed. Guys are so stupid sometimes," She laughed softly and Kimiko smiled. Jocie turned and jumped off the wall.

The sun had set and the pale twilight drifted down over the temple. Kim looked at the soft glow on the horizon. There was a grunt beside her and Raimundo lifted himself onto the wall. "Is everything cool with you and her now?" he asked. She nodded. "Good. Why'd you freak out anyway?"

"I don't know. I was just getting a little too defensive, I guess. It's a bit of an instinct to gang up on the new girl, I guess."

"Yeah, you're scary sometimes," he chuckled jokingly punching her in the arm. He quickly found himself shoved off the wall.

Alright, I'm gonna stop now. Sorry about the wait, we had to make a trip out to Pennsylvania for my great uncle's funeral, don't feel bad, I barely knew him. I live in Massachusetts, twleve hours away so I was stuck in the car forever. To all Amercians, Hope you're having a grrreat Fourth of July. R&R

And remember,

McMuffinDragon is watching you!