Me: Chapter four! Still the showdown.

Kimiko: (running for her life still) Yeah, you HAD to have that cliffhanger! You had to take that long to write this chapter and leave me here with the boulders!

Me: Laugh out loud…

Chapter Four

Kimiko's Point of View

I was fine until I looked back, and I didn't see the crevice I was just about to walk through. I tripped, and then I fell…

It took a while to recover from my slight stun. When I opened my eyes, I saw a huge rampage of ten-foot boulders charging right at me. In my own fear, I was petrified and was not able to move. In a distance, I heard faint shouting. Omi, Clay and Raimundo were screaming at me to get up. I couldn't tell their voices apart, but I could tell by what they were saying. The boulders were now very close.

"You can do it, Kimiko! Just think, 'What would OMI do?'" It didn't take me brains to figure out who said that.

100 yards

"Get a move on, Kim! Ur gonna be squashed like a snake in a rodeo!" Clay said that one, no surprise.

50 yards

"C'mon Kimiko! You can do it! I have faith in you; don't let it get crushed!" This was said in a wonderful, strong tone. I could tell Raimundo's voice anywhere. It was then that I remembered I wanted to impress him.

10 yards

I quickly thought up a desperate strategy that I have never used before.

8 yards

'Here goes nothing,' I thought to myself.

6

"Wudai Mars,

4

"Denshi Bunny,

2

"Fire!"

1

Soon enough, a surge of colossal energy gushed out of me. Even not having the faintest idea what was going on, I could feel the chi rushing through my blood, and in a split second, I felt myself in the air. I closed my eyes, and inside my eyelids I could see yellow, orange, and red beams of light across a black milieu. Then there was a faint presence of Raimundo.

In several seconds, I was back on my feet, and I heard a bit of rumbling, and then nothing. 'Was I dead?' I thought. But then, small little pebbles rolled around my feet.

Raimundo's Point of View

Omi, Clay and I were screaming at Kimiko to get up. After a few second though, she stared at my direction. I saw the fear in her eyes become confidence, and I heard her summoning her Wudai element combined with the Denshi Bunny.

Once the boulders were right in front of her face, time froze for me. Seeing it in slow motion, Kimiko turned red for about a split second – everything was glowing red. It was like an inexperienced preschooler's painting.

In the next split second, she almost looked like she turned into a firecracker. Exploding under her feet were clouds of smoke and gas. Rising into the air, she appeared to disappear for yet another split second. That was when there was a huge eruption out of nowhere. Fire and smoke was rupturing in every possible direction. The boulders coming at speeds of seventy miles an hour stopped in real time, and the just seemed to disintegrate with the heat itself. There were little bits of fire all around the fifth floor of the pagoda along with small puffs of smoke drifting little by little. Kim was nowhere in sight.

Shaking, I screamed, "Kim? KIMIKO?"

Then, the bits of smoke started to float into the middle of the floor. The fires slowly rose and became weak fireballs and followed the smoke. With a strange and miraculous sweeping motion, the fireballs and smoke turned into a Kimiko with her eyes closed. My expression softened, and I smirked. 'About time,' I thought. 'At this time, I almost thought she would never explode.'

Kimiko's Point of View

I opened my eyes, and Omi and Clay were cheering, dumbstruck. Rai was just smiling. I smiled widely, jumping up and down, and I shouted, "How'd ya like me NOW!"

An instant later, I realized I was still in a showdown. I dashed to the portal and entered – finally – level six.

I emerged in a small meadow with a stream. Out of the stream popped out Wuya, gasping for breath. She looked at me with contempt, then dove back down. I raised an eyebrow, and looked around the meadow. All I saw was grass and one bluebell flower bush. 'Hm, no portal.' I decided to jump into the little stream. I wondered what took Wuya so long to find it, though. I understood exactly why once I jumped in. The "small stream" ended up being an entire fourth of a square mile of the Atlantic Ocean. Fortunately, there weren't any fish; I eat fish – I don't every want to see them alive – they creep me out. I looked around and saw a typical ocean scenario. Seaweed, coral, seaweed, sand, seaweed. Next all that, though, was a deep gorge. I noticed that Wuya was still looking around the coral, so I took a little look down it, and was greeted by a shark. I screamed, but all I heard was bubbling. I tried using the Denshi Bunny to make a getaway, but I electrocuted the water instead. Since I was electricity, it didn't harm me, but it did the shark and Wuya, leaving them in a temporary coma state.

'That'll work.'

Quickly going up to the surface for another gasp of air before plunging down once again, I swam around, trying to discover the next portal. Near the bottom – about twelve feet under; my eardrums were bursting – was a bluebell. 'Of course.' I opened my eyes wide. I desperately needed air now as I pedaled quickly to the surface of the stream as I lay on the grass on my back, wheezing for air. Several seconds later, I caught my breath and pushed a few branches of the bush aside and I found the portal. I looked back at the flowers, and they were actually white roses colored by the blue portal's light. Anyway, I hit the portal, pulling the bush over me.

Floor seven – finally. All I found in here was a sliding door. I reached to open it, but the door said, "Not so fast, little garu." I screamed and flinched. It carried on: "To enter into the next room, you must figure out my riddle first." 'Typical,' thought I to myself. "Okay, I'll give it a shot." Papa taught me well, and I was able to achieve and move onto great educational programs. I was taught to be capable to see things in many different ways. The door said, "There are three light-switches downstairs, where you are, that turn on three lamps upstairs, irrespectively. Your job is to find out which switch turns on which lamp. You may only go upstairs once. You may ask yes-or-no questions."

I pondered for a moment. I asked, "Can I have a visualization of the riddle?"

Suddenly, I appeared in a household hall, where there were three light-switches before me. There were stairs that go up for six steps, the make a u-turn, and the goes up six more steps. The door was now floating in the air.

I smiled. Clearer my mind would be if I could picture any problem I was solving. Looking around, I found nothing other than the three lights-switches. I could tell that I would not be able to see any light if I turned one lamp on.

I came up with an answer. 'Boy, this is all too easy.' I said to the door, "I came up with an answer." 'Wow, how redundant,' I said to myself. The doors replied, "Okay then, young garu."

With that, I flicked the switch to the left on. I heard a click upstairs. I waited for a few minutes. The door raised its eyebrows. After the moments, I turned off the light and turned on the middle switch. That's when I went upstairs, and the door followed. The lamps were scrutinized for a while be me, and to the door I finally said, "The second switch turns on that lamp." I pointed at the lamp that was on. "The first switch," I continued, walking toward the lamps. I felt on of the bulbs. It would have burned me, but I was the Dragon of fire, after all. A grin appeared on my face. "The first switch turns on this one, which bulb is still warm. And the third switch is the one over there, where the bulb is still cold."

Astonished, the door did not say anything for a while. He then closed his eyes, and we appeared back in the seventh floor of the pagoda. I saw Wuya getting sassy with another sliding door that seemed to just have appeared. My door said, "I must say, young garu. I am quite impressed you figured that out on your first try. You may proceed. I silently squealed as the door slid past and revealed a blue portal. Wuya looked over in anger and despise as I got conveyed to level eight.

Me: That's it for now.

Kimiko: (gasping) Why did you put in twelve floors when you could have put in, like, five?

Me: Because our viewers like to see in pain – I-I mean action!

Kimiko: WHAT!

Me: R&R!