Okay so I'm a big fat douchenozzle and didn't write anything for about a year. I'm going to apologize a thousand times over for it and it still won't be enough, especially because I don't really have an explanation for it other than I had a lot of personal issues come up.

BUT I DO INTEND TO KEEP WRITING THIS! Especially now that the personal crap's gone, and I'm feeling much better than I ever have. The main thing that got me writing again was I actually wrote out the entire plot-twist chapter (well, what's turning out to be one plot twist, anyways), and I got a little carried away and wrote another chapter and a half that happen right after. Oops. But it's better than nothing!

Disclaimer: Xiaolin Showdown, the Shen Gong Wu, and all its characters is copyright Christy Hui and Warner Brothers Animation. I do not make money off of this story in any way, shape, or form.

Chapter Three: Hello this is your pilot speaking - we have to make a pit stop to pick up a fancy-schmancy doo-hickey

Goodbyes were never my strong point. I'm not sure if they are for anyone, really, because goodbyes always suck when part of you just isn't quite ready to let go yet.

That's why once I had my bags packed and we were all standing in the driveway, I tried to keep my farewell as short as possible.

"You have your phone?" my dad asked for the third time.

I held it up to show him. "Yes, and my charger, and my laptop and its charger."

Unfortunately, my dad was not a master of short goodbyes, either. Funny, considering half the time when he or my stepmom were on the phone, all they would want to do is rush through and get to the point of the call, and then hang up.

He put a hand on my shoulder, looking me dead in the eye. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Have you ever seen me pack up this much junk in such a short time?"

My stepmom snorted at that and pat my dad's shoulder. "She has a point. And we have a dinner to get to."

He held his gaze steadily for a moment longer before pulling me into a hug. "Just promise me that you won't do anything you are uncomfortable doing, okay?"

"And call us!" my stepmom added, joining the hug as well. "You can always ask to come home if you need to."

My vision blurred for a moment as a few tears trailed down my cheeks, quickly prompting me to bury my face into my parents shoulders. "Thanks."

They then climbed into their car and drove off, waving out the windows and shouting "love you!" on their way.

Once they were out of sight, I felt Clay's hand land on my shoulder, making me jump a little. "Don't you worry; chances are we'll be back here faster than a flea latches onto a dirty dog's behind."

I slowly turned my head to him, one eyebrow raised though trying to suppress a grin. "Oookay?"

"It's okay kid," Dojo said from atop Clay's hat, shrugging his shoulders. "You'll get used to the down-home sayings and Omi's phrasing, I promise." Jumping off and growing to his full size, Omi shrunk my suitcases with the Changing Chopsticks and handed them to me. I couldn't help but take a moment and make high-pitched cooing sounds at the tiny luggage before slipping them into my pocket as we all climbed aboard Dojo and set off.

Once the soul-crushing terror of the steep takeoff wore off for the second time, I shakily pushed up from clinging desperately to Dojo's scales, and forced myself to open my eyes. Kimiko was smiling back at me, her ponytail whipping in the wind much in the same way Dojo's body was moving. "Take it all in now, Ellie - you'll get used to this feeling, too."

I smiled back, doing my best to hold on while slowly sitting up a little further. It was hard to really take her advice, however, considering my stomach kept flipping with every undulation and making me feel like I was riding a roller coaster - which I rarely even did. The thought suddenly made my stomach churn as I brought my arms in a little closer, instinct telling me to cling to the dragon's back tighter to make up for the lack of safety bar.

I needed to get my mind off of it. "So what's so important about this ring?"

"We actually don't know," said Raimundo behind me, shrugging his shoulders. "Dojo was sensing something that wasn't a Shen Gong Wu, and we didn't have time to take the scroll with us that explained what the ring was. It doesn't really have much of a name, either."

"All I can remember," Dojo interjected, "is that this ring has something connected to a person known only as Avareth the Destroyer."

"And what do we know about them?" I asked.

"Not much," Clay said from behind Raimundo. "Dojo told us on the way to finding you that he was some kind of sorcerer who lived two-thousand years ago."

Omi turned completely around from his position at the front, riding backwards as if it was nothing. "We would know more if the situation had not been so dire to find the ring before evil could. It is most lucky that you have it."

"Yeah, can you imagine if Chase or Jack got to her first?" Raimundo pat my shoulder. "Though you don't seem the type to be tempted by those kind of people."

"Oh, uh, right!" Inside I was screaming 'oh shit THEY'RE ON TO ME!' but before I could change the subject, Dojo began shaking.

"Heads-up, kids - we gotta make a quick detour for a Wu!" Dojo shouted as he shifted directions. It took me a minute to relax again, having immediately clung on to his back for dear life and squeezed my eyes shut.

"Really?" Kimiko asked, pulling a familiar scroll from her backpack. "When was the last time we had two hunts in one day?"

"A month, at least," Clay said, as everyone scoot closer to see the scroll. "Wait, did we ever explain to Ellie what Shen Gong Wu were?"

"No," I said, shaking my head as I lied through my teeth, "I mean, I have a general idea that they're things like those chopsticks, right?"

Kimiko nodded. "Yeah, pretty much. They can be anything, and all of them do specific things."

"It's actually pretty lucky that we're going to go find one right now," Raimundo said. "Saves us a whole lot of explaining and you get to learn by watching."

I cocked my head and looked back at him. "Don't you mean 'learn by doing'?"

"Well," Clay started, "we probably don't want to start you on using them until you've learned more about them. That way you're not going in blind like we kind of did when we started."

"Anyways, can someone read what the scroll says?" Dojo said over his shoulder. "So we don't have to waste time figuring it out when we're there?"

We redirected our attention to the scroll, the words "Maio's Brush" beneath the picture. I couldn't stop the soft "wow" that came out as the picture moved on the page. It first showed just a silhouette of a paintbrush, before warping into the generic person, who held the brush and had a painting easel in front of them. They painted a butterfly, which then lifted off the canvas and fluttered away.

"Ooooh I've heard about Maio's Brush before!" Omi leaned over the scroll, grinning wide. "Making whatever you paint come to life would indeed be a most useful skill."

"Especially if you're a good artist," I added, smiling a little before frowning again when I thought, 'Noodle-armed weeaboo style drawings would not an impressive army make.'

"Even if you aren't it's useful," Dojo said. "Dashi could craft things okay, but when it came to actual paper and brush, he was terrible at it. He made the brush keeping in mind that not everyone is a good artist, so if you wanted to make a monster, you're limit would be how many teeth you can paint on it compared to others, and not how good it looked." He shrugged. "For once style wasn't at the front of his mind when Dashi made this one."

Feigning ignorance I asked, "So how do these 'hunts' usually go?"

Raimundo answered, "Well, Dojo senses a Shen Gong Wu, and takes us to the general area of where we'll find it. Usually we have to fight off Jack Spicer - the creepy kid back at the store, or the Heylin witch Wuya, or much more rarely, Chase Young." He waved a hand dismissively. "We'll get to him later depending on if we run into him or not today, but I doubt he'll be interested in a paintbrush."

"Sometimes this little bean named Hannibal shows up," Kimiko input. "He can be a pain to fight against too because he practically hoards a shape-shifting Wu and makes himself big enough to fight, or he has his human-sized armor."

"He probably won't show either," Clay said. "Unless he's just spectating. Lately though, because Jack's all we have to go up against, we can just grab the Wu and go."

I nodded. "So picking up this thing will be easy-peasey, then?"

"Well, maybe." Dojo scratched his neck. "This itch is telling me that it's currently out in Italy, but I remember hiding it somewhere else... Not really sure where, but I know for a fact it wasn't Italy."

I rolled my eyes. "Great, if it's there, what would you say the chances are that it's in some heavily guarded display case in a museum?"

It was. In fact, the museum listed it as a highlight in their "Lost Works of Leonardo da Vinci" exhibition, stating Maio's Brush to be one of his most treasured and highly used paintbrushes.

"Well, it could be worse," Dojo said with a shrug. "It could've been put in some souvenir bin with a zillion other paintbrushes."

"Actually, I'd prefer that." Kimiko inclined her head towards one of the security guards. "At least then we could just sift through, hope we get to it first, and just buy it instead of oh, I don't know, breaking the law."

"I don't really see any harm in just letting them keep it," Clay said. "We've lasted without the Wings of Tenabi and the Hodoku Mouse, so what's one more Wu?"

"We barely lasted without the Hodoku Mouse." Raimundo shook his head. "And you're forgetting something: Jack Spicer would have no problems with breaking the law."

"He would take our hesitation as an advantage," Omi mused, looking away and bringing his hand to his chin. "Perhaps we could speak with the museum owners?"

"Yeah, and say what?" I rolled my eyes. "'Hey, that paintbrush didn't actually belong to Leonardo da Vinci - it's actually an ancient Chinese artifact with mystical powers! So if you don't mind, we'd like to have it and be on our way.' We'll have security escorting us out, if not a couple of guys with special white coats for us."

The weird stares from the rest of the group pretty much spoke for itself. I shrank back a little and shrugged. "Sorry, but am I wrong?"

"Well... no." Clay scratched the back of his head. "You did make a point, it's just never been put like that before."

We stared at the display for a few minutes longer, watching the people pass by it, oblivious to its real origin. A voice came on over the P.A. system, first speaking in Italian, then translating into English that the museum would soon be closing.

I jumped about a foot when Raimundo suddenly shouted, "Wait! I've got an idea!" He leaned in, gesturing for us to huddle around him. "Tempting as it is to just take the Wu right here and now, that's a lot easier said than done. But," he leaned in, "what if we waited for Jack Spicer to take it?"

"And then take it from him?" Kimiko grinned and nodded. "Any chance to beat up Spicer and I'm game."

"But won't it still be illegal?" Clay asked. "I mean, even if Jack steals it first, we'd be stealing it from him, so technically in the end we'd still be stealing it from the museum."

I jumped in, "Except we'd be somewhat better off since we won't be the ones breaking and entering to steal it."

"Exactly." Raimundo gestured to security. "In fact, we'll already be inside. It'd be believable enough if we warn the guards about a thief who's into these kinds of things, someone we've been chasing for years and now can beat him to the punch. We can ask them to let us four patrol while Ellie stays in the surveillance room."

"Aw, I can't patrol too?"

Raimundo shook his head. "Since you're new and we now know for sure where the Wu is, it'll be better if you stay out this round. It's like we told you earlier, we don't want to risk getting you into anything you're not fully prepared for, y'know? Even if it's against a level-one enemy like Jack Spicer." He smiled. "Plus, with you watching all the camera feeds, you'll probably see Jack before we do and can tell us where to find him over the speaker system." Raimundo put out his hand in the center. "Come on guys, it's either this, or we steal it ourselves."

A pause, then Kimiko put her hand in. "I'm game."

Clay shrugged and put in his hand over hers. "Might as well."

Omi followed. "Let's once again provide Jack Spicer with a humiliating defeat!"

I stared down at the hand pile for a moment. "Well, I can't back out now." I smacked my hand down on Omi's. "Let's do it."

Much to my sort-of surprise, the security guards bought our story, at least once we were able to get the museum curator-and-owner to help us translate. Once the doors were locked, the monks were allowed to patrol, while I was shown the surveillance room, where one other guard would be with me for the night.

Being assigned to watch the monitors was only fascinating for the first thirty minutes or so. I started out pretending I was Barbara Gordon as Oracle, just so I could have a little fun with it, but then I just kept reaching for a non-existent remote hoping to change the channel. Several times I nearly got caught up in some really bad, really depressing thoughts and memories, but quickly snapped myself out of them before I could sink too far back into the depths of my head. The guard who was assigned to watch with me had fallen asleep, and I nearly face-palmed at how accurate cartoons had proven to be.

I ended up pulling out my phone shortly after I nearly got lost in my head for the third time. Holding it up high enough so I could still notice if there was movement on the monitors, I connected to the museum internet and posted on my Facebook:

Hey, I'm sorry this is so sudden, but I just accepted an offer to study abroad in China for awhile. I had to leave right away, it was so last-minute. I think since I didn't have any definite plans for my future, this was the best route, especially since it should be a nice change of pace. I'm really sorry I didn't have any time for in-person goodbyes, but like I said, I had to leave quick. I promise I'll still be on Facebook, tumblr, skype, and I'll always have my phone on me if you ever want to call and chat. I'm not really sure how long the program lasts, but I'll be sure to visit as soon as I can.

[lots-a hugs], Ellie

Just as I was about to post a similar message on my tumblr, I saw something on one of the monitors move. I put down my phone, my eyes jumping from screen-to-screen, until I finally found what it was: Jack Spicer had finally shown up.

I glanced at the snoring security guard next to me as I slid the P.A. microphone over, my finger hovering over the "talk" button. Smiling, I decided to wait a bit and watch him as he snuck around in his overly-dramatic coat from the episode "Dreamscape", snickering as he peeked around corners and hid from the monks. He was still a ways off from the room with Maio's Brush, so I leaned back in the chair, biting my lip and thinking.

To be honest, I almost wished I had jumped into the car with Jack as soon as he had pulled up in the parking lot. I always thought that I'd do better teaming up with him, so I could easily have just snuck out of the surveillance room and met him at the display case, joining up with him there. But how long would that last? Until he found out about the ring and possibly turned me over to Chase in hopes he'd get a spot in his next overly-elaborate evil plan? Or until I decided to wander on my own and flip-flop between sides?

No, I couldn't do that. If I was going to be in this adventure for the long run, it'd be better to stay with the monks. I really wouldn't be much help to the side of evil - even if my morals were a little skewed, I still had compassion that could be seen as a hinderance. Plus, the only appealing things about evil anyways were cuter guys and world domination.

'If anything forces me out of the temple, I'll consider Jack as my fall-back plan. Until then, he is my enemy.'

So! The trap is set. Next chapter, after some action with Jack, we'll get into training and some talk about the ring, but only what the characters know. It's not a Xiaolin Showdown fanfic without some ~mystery~, right?

I'm really sorry, but I can't make any promises about when the next update will be. I can, however, promise that it won't take nearly as long, but I've got quite a few upcoming scenes already written out (I still need to figure out how I'm going to lead from one thing to the next, but that won't be too hard). I'm really excited to be back though, so hopefully I can get the next chapter done lickity-split and I'll have a more regular schedule.

It's good to be back. Like I said, I had a lot of really intense personal shit going on for awhile, and then I actually decided I was going to leave my house more often and do things, and writing this sadly suffered. But I'm doing immensely better, I'm getting more days off work and I've picked up a new notebook to take with me everywhere, hopefully encouraging/reminding me to write more. I plan on seeing this dumb idea of mine through to the end!