Disclaimer: I don't own Xiaolin Showdown or Xiaolin Chronicles.
With all of the excitement of the day, Raimundo never had a chance to check the Crystal Glasses for the Dragon of Metal. Unfortunately for him, the forces of evil were well aware that the Crystal Glasses could be used against them in this instance. That's why, after everyone had gone to sleep, one of the temple's residents made her way to the Shen Gong Wu vault to retrieve the dangerous item.
Willow opened the vault and headed inside. She could have taken anything she wanted, but her master only required one Shen Gong Wu—the Crystal Glasses. She pulled them from their drawer, sneered, and replaced them with a duplicate, a perfect replica, before taking the real Crystal Glasses and leaving the vault. To avoid suspicion, she closed the vault behind her before she went to meet her master.
Chase Young was waiting for her on the roof, his arms crossed. When the blond girl leaped up to join him, he smiled. "Well done, Shadow."
Shadows swirled around the girl as her appearance changed, going from a blond girl in a white and gold dress to a girl with reptilian eyes and teal hair wearing armor in a similar style to Chase's own and a headband with a yin and yang symbol. She smirked and held out the Crystal Glasses, saying, "It's not as if the monks made it difficult. Honestly, they aren't very bright, are they?"
"Don't underestimate them," Chase chastised as he took the Crystal Glasses. "It won't take long for them to realize that the Crystal Glasses they now possess are not the real Shen Gong Wu, and then they will begin seeking the thief. If you are not careful, you'll be discovered, and we can't have that. You'll be far more useful to me inside the temple than not."
"Right. Don't worry. I know just how to deal with the other two."
"You'll have some help in that, as well. Jack Spicer will be working to sabotage your competition as his test to prove that he's worthy to be my apprentice."
"Girly boy? Are you sure he'd survive even one day of training?"
"Whether he'll survive or not is none of your concern. Focus on making sure that you are chosen as the Dragon of Wood, not one of the other two. Now, go before you are missed."
Shadow gave a slight bow, closing her eyes, before shifting back to Willow and leaving the temple roof.
Chase looked at the Crystal Glasses before smirking and leaving the temple entirely.
After breakfast, the Xiaolin Dragons had some important business to attend to. With all of them gathered in the courtyard, Raimundo filled them in on the plan.
"Okay, guys," he started off, addressing the apprentice candidates who remained. "So, to help us figure out which one of you would be the best Dragon of Wood, we're going to start with some one-on-one sparring matches. Each of you will end up fighting each of us before the day's over."
"Aight, homie. So long as you don't mind getting your butts handed to ya," Jermaine said with confidence.
Ping Pong looked at Jermaine with shock, apparently thinking Jermaine was being disrespectful, but he didn't say anything.
Raimundo smirked at the New Yorker and answered, "Oh, don't worry. I think we can handle it." He then turned his attention to the other Shoku Warriors and said, "Since there's four of us and three of them, that means there's always going to be one of us who isn't fighting anyone. I've got some other business to take care of, so I'll be the first one off."
This simple statement didn't go over so well with some of his team.
"Raimundo, are you merely trying to avoid your duties as the leader of the Xiaolin Dragons? If that is the case and you find the position to be too difficult, I would be a most fitting replacement," Omi said, starting off with a chastising tone and quickly shifting to smug and confident toward the end.
"Hardly, Omi," Raimundo answered, mildly irritated at his small friend. "It's not like I'm gonna be playing Goo Zombies while you guys are training or anything. We still don't know where to find the Dragon of Metal, something I was going to work on yesterday, but I never had time. While you guys take your turns with your first opponents, I've got something I need to check real quick."
"What are you checking that you think will help you find the Dragon of Metal?" Kimiko asked.
"The Crystal Glasses, duh. They helped us find Omi when he ran off."
"So they oughta be able to tell us where we'll find the Dragon of Metal," Clay finished. "Reckon it's worth a shot."
"Exactly." Raimundo started off toward the vault. "I'll let you know what I find out. Meanwhile, Omi—take Ping Pong. Clay—Jermaine. Kimiko—Willow. I'll probably be back before you guys even finish, but we'll swap opponents once all three of you finish."
"Got it," Kimiko said, turning her attention to her new sparring partner. "You ready, Willow?"
"Of course, Kimiko."
Omi turned to Ping Pong, smiling. "Well, young grasshopper, I hope you are prepared to face the greatest Xiaolin Dragon!"
Ping Pong looked positively delighted as he said, "It would be my honor, brother Omi."
Clay tipped his hat at Jermaine and said, "Reckon we oughta get started, partner."
"Ready any time, dawg."
So the three Shoku Warriors started sparring with their apprentices, checking their own abilities just enough to test their opponents' skills.
In the vault, Raimundo pulled out the Crystal Glasses again.
"Okay, third time's the charm," he said. He put them on, focusing on where they would find the Dragon of Metal, saying, "Crystal Glasses!"
The image he saw was confusing—an elderly man crafting dragons out of pieces of metal. Raimundo took the glasses off.
"What was that about?" Trying again, he concentrated on finding the missing Xiaolin Dragon.
The image he saw was Chase Young, a former Xiaolin Dragon who was certainly missing from their side, having chosen to turn to the Heylin side. In other words, another bad answer. Raimundo tried one final time, his mind focused this time on the location of their final teammate, and the most confusing image of all went through his mind: Clay's little sister, Jessie, flying through the sky with the Wings of Tinabi.
Raimundo took the Crystal Glasses off and looked at them. "Something's whack about this Wu," he said to himself. "Why's it showing me all of that? I mean, I get that maybe we aren't going to find the Dragon of Metal sometime in the future, but why would it say our last teammate's Jessie!? If she's a Dragon Warrior, Jack Spicer's a prince!"
Given their past experiences with phoney Shen Gong Wu, Raimundo gave it a once-over. After looking the Wu over thoroughly, he had to admit that he couldn't see any obvious signs that this was a counterfeit, however, so he put the Crystal Glasses away and decided to turn his attention back to the Dragon he could find. He had some monks to test, after all.
While the monks were training their apprentices, Jack was up earlier than usual, eager to get started on passing this test of Chase Young's so that he could take his rightful place at the Heylin baddie's side. He knew exactly how to convince the Xiaolin losers that Willow was their Dragon of Wood, but he would need to find Willow and explain the plan to her. It wouldn't work if she didn't know her part. He figured he had two options: sneak into the temple and find Willow so he could talk to her, or wait for a Shen Gong Wu to go active, then try to get her away from the other monks long enough to talk. With his teleporter, he was tempted to just go straight to the temple. However, he had no way of knowing where the others would be at any given time, so that was too risky.
The problem with the second option was that Shen Gong Wu could be very unpredictable. One might reveal itself that afternoon or not until next month. As time happened to be of the essence, Jack thought he might need to wait for nightfall and sneak into the temple to talk to her. He just hoped the monks wouldn't decide on their Dragon of Wood before then. Even if he could get in to talk to Willow sooner, he'd need that much time to finish his invention.
"Those Xiaolin losers aren't gonna know what hit 'em!" Jack said, laughing maniacally, before getting back to work on his project.
"Oh, how the mighty have fallen. I used to have a world of power at my fingertips, but now? Now I'm reduced to scrounging through old scrolls and spell books in the hopes of finding something I can do with minimal magic!" Wuya moaned as she searched for something she could use.
She had the majority of a plan—the monk she was after was a relatively easy target in the right circumstances, after all. With such a large family, he was an even easier target, especially since she'd once been inside his head and learned all about the family he'd left in his home country. The problem lay in the fact that she knew he'd turn on her in a heartbeat if given the chance, and she didn't want to give him that chance again. Sadly, finding a way to prevent it was proving quite difficult.
"If I could just regain my full power, I wouldn't even need these things!" She tossed aside a book, having finished with it. There was nothing in it she could use in her weakened state. She grabbed another book and started flipping through it, growing progressively more frustrated. Then she stopped as one of the pages caught her eye. She read over the instructions, and a wicked sneer crossed her face. "Perfect."