Chapter Two

New Dragons

I felt a sharp pain in my side. Gritting my teeth I slowly opened my eyes and looked up at Master Fung.

"You need to rest Kimiko, you will be fine." He stood up and left the room, leaving Rai sitting beside me and holding my hand.

"How do you feel?"

I tried to shrug but it didn't work very well, "Like I was stabbed….I'll be fine."

He studied my face, his eyes full of concern, "The Unicorn's Horn disappeared with the rest of the Shen Gong Wu…if we had it we could heal your ribs…"

I smiled faintly and squeezed his hand, "Give me a day and I'll be fine Raimundo."

He looked at me, not very convinced but nodded. There was a loud noise behind him and Omi and Clay came in, pushing each other out of the way.

Dojo slipped in between their tangled legs and climbed up and sat beside me. "Master Fung says you need sleep, but I can tell you aren't going to get any at the moment…."

"I said I was going to see her!"

"Kimiko needs to sleep! We should not being going to see her!"

Rai pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, "Guys….shut up."

They both stopped and looked at us, smiling they calmly walked over to my bed.

"How do you feel partner?"

I smiled at Clay and shrugged, a little bit better this time. "I'm fine, like I told Rai."

Omi jumped up on the bed and looked at the bandages that were wrapped around my midsection, "That Raphiel is very strong…and now he has more Wu than we do…"

"Omi!" yelled Rai and Dojo.

I shook my head and Rai and placed my hand on Omi's, "He is strong Omi, but we just have to look at the bright side…we get to go Wu hunting again…?"

Omi looked at me and slowly nodded; he glanced at Rai and jumped off the bed. Grabbing Clay arm he pulled him towards the door and the disappeared.

I rolled my eyes and looked at Rai.

"What?" he lifted his eye brows in defense and it made me laugh; which hurt...a lot.

I gritted my teeth and tried to take a few slow deep breaths, the whole time trying to focus on Rai's hand holding mine.

"Hang in there, Kimiko…the pain will go away soon…"

He had been right, after a few hours the pain had subsided and I fell into a restless sleep. The next two days were full of tea and Dojo suddenly getting colds and sneezing everywhere. On the second day it was after tea in the afternoon and Rai was walking me to the back Temple where Omi, Clay and Master Keen were waiting.

Rai kept a protective arm around my waist; being careful not to touch my cracked ribs and every time I would take a sudden breath he would stop walking and ask if I was okay. By the fourth time of doing this I was getting very annoyed.

"Rai! I am fine! Just let me walk a bit and it will stop hurting!"

He gave me one of those 'don't you yell at me' looks, but I ignored it and walked the last 20 feet to the Temple by myself. When we walked in Clay and Omi weren't the only ones talking to Master Keen; Emily and Jimmy were in there too.

When Rai and I walked in, they stopped talking and Master Keen looked over at us and smiled, "Kimiko, how are you feeling?"

I walked over to where Omi and Clay and smiled, "Much better, Master Keen."

He nodded and then turned his head to Rai. I looked at Clay and Omi and tried to get a hint at why the other two were here but neither of them seemed to like the answer they refused to give me.

"I was just informing Clay and Omi that Emily and Jimmy would be accompanying you on your first Wu mission."

My eyes grew wide and I glanced at Rai who was doing a very good job at staying calm. I looked at Clay and Omi and they both cringed and shrugged.

"If I may ask Master Fung, why?"

Master Fung nodded at Rai and turned back to the scroll that Dojo was sitting on. "Emily and Jimmy have come here to become Dragons just like you four. Now, I thought that it would be a perfect opportunity for them to see what it takes to be a Dragon."

As Master Fung looked at the scroll Rai and I exchanged a glance, both thinking the same thing; more Dragons are being chosen in case we die.

"The Lotus Twister just showed itself. I want all of you to go and find it and bring it back here before Raphiel can find it."

Rai nodded but still didn't look very convinced, "Master Fung….do you really think it's a good idea to bring two…newbies, along with us?"

Master Fung rolled up and scroll and handed it to me, "I do think it is a good idea Raimundo. These two monks are going to be put through some hard training and I think it would be fair if they understand why."

Rai nodded and bowed to Master Fung, "Alright. We'll be back as soon as we can."

As Rai turned and left the building with Dojo on his shoulder, the rest of us bowed to Master Fung and ran after him. When we got outside, Dojo was already as large as an apartment building and Rai was sitting close to his head.

"Whoa…." I smiled at Emily and nodded, "Yeah, you'll get used to it."

I walked over to Dojo's side and put the scroll into my belt. Rai leaned down and took my hand; helping me up I sat in my place right in front of him. As soon as everyone was sitting on Dojo, and Clay told Emily and Jimmy how to hold on with their legs we were off high into the sky.

We were somewhere over India when Dojo suddenly shook uncontrollably and Emily nearly slipped off his back; thanks to Clay she didn't. "Whoa! It's getting close!"

Rai leaned over my shoulder and smiled at me, "Feels good to be doing this again, huh?"

I laughed a nodded, "Yeah, it does."

"So what does this flower thing do?" asked Jimmy as we flew over a set of mountains.

Rai turned his body a bit and looked back at the others, "The Lotus Twister causes your limbs to turn to rubber. So if you needed to grab something that was like, on top of a tree or something, the Lotus Twister would help with that."

He nodded and looked over Dojo's side and held a bit tighter, "Do we have to fly so high?"

Dojo laughed, "Easy kid, I might just let you drop…whoa! It's over here!"

I leaned forward as Dojo did a nose dive towards a cave; as we got closer he began to shrink in size and just as we entered the cage he was back to his normal size and we all looked around.

"Wow…Kimi, a little light please." I walked past Rai and smiled as the flame in my hand grew and illuminated the cave walls; it was huge, the ceiling probably reaching a few hundred feet. There were three tunnels going off in different directions.

"Great…well team, I guess we'll have to split up. Omi you go with Jimmy, Clay you and Emily take the one on the left and me and Kimi will take the middle one."

"Oh, I don't like this….I don't like this one bitty."

Clay smiled and patted Omi's back, "We'll be fine partner, this way one of us will find the Wu and we can get outta here."

Soon each of the teams had a source of light; we had found some wood and used them to make some torches, I lit them with my fire.

Rai walked over to my and took my free hand, "Okay guys, meet back here…anyone gets in trouble scream, we might be able to hear it."

Rai and I walked down the tunnel holding hands and listening for any signs that someone had found the Wu. We had been walking for a few minutes when the tunnel suddenly dropped away and we were standing in a big chasm; in the center stood a pedestal with the Lotus Twister.

I groaned and Rai looked over the edge; it dropped a long way, longer then we could see.

"Why does it always have to be a death defying drop that separates us from the Wu?"

Rai smiled at me and kissed my forehead, "Wish me luck." And before I could yell at him like he knew I was going to, he launched himself into the air and used his elemental power to get himself to the pedestal.

I stood by the edge and watched, holding my breath, as he reached his hand out and grabbed the Wu. I don't really know what I was expecting, boulders to fall from the ceiling? Whatever it was, it was definitely not expecting a bunch of robots to come flying in and begin shooting lasers at us.

I screamed and jumped back, narrowly missing a laser. I looked up and watched in horror as Rai struggled to stay on the pedestal and avoid the lasers.

"Thanks for showing us to the Wu, losers!"

I rolled my eyes, "Jack! What the hell are you doing here?"

He came out of dark hole in the cave and smiled at me, "Where there's Wu, there's Jack!"

Rai shook his head, holding onto the rock pedestal for balance, "You're an idiot Jack, you're not smart enough to know about what happened at the Temple."

"No, but I am."

I inhaled a quick breath as Raphiel walked out beside Jack. "God, I swear I will never get used to you looking so much like him…."

He smiled at me and then looked at Jack with his red eyes, "Get what we came here for."

Jack nodded quickly and pressed a few buttons on his big watch, "Get him!"

I looked up and yelled at Rai as the flying robots suddenly changed their course and went straight for him. He gritted his teeth and looked directly at me, "Kim, catch!" he threw the Wu.

I jumped and caught the Lotus Twister before it could hit the ground and when I looked up I screamed; Rai was hit with a laser square in his back and he fell over into the arms of a robot unconscious. I took a step towards the edge but was blocked by Raphiel.

"Don't worry about your boyfriend. We'll take care of him."

I growled and punch him with all my strength; fire irrupting from my clenched fist. He avoided with ease and before I knew it he had ripped the Lotus Twister out of my hand and held me up against the cave wall. I struggled against his grip but he was so strong; all I could see was Rai being hit with the laser.

Raphiel knew this and smiled as I stopped struggling, "You ever want to see him alive again and you will give me what I want."

Omi came running into the chasm first and found me sitting curled up against the wall. I heard the others running in behind him but I didn't move my face from my arms; I hated showing them that I was weak. I didn't move until Clay put a hand on my shoulder and even then I winced and tried to move away.

"Kimiko, where is Raimundo and the Lotus Twister?"

I heard Clay snap at Omi to hush up and then his strong arms were around me and he lifted me off the damp hard ground. I leaned into his shoulder and let myself cry again; tears soaking his shirt and my body shaking against his arms.

"Shh…it'll be okay Kim…we'll get him back."