Author's Notes:
1. I do not own Xiaolin Showdown but I do love both of the series. I do own Gloria, who is Jack's daughter in fanfiction. She'll be a character throughout the story and I hope you will all like her
2. There will be Yaoi later in this fanfiction, if that makes you uncomfortable then I highly suggest you don't read.
Anyway enough with my yapping. Let's move on to the story, shall we? I hope you will all enjoy it.
Chapter Three:
Of course, Jack was immediately proven to be correct about his hunch that the Heylin wouldn't let him keep his advantage. Once the match had properly begun, Bean used one of his vine-like arms to try to grab him and toss him to the ground.
Thankfully, Jack had years of experience with his helipack and knew how to dodge in just the right way to avoid Bean's hit. Once out of the overgrown bean's way Jack zoomed along trying to get past everyone else and get to the Wu, though he knew it still wasn't going to be that easy and sure enough he was once again proven right as Raimundo levitated up to where he was flying over.
" I tried to warn Kimi. Look Jack, I don't know what Kimi heard that I didn't, but I can't just let you get the Sheng Gong Wu so easily." Raimundo said with a somewhat exasperated sigh before me using his powers to try to blow Jack back.
Unfortunately for Jack, Raimundo was successful in hitting him and though the dragon of wind had clearly been holding back, the hit had still hurt.
"Damn it all, I don't have time for this! I am going to get that Sheng Gong Wu, and you're not going to stop me Raimundo!" Jack said with a pained groan as Raimundo took aim at him again.
How exactly he managed to do so was a mystery, but as Jack actually managed to dodge the next attack and fly past Raimundo he decided that it didn't matter how he had done it. All that mattered to him at the moment was getting past the others in the challenge and winning the Sheng Gong Wu to keep Gloria safe.
Thankfully for Jack, despite having been annoyed by his advantage, Raimundo had apparently decided that it would be a better idea to worry about the other Heylin challengers. Shadow, in particular, had caught the dragon on wind's attention; in part because she had caught up to him.
With the two of them now engaged in a fight, Jack was able to take the opportunity to get closer to the Sheng Gong Wu. In fact, he was able to actually land on the platform on which the rock the Wu had been balancing was; though he knew better than to celebrate just yet.
"Oh no you don't Jack, be a good handsome young man and let me take that Sheng Gong Wu." Wuya's voice said suddenly in a very flirtatious tone, causing Jack to turn in the direction it had come from.
"Sorry to tell you this, but that tone of yours isn't going to convince me. Not only am I not as naive as I used to be, but I also need to win this challenge." Jack said to Wuya, quickly taking the balancing Wu off of the rock and using his helipack to take off.
Naturally, Wuya was not pleased by the fact that she had been unable to convince Jack to willingly hand over the Wu to her. Unfortunately for Jack, who had turned his back to the old witch as he had taken off, this irritation caused her to lob a fireball in his direction.
Through sheer dumb luck, Jack managed to spot the fireball coming to him out of the corner of his eye; though, despite trying to move out of its way, he was unable to completely keep it from hitting him in the back. Though she had been irritated by her failed plan to convince him, Wuya actually gasped in surprise as her fireball hit Jack and caused him to temporarily lose control of his helipack and come crashing to the ground.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing Spicer!? Get up and get back to winning the challenge!" The man who had brought Jack here yelled, sounding extremely irritated.
"Did you not see that Jack crashed to the ground because he was hit by a fireball? You should not be so angry with him!" Ping Pong said to the man on the side lines, sounding irritated on Jack's behalf.
"My Gecko is correct! Besides, Jack had managed to keep a hold of the Sheng Gong Wu far longer in this challenge than he has in the past, it is most impressive!" Omi said in an equally indignant tone as he landed where Jack had crashed.
"Still, I am thinking that it is time to take Sheng Gong Wu from him now." Omi added as he tried to carefully remove the Sheng Gong Wu from Jack's hands.
"Uh yeah, sorry Omi but you're not going to be taking anything." Jack said, grabbing tightly to the Wu as Omi tried to take it and then forcing himself to stand, despite the pain he was currently in thanks to the fireball hitting him.
One nice thing about both Omi and Ping Pong was that they had a high sense of honor, this meant that they were less willing than certain companions of theirs to attack Jack due to him being injured. Jack was able to use this fact as an advantage and lifted back off into the air with his helipack, with the Wu in hand, despite the fact that he was still in pain from having been hit.
Despite having gotten away from Omi and Ping Pong, Jack could tell that he wasn't going to be staying in the air for much longer. From the sounds his helipack was currently making, he was surprised that he was in the air at all.
"Why hello there, Jackie boy. You're awfully lucky that those two let you get away from them so easily, but I'm afraid you won't have nearly as much luck with me." Hannibal Bean's voice said suddenly, causing Jack to look down and see the humanoid bean below him.
"Oh for the love of… Hiya Bean, look I'm gonna be honest, you're the second to last Heylin Member I want to deal with right now." Jack said out loud with a tired groan, doing his best to get away without pushing his helipack too hard.
Of course Jackwasn't all that surprised when he didn't end up getting far when something ended up happening, after all, with the stat his helipack was in, there had been no way to avoid someone like Bean. Regardless of the lack of surprise, Jack had to admit that he hadn't been prepared for how much it would hurt to have one of Bean's vines suddenly wrap tightly around one of his legs whilst he was still in midair.
"Well would you listen to that, I do believe I can hear the bone in that leg of yours crackin' Jackie. Why not be a good boy and throw me down that Sheng Gong Wu you're holding?" Bean said in a mocking tone, tightening his grip on Jack's leg even more in an attempt to drag Jack from the air.
"Yeah, I hear it cracking too Bean. But you know, I've never been very good at doing what I'm told in situations like these; and I think I'll just stay up here in the air where you can't fully get to me or the Wu." Jack said while gritting his teeth in pain as he carefully turned up the speed on his helipack and tried to pull his leg free from Bean's grasp.
"Now Jackie, don't be stubborn. I admit, I don't know nearly as much about technology as you do; but even I can hear that engine of yours… and I'm pretty sure that you're not gonna be staying up in the air for much longer. With that in mind, wouldn't it be easier on yourself if you just…" Bean started to say in a heavily mocking tone when suddenly he was interrupted.
"Spicer, you worthless worm! Stop arguing with that humanoid Bean and finish this Challenge already!" The man who had brought Jack here shouted in irritation.
"You know what, I've tried to be nice. But now it's time to make good on my threats and bring in some proper motivation for you." The man added when Jack didn't respond and instead Bean actually slightly loosened the grip his vine had on Jack to stare at him in a dumbfounded way.
"No, you bastard! I still have the Wu and I'm doing my best to get free! Don't you dare call that helicopter!" Jack said desperately struggling to pull himself free now that Bean's grip had loosened and not caring about the fact that he could still hear his leg cracking as he did so.
Unfortunately for Jack, these words seemed to remind Bean that he had been trying to pull Jack down. Snapped back into reality, the Heylin warlord once again tightened his grip on Jack's leg and proceeded to use Jack's distraction to bring Jack hurtling down to the ground.
Despite hearing his leg, and his helipack, snap as he landed; there was one good thing about where Bean had thrown him. Though it had clearly been unintentional, Bean had ended up throwing Jack closer to the spot that he had originally started the challenge; meaning that now Jack really was the closest to winning.
Unfortunately, this was no encouragement for Jack, however, because he could hear the sound of the helicopter coming closer and knew that there was little left that he could do to prevent something bad from happening. Regardless of knowing this, the more desperate part of Jack was screaming at him to do something and this caused him to attempt, and fail miserably, to stand.
Jack winced as he ended up collapsing back on the ground, the only plus side to this was that everyone in the challenge stopped to stare in shock at the fact that a helicopter was actively entering the distorted world of the challenge; something that had never happened before.
""Are they nuts? If they don't stop they're gonna…" Raimundo started to say as the helicopter started to enter the distorted world of the challenge, when suddenly a horrible sound interrupted him mid sentence.
Jack didn't want to believe what he was seeing because he knew what the sound meant and knew what was going to happen, regardless, he couldn't bring himself to look away as the blades of the helicopter started to sputter once it had completely entered the challenge world.
"No! Gloria!" Jack screamed in terror, trying in vain to stand up again as he watched the helicopter blades stop and caused the helicopter to start falling.
There were no words to describe how grateful he felt as he watched Kimiko rush over to the helicopter, despite having been previously engaged in a battle with Wuya, and saw her going towards the helicopter. Before he could see if she had been successful, however, Jack's view, as well as everyone else's, was blocked by a large cloud of smoke from the helicopter as it crashed nearby.
"Well shit, so much for my advantage on you. I guess you should have done a better job, Spicer. Now not only is your daughter dead, but so is your little…" The man who brought him here started to say, not seeming to care about the fact that people he'd worked with had also apparently died in that crash, but being interrupted before he could finish.
"Shut up you miserable bastard! Just shut up!" Jack said, not noticing or caring about the fact that his voice had taken a very dark tone .
"Or what Spicer, what could you possibly do to…" the man started to ask in a slightly intimidated but still mocking tone, though he stopped speaking suddenly as Jack turned and met his gaze.
Jack didn't know or care what had made the man finally stop talking, nor did he notice the fact that everyone else was also suddenly staring at as well. Finally, he failed to notice that despite having trouble doing so before, he was now somehow able to stand despite his severely broken leg.
None of this mattered to Jack at the moment, all he cared about was that he was the man he was glaring at was responsible for the deaths of his daughter. This thought was causing him to be filled with a fury that he couldn't control.
Despite his fury, Jack was able to notice that certain objects around him were acting strangely and as he clenched his fist so hard that his nails dug into his palms, after dropping the Wu he had been holding up until now, he realized that the objects that were acting strangely all had something in common. It was subtle at first, but there was no mistaking the fact that the broken pieces of the helipack were coming toward him, as were certain other bits of debris.
Of course having debris flying towards him was not the most welcoming sight, no matter how angry he was, and Jack couldn't help but briefly allow his fury to fade for a moment as he flinched in panic and tried to brace for impact as the debris got closer.
"What the… What's going on?" Jack thought to himself in a stunned way when he didn't feel the impact he'd been expecting.
He knew that looked shocked as he opened and he saw that the debris was floating around him, though, to be fair, he wasn't the only one. Everyone still in the challenge world looked shocked as well, meaning that he didn't feel too bad for being dumbfounded about not understanding what was happening.
Suddenly, a realization hit Jack and he couldn't help but smirk evil as he turned his attention back to the man who had brought him there and who had caused what had happened to Gloria and Kimiko.
"Oh shit, now hold on a minute! I know you're pissed at me, but please wait." The man begged, somehow knowing what Jack was thinking and trying to get away, but failing because the challenge was still technically going on and thus left nowhere for him to go.
Jack didn't care that he was suddenly able to walk again without feeling pain, he didn't care about the fact that the Wu was laying not that far from him and he could have picked it up to end the challenge, and finally, despite the fact that he didn't know why or how the debris was floating around him, all that mattered was that he seemed to be able to control the debris and despite this asshole's begging, Jack had no thoughts of mercy on his mind as he approached him.
"Scare now are you? Good, because you'll pay for what you've done! I'm going to make you scream!" Jack said darkly as he got ever closer to the moment.
"Oh come on, you don't even know what you're doing or how! Besides, even if you did know what you're doing, hurting me now won't…" The man said in a panic, as he tried to get away from Jack, but getting interrupted before he could finish.
"You're right, I don't know how I'm doing this, and you're also right that this won't bring them back. But I don't care, because I plan on doing a lot more than hurting you" Jack said with a dark smile, at which point the debris around him started to sharpen and point directly at the man.
Though he didn't know if it would work, Jack raised his arm and pointed at the man and could only feel a sense of satisfaction as the debris flew toward the man. Unfortunately for Jack, the man was able to dodge the first few pieces of debris.
"If you think you can keep dodging me, then you're wrong. There's only so many places you can go while the challenge is still going on, and I will get you before I allow it to end." Jack screamed angrily at the panicked man, which caused more of the floating debris to go in his direction.
"Jack, stop! I understand that you are mad, but doing what you're doing won't…"Raimundo started to say as he levitated over to Jack to try to stop him but was interrupted.
"No you don't understand! You'll never understand what I've just lost! Now get out my way!" Jack screamed furiously, unintentionally causing debris to go flying at the wind Dragon in training.
Normally Jack would have actually felt bad about what he had done, but with Raimundo out of the way he could focus on the man again…or at least try to.
"Jack, Raimundo is right! You need to calm yourself! If you continue, then at this rate you will do something you…" Omi started to say in a logical way, as he appeared next to try to stop Jack, but was interrupted just as Raimundo had been.
"Get out of the way, Omi! I don't want to hurt you or your friends! Will all of you just leave me alone!" Jack screamed at Omi, causing debris to fly at Omi just as it had with Raimundo.
This time was different then before and, despite still feeling angry, even Jack had to pause for a minute in shock as some debris also suddenly veered off towards Ping Pong and Clay despite him not intending it to. As for the three members of the Heylin side, they looked pleased by this turn of events and took the opportunity to try to get closer to the spot where Jack had dropped the Wu; only to be shocked as the debris went after them too.
"You see! You can't even control it you idiot! How do you expect to hit me when you…" The man he had initially been going after started to ask in a mocking tone, though he stopped mid sentence as Jack glared angrily at him.
There was no way the man was going to get away, there was a warped tree behind him and Jack was standing in front of him; he was royally screwed and he knew it.
"This is for all the pain you've helped cause me through the last two years!" Jack said angrily, before using his debris to pin one of the man's sleeves to the tree.
"This is for bringing Gloria here in the first place and trying to use her against me!" Jack added pinning the man's other sleeve to the tree, despite the man pleading with him to stop.
"And this is for them both! This is for you causing the death of…" Jack started to say preparing to fire on the last piece of the floating debris at the man when suddenly arms encircled Jack's waist and he interrupted.
"Jack, stop, please! We're not dead! I'm safe and so is your Daughter, see… she's right over there." Kimiko's very tired sounding voice said suddenly from behind him, having quickly shown up from nowhere and wrapped very bruised arms around his waist in an attempt to stop him.
Of course Jack was so shocked to hear Kimiko's voice that he couldn't help but pause, but what concerned Jack more her being there was the fact that she had said his daughter was alive too. Desperate, to see if he was just hallucinating or whether this was true, Jack looked around and almost all the fury he had been feeling melted away when he caught sight of his beautiful Gloria sitting on a nearby rock, looking completely uninjured.
"Daddy! Oh Daddy, I missed you so much!" The little girl cheered happily at the sight of him. which melted his heart even more and caused him to temporarily forget about the man he'd pinned to the tree… which he was about to find out was a very bad thing to do.