A World's Feral Revolution (PRJF)

[DarkStarShadow]

~Note: This fic will end up being as long as a Harry Potter book, if not longer. if you don't like commitment, this ain't for you.~



Now without further a-doo:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v374/fiamettadevika/Random%20Pictures/theojarrodlilyauadvertbannertext.png

Shiny, isn't it? ^__^.



This first entry will be a list of chapters and will be updated. Feel free to leave questions and/or comments after every chapter. This's gonna be a long ride, so feel free to set up some permanent fixtures around the thread, such as mini fridges, coffee tables, and recliners (Just avoid the roughed up green one, for obvious reasons. ^__~.) Just make sure everybody knows what's yours. =P.

Alrighty, let's get down to business.


Table of Contents:

Prologue: Trouble in the Temple (http://www.rangerboard.com/showpost.php?p=2832825&postcount=2)

~Act One~

Chapter One: Life in the City (http://www.rangerboard.com/showthread.php?p=2842735#post2842735)
Chapter Two: Shadows in the Rain (http://rangerboard.com/showthread.php?p=2857156#post2857156)
Chapter Three: The Venomous King Snake (http://www.rangerboard.com/showthread.php?p=2870711#post2870711)
Chapter Four: A House of Cards (http://www.rangerboard.com/showthread.php?p=2877484#post2877484)

~Interlude I/II: Fork in the Road (http://www.rangerboard.com/showthread.php?p=2881770#post2881770)

~Act Two~

Chapter Five: Strength of the Heart
Chapter Six: Rhythm of the Mind
Chapter Seven: Blood in the Water

The titles will become links once the chapter is up, and there's definitely more chapters to come. ^___^ As always, enjoy!

[DarkStarShadow]

~Prologue: Trouble in the Temple~





Five thousand years ago, a small group of ancient warriors trained in various forms of combat which harness the inner power of totem animal spirits which lived inside them in a symbiotic state. Some trained with powerful weapons which helped them emulate their animal, while others trained with their bare hands, but they all gained amazing abilities which made them unique. Unfortunately, when a group of human beings gain powerful uniqueness, every individual amongst the fold finds themselves in their own personal dilemma…

Many found their newfound skills and techniques to be beneficial to mankind, and they sought to perfect their techniques to aid their fellow man. However, a few sought to dominate those who would never become like them, and those who sought to protect soon found themselves fighting former allies and partners…

A great war broke out in secret amongst the splintered martial arts order which lasted a century and spilled a great deal of blood amongst the ranks. Many of the opposing generals shed their mortal forms and became bipedal monsters in a grand display of their commitment to their cause. Even their leader, Dai Shi, permanently let his animal spirit consume his mortal form, which ushered in a climactic final battle…

The heroic defenders of the innocent fought valiantly and defeated the great Dai Shi, imprisoning his spirit in a temple behind a protective barrier until the end of time…or so they thought.

From afar, one might not have expected the end of the world to start in such a manner, or such a beautiful day. It was spring, and the sakura trees were beginning to drop their lovely pink petals around the grounds of the Pai Zhuq Academy, the holding place of Dai Shi’s spirit. Over the millennia, the place had gone from a temple of worship to a military academy for the ancient Order of the Claw, training young adults who possess animal spirits to become warriors in the event that Dai Shi’s forces were to ever try to destroy humanity once more.

Today, of all days, was not one that most people would look back on and say, ‘I’m not surprised that this was the first day of the end of the world.’ In fact, one would’ve thought the opposite. It started on such a bright note as the sun began to rise.

A middle-aged man walked down the front steps of the Pai Zhuq Academy, the loose ends of his orange robe swaying with each step. At the foot of the steps, three students sat waiting, having meditated through the night in preparation for the test that would determine their status within the ancient temple’s walls. As he reached the last step, he smiled at looked over his well-trained students and had a feeling that the day would be glorious for all of them.

“Miss Blumenthal, the day starts with you.” He spoke with a firm yet calm voice, and the young woman to his far left opened her eyes and smiled.

She tied her long wavy brown hair back in a yellow ribbon as she got up, then bowed to the Pai Zhuq master in front of her. “I’m ready.” She replied in a cheerful and bubbly tone, giving a wide smile.

“You had better be.” He calmly advised before he led the young woman back up the stairs and into the temple.

She followed him inside, happy to be standing and moving again. She hated to sit in one place, and meditation was her least favorite thing in the world. To fight, to earn her place at the top of the ranks in something many could not, it was her passion.

Her Cheetah Style was one of few styles like it, one that specialized in using the erratic and speedy nature of her Heart Chakra to disorient and outrun her opponents while still delivering painful and lasting blows. The Heart Chakra was considered to many to be the weakest Chakra one could use in the Pai Zhuq martial arts styles, but those who, like the young woman, could manipulate it properly, found themselves considered to be some of the strongest Pai Zhuq masters.

Today was her day to prove many people wrong, and she was determined to do so.

They entered a near-barren room in a barely-used hallway far down the main wing of the academy. The only thing in sight was a full-length mirror against the back wall. “Are you prepared, Lily?” The elder master asked the young woman.

“Yes, Master Mao. What do I have to do?” She smiled and bounced a bit on her toes. Her adrenaline was pumping wildly, and she was anxious to get to her test.

“Please approach the mirror.” Lily did so quickly. “Now, stare deeply into the mirror and place both palms against it.” Lily followed orders and waited. After a few moments of patient standing, her reflection started to fade out into monochrome shades.

“Now step back.” As she did so, her reflection moved forwards with her, walking straight out of the mirror and shocking her a bit. “The test shall begin in the center of the room.” Lily and her monochrome reflection walked into the middle of her room and struck identical poses. “Begin.”

The reflection took no time to respond, and quickly fired off a loud yell and a flurry of punches, Lily’s trademark. Anybody not knowing what they were up against would have flinched and been pummeled by the flying flurry of fists, but Lily knew exactly what to do.

She caught each blow and deflected it with ease, trying each time to throw a fist back far enough to leave an opening she could throw a jab into for a quick stun. The fists quit flying before she could as the reflection suddenly shifted to spin kicks aimed at her head and waist. She bent her body around the kicks, waiting for just the right kick to fly at her.

Suddenly, the reflection stopped mid-spin and shot out a final wheel kick. Lily grinned and caught the reflection’s foot and pushed it upwards and forwards, knocking the reflection off-balance and sent it falling to the ground face-first. The reflection growled and opted to counter with a quick flair. The reflection placed her hands steadily against the floor and softly pushed her body up. She shifted her weight to her right arm as she kicked her right leg out. She connected with Lily’s leg and knocked the young woman to the floor, but Lily landed on her hands and tumbled back, landing on her feet and standing up before the reflection had a chance to make an opportunity out of her moment of vulnerability.

Lily huffed and took a defensive position as the reflection stood up from her flair kick and charged at her. The first jab the reflection threw out, Lily caught it and used the reflection’s momentum to spin it around in circles several times before giving it a weak hammer toss across the room. The reflection hit the floor roughly, giving Lily enough time to dash over and prepare her own jab flurry. The reflection got up to its feet and began sluggishly defending itself, finally leaving itself open at the end of Lily’s dash for the Cheetah Style practitioner to spot an open space and deliver a crushing jab which made the reflection stumble back and clutch the point of impact gingerly.

Lily smiled and gave one more charge with a flurry of jabs, this time connecting with every punch, knocking her reflection back ever so slightly with each hit until she had backed it up against the mirror. One rough right cross sent the reflection careening back into the mirror, signaling the end of her test.

“Very good Lily. You passed with flying colors.” Master Mao proclaimed as Lily bowed proudly. “You may exit through the door on the left and rest there.” She scampered off into the next room as Master Mao walked out to retrieve his second student.

Behind the door was a small relaxation room with an Initiate waiting inside with towels and a bucket of tea for nourishment; the typical job of someone new to the temple’s regimen. The Initiate looked up and smiled, as did Lily. She was happy to see a fairly familiar face, as was he.

“Good morning, Casey!” Lily greeted him as he handed her a towel.

“Good morning, Lily.” Casey replied as he grabbed a cup for her. “So you passed, huh?”

“I did great. You should’ve seen me.” She sat down next to him. “Theo and Jarrod still have to test, though. Can’t wait to see how they do.”

“Well, you and Theo spar a lot, and you two do pretty good. Jarrod though…” Casey gave a mildly displeased look.

“You still haven’t gotten over that time he kicked the stool and hit you in the head with it, have you?” Lily teased.

“He does that sort of stuff to a lot of Initiates. You’d think he’d eventually get tired of being a jerk to everyone.”

“Well, Jarrod’s…not a people person. Not everyone likes…hanging out and training with everyone else.”

“That doesn’t give him the right to smack people around.”

“I don’t think he does it on purpose.” Lily replied.

“I suppose.” Lily gave him a look.

Back out on the front steps, Master Mao looked over both young men who were left. He smiled and called out the name of the student he admired most.

“Young Mister Ramos, you are next.”

The younger of the two young men left remaining grinned and opened his eyes. His time had come. He stood and bowed silently before following his master up to the Mirror Room.

The young man was noticeably shorter than his master and darker in complexion to his classmates, and both things helped him stand out in everything. But neither thing helped him stand out more than his dogmatic nature and his expertise in his techniques. The Jaguar Style he excelled in fit him perfectly; it required the memorization and mastering of many quick techniques and stood out amongst many other styles in the fact that it was overly flashy rather than overly quick or overly painful. It was one filled with jumps, dashes, deflections, and above all, looking good while doing it. The young man had been training since childhood to be the best at this style, and this was his day.

They reached the room, and the young man stretched out to ensure his limberness before bowing to Master Mao.

“Theo, are you prepared now?”

“Yes. What must I do for this test, Master?”

“Approach this mirror, and I shall walk you through the steps.”

Like with Lily, Theo’s reflection became monochrome and followed him out into the center of the room and struck matching poses with him. “You may begin.”

Theo began first, charging and leaping up into the air for a high jump kick. His reflection grinned and bent his upper half to the right and the side to avoid the kick itself, then grabbed Theo’s ankle with both hands and shifted the young man’s body down and to the left, smashing him into the floor. Theo winced as his reflection began to spin him across the floor in a counter-clockwise motion, letting him go after a full 360 degree spin to let him slide towards the back door.

Theo had to admit that he was quite impressed with himself; that he should’ve considered that his reflection would’ve countered with the very same moves that it did. However, this meant to Theo that he had to think two steps ahead; what attack he would do, how he would counter it, then finally how to counter that particular counter. Though now he should think about getting up. Luckily, his reflection seemed to share his reluctance to hit a sparring partner on the floor unless necessary, as it wasn’t in a hurry to pound him senseless while lie on the floor thinking.

Theo slowly got up, and the reflection began its run over to him. It began jabbing forwards with all its might, hands pointed out like a pair of spears, trying to catch Theo between his ribs. Theo quickly swiped the shots away with the center of his forearm, then grinned. The perfect feint presented itself in his mind. As he continued along with the deflecting, he formulated the perfect, if slightly disjointed, chain of attacks.

He quickly slapped away the blow and began his counter strike with a vicious crescent kick that knocked away the next jab from the reflection. Knowing that he’d have to give it all to keep up the rapid pace of the rather difficult repetition of kicks, Theo mustered up his strength and shifted it to his legs as he began to continue with a long chain of crescent kicks. The reflection continued to cross his arms and bend back to keep its chest and head from getting pummeled, falling right into Theo’s trap.

As soon as he felt his legs start to burn a bit and he saw that his reflection was automatically moving to dodge his blow, he quickly shifted his movements to his final blow. He suddenly held his foot firmly against the ground as his reflection continued its move, and Theo did a split as he jabbed forwards with a spear fist attack. The blow hit his reflection square across the belt, causing a massive shockwave of pain and making his reflection stumble back in agony.

Theo huffed and backed up while getting up. A few quick steps for distance, then a sprint. Theo leapt into the air and prepared another high jump kick to his reflection’s head. As he connected, the reflection lost its balance and went careening into the mirror and back through to the other side. Theo hit the floor on his thigh with a thud, and grinned through it. He got up and bowed as Master Mao grinned.

“I am very proud of you, Theo. You’ve come very far and you’ve passed. You may go into the room on your left.”

Theo grinned widely and caught his breath as Master Mao began to leave.

“Hey, Theo! You passed, right?” Casey asked as he handed him a towel.

“Is the sky blue?” Theo confidently replied as he took the towel and sat down next to Lily. “So…Casey, right?” Casey nodded yes and handed him a cup of tea. “How have you been doing? Getting started to train for the kata test?”

Casey turned a little red. “Well, I hate to ruin the surprise but…I already passed it.”

Theo and Lily’s eyes widened. “That’s amazing! Congrats!” Lily kicked her feet happily as Casey beamed with pride.

Theo turned slightly redder than he already was. “Well, good for you. You’re progressing faster than anyone I can remember…well, besides myself. Maybe one day, you’ll be as good as me. In fact, I’d be more than happy to be your teacher once I receive my certification test from Master Mao.”

Lily looked over at Casey, hiding her face cleverly as she mouthed ‘He’s jealous of you, Case.’ before giving him a silly face to make him smile.

“So, I’ll be a full-fledged student by this time tomorrow.” Casey smiled.

“Are you prepared?” Theo asked.

“I’m really happy. A lot of my friends are first and second years, so I can’t wait to be bunking in the same quarters with them tomorrow. They’re having a big ceremony for me, I heard.”

“Excellent. Just remember that first through third year students have a turn-in time of eight p.m.” Theo replied.

“Will do.” Casey gave him a quick salute.

Master Mao walked down the steps once more to greet his eldest student. “Mister Mallory…?”

The stoic student opened his eyes slowly, then lightly grinned briefly before taking his time to stand up.

The quietest of Mao’s students was also the oldest; the senior of his other two high-level students by a couple of years at the very least. Understandably so; his physically demanding Lion Style was arguably one of the most strenuous and time-consuming styles to master. Though his style had many different kinds of blocks and attacks, it relied mostly on how much power went behind every blow and swing. He had no time to bother with being erratic, and no need to hit something over and over, something that was very much not like Mao’s other students’ styles. Years of solitary training had built up his strength, stamina and determination, all for this one moment; the moment he strived to succeed and ascend to the rank of Master, where he knew he belonged.

He walked into the room and stretched, cracking his knuckles and neck as well as stretching his arms and legs taking a deep breath. “Are you ready, Jarrod?” The young man hummed a positive tone as he quickly nodded yes. “Then approach the mirror before you.”

As he had with Lily and Theo, he instructed Jarrod on how to summon his reflection with the enchanted mirror. Jarrod and his reflection walked to the middle of the room, and Master Mao let them begin.

Both Jarrod and his reflection watched each other, walking around in a circle, staring each other down, waiting for the other to move. Jarrod disliked going first in any fight, and this was slowly turning into a stalemate. If the reflection wasn’t inclined to be aggressive as part of the test, they could’ve paced around the room staring each other down for hours.

The reflection suddenly shot forwards and, before Jarrod realized that he needed to protect his head, his reflection surprised him with an uppercut with its right elbow, knocking his head back and stunning him long enough for him to do a jumping back kick with its more powerful left leg, smashing Jarrod in the chest and making him drop to the ground face first.

Master Mao’s eyes opened widely, as he had seen Jarrod open with such moves before, and many times the unfortunate student was rushed to the infirmary. However, this was not just any student; this was Jarrod, and he could take a hit.

He proved Master Mao wrong by getting up rather quickly, smiling in admiration while cracking his neck. As it took a few steps back, his reflection looked…shocked.

Jarrod and his reflection once again walked around the center of the room in another stalemate, but this time Jarrod wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. He quickly sprang into action, firing off a vicious tornado kick, smashing his reflection back halfway through the mirror, which was far enough for the reflection to melt back into the mirror, which allowed Jarrod to pass.

“For a moment, a brief moment, I doubted that you would recover from that vicious move.”

“…You doubted me, Master Mao?” Jarrod’s voice was deep, yet surprisingly soft and speckled with intrigue.

“For a brief moment.” The two shared a smile. “But you have passed. You may enter the room to your left and relax.”

Jarrod slowly made his way into the resting area, and as soon as Casey spotted him, he fell silent and just went through his motions. Theo looked away, over to Lily to break the looming silence as Jarrod roughly seized the towel away from Casey’s grasp.

“So, you passed too, huh?” Lily asked as cheerily as she could in an attempt to hide the awkward feeling she had. She normally didn’t go out of her way to talk to Jarrod in situations where it was more than just the two of them sparring. Jarrod was highly unapproachable to everyone, even someone as bubbly as Lily. He looked up at her and gave a cocky half-smile as Casey roughly handed him a cup of tea.

“Don’t be brash, cub.” Jarrod said before quickly throwing back the contents of the entire cup in one fell swoop.

“I’m not a cub anymore. I’ll be a student tomorrow.” Casey shot back.

“Still a cub today.” Jarrod replied, ruffling his shaggy hair with the towel.

Casey shot an angry look as Jarrod stood up.

“Hey Jarrod, why don’t you stay for a few minutes? Master Mao’s probably going to meet with us.” Lily replied.

“Let him go, Lily.” Theo whispered to her.

As he left, Jarrod tossed his towel at Casey, who had looked away to Lily to agree with Theo. The towel hit him in the head, and slid down his face as he sat, stunned. Casey’s eye twitched as Jarrod closed the door leading out into the main hall behind him.

“Casey…c’mon now…” Lily tried to calm him down. Unfortunately, the chair from his first day, the tea bucket he was knocked into in his second week, the ‘accidental’ tripping in the hallway yesterday, and now the towel to the face, not to even mention all the rude and somewhat harmful things Casey witnessed happening to his fellow Initiates at the hands of Jarrod…they had all boiled over.

“No.” Casey stood up. “Somebody has to say something.”

Lily reached out for his hand, but he pulled away.

“He’s a dead man.” Theo mumbled as Casey left the room.

“And he had so much to live for.” Lily replied.

Jarrod continued down the hallway as Casey followed behind him, catching up rapidly. Jarrod could hear his footsteps and kept on guard, unsure of the pursuer’s intentions.

“Hey. Hey!” Casey called out, reaching out for Jarrod’s right shoulder. Instinctually, Jarrod reached around and grabbed Casey’s wrist, then twisted his lower arm until he felt his elbow click, which was the signal that he was about to break it. Casey cried out in pain.

“Don’t do that to me.” Jarrod warned, wrenching his arm slightly. “Never sneak up behind people, cub.”

“Mr. Mallory, Mr. Collins.” Master Mao’s voice called out. Jarrod tossed Casey’s arm away and faced Master Mao. “Is this the way someone in your position should act with someone of lower rank?” Jarrod’s stoic body language broke, giving the overall appearance of shame. “I shall send for both of you to have…private talks with me. Later, however. I still have other things to do. To your quarters, both of you.” He walked past them and walked into the resting room.

Casey gave Jarrod a look mixed with pain and malice as he cradled his arm and walked off.

Master Mao walked into the waiting room and smiled at Lily and Theo. “Congratulations. You have passed your Master’s Exams. I have one last task for you, but I cannot speak it inside these walls. Please follow me.”

Theo and Lily looked at each other in wonder. Master Mao never left the dojo’s grounds for a meeting with anyone but the arch masters.

They followed Master Mao out of the main temple and into the sprawling gardens, where many students were just waking up and stretching in preparation for the morning kata routine. They waved to various students that they knew as they continued to follow Master Mao into the back gardens, which were off-limits to everyone but the arch masters. Lily became antsy and anxious as they continued forwards.

The area was covered in wild flowers of all shapes and sizes, mostly surrounding a large stone structure in the back area. The three walked to the structure and, with a wave of his hand, the large stone wall in front of them shifted back and away, revealing a hidden corridor. Theo’s eyes widened as the two of them followed him down.

Darkness surrounded them, and all that stood before them was a single torch. Master Mao walked over and grabbed it, then led them down a path to their left.

Another wave of the hand at a dead end, and the wall shifted and revealed a wide open room lit entirely with hundreds of candles.

The back wall consisted of a large carving in the stone, depicting many ancient cities on fire, and many dragons circling around them, all connected to one body. Many anthropomorphic warriors wearing the dojo’s kind of robes surrounded the dragon heads; some of them stained red, some left the color of the slate they were carved from. In front of the wall stood an altar of sorts, covered in candles that surrounded an oak case.

Master Mao set the torch outside the room and let the two students in, who just looked around in awe.

“Welcome to the Sacred Chamber, Lily and Theo.” Master Mao softly greeted them, letting his voice project around the rather empty room. “First off, I must present to you your Master uniforms.” He walked to the oak case and opened it, reaching for a pair of packages on either side of the box, neglecting the center. He closed the box slowly and turned around handing Lily the package in his left hand and Theo the package on the right. “I’m proud to say that you are Pai Zhuq masters that I myself trained. You two have spent six long years, practically racing your way to this point, and I knew that you two would be through this faster than most.”

The two bowed and took the packages.

“So…can we wear these today?” Lily excitedly asked.

“If you wish, you two may change into your uniforms in either of the alcoves outside this chamber right now.”

The two bowed and departed for the alcoves; they quickly dressed in candlelight, changing out of their light blue student robes and into their color coded outfits. Theo’s uniform consisted now of a blue coat fit for most climates, a pair of black dress pants, and black sneakers, while Lily’s consisted of a yellow coat that was similar to Theo’s, a miniskirt, black tights, and a pair of Mary Janes.

They greeted each other in the hall as they straightened out their uniforms before walking back in. “Are you two ready?” Master Mao asked them.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” Lily replied.

“Ready for anything, Master.” Theo added to his quick bow. Lily looked over at Theo and gave a quick bow as well.

“Good.” Master Mao coughed softly to clear his throat. “Welcome, both of you, to the Order of the Claw.” Lily and Theo looked at each other in confusion, then back at Master Mao, who was rolling up his right sleeve. Directly below his elbow on the inside of his forearm sat a tattoo of the Pai Zhuq insignia. “This is the mark of a Pai Zhuq master who is a member of this order; you two shall receive these in due time as well.”

“Does it hurt?” Lily asked, giving a worried look.

“Not at all, Lily.”

“I don’t mean to be rude, Master Mao, but what is this…‘Order of the Claw’? I’ve never heard of it.”

Master Mao rolled his sleeve back down. “The Order of the Claw is the main purpose of this academy, Theo. The Order is a collection of the most talented martial artists within Pai Zhuq; those with a balance of brilliant fighting skills and powerful animal spirits.”

“Animal…spirits?” Lily looked highly confused.

“Animal spirits reside within your Body Chakra; they lend their power and skill through your individual fighting styles; and while not every person in this academy has their own animal spirit, everyone within the Order of the Claw has one, and it is powerful in its own right.”

“So…how’d we get one?” Theo asked.

“You inherited them at birth. Your bodies are their anchor to this world, and as members of the Order, it has been shown that they desire to protect innocent lives above all else. You were tested on these things long ago without your knowledge, and your fate had long been decided for you. You shall continue to rise up in our ranks from here on out. You should both feel honored.”

“Who, or what, are we defending innocent people from?” Theo queried, giving Master Mao the same look as Lily.

Master Mao smiled softly and turned to face the large carving behind him. “From the armies of Dai Shi, the Great Destroyer. He is the prime example of an animal spirit whose intentions are not pure. The story of him starts many millennia ago…”

Meanwhile…

Jarrod made his way to the back gardens, as per instruction by one of Master Mao’s assistants. Gone were his student’s robes, and the outfit he now wore would make him blend into a city crowd. His freshly pressed slate blue slacks were replaced with a pair of black jeans with a studded black leather belt, his slippers replaced with black sneakers, his white undershirt remained but now were framed with a lightly black-flannelled white collared shirt and a heavily black-flannelled white overshirt. He carried a black backpack with little gold paneled zippers, one he had kept with him since childhood, and he was prepared for the worst.

And this had intrigued little Casey Collins. Where was he going? Nobody went into the back of the gardens, especially not people who weren’t even wearing proper robes. Was Jarrod leaving? Was it because of earlier…?

Behind the pillars and bushes, Casey dipped and dove, keeping close to the Lion Style master, keeping himself hidden to everyone. He was supposed to still be in his quarters, after all.

Jarrod strolled into the back gardens and did the same arm waving motion to the stone structure as Master Mao had done before as Casey made it inside the back garden’s gates. His eyes widened as Jarrod quickly became enveloped in the darkness, and the stone door slid closed behind him. Casey nearly made it to the entrance before a well-hidden rock tripped him up, sending him crash landing into the dirt path.

Casey sighed and got up, trying to brush the dirt off his face and uniform. He had to make sure he wasn’t caught now, as now anyone could tell that he had been outside and possibly even places he shouldn’t be. Casey sighed and sat down in front of the structure, trying to figure out what to do no that he couldn’t follow Jarrod any longer.

Back in the Sacred Chamber…

Theo and Lily had sat down to listen about the story of Dai Shi, the giant dragon pictured in the wall mural, and how the masters of long ago fought against their once great ally to prevent him and his minions from destroying the world. As Master Mao finished and turned around, Theo stood up.

“If you didn’t fully destroy his minions, or Dai Shi himself, then why aren’t they just attacking us left and right?” He asked.

“Without their leader, they will not fight for the most part. There have been times in the last where one of his minions would awaken and start a rampage, and Order members defeated them permanently, but they are quite cowardly without their master to direct them.”

“Is our mission to stop one of these…Rinrinshi…or whatever you called the minions?” Lily asked as she slowly stood up.

“No, I have need of a former member of the Order, but I have lost contact with him, and I need you two to seek him out and bring him back to the dojo.” He pulled an orange envelope out of his left sleeve and handed it to Lily.

Theo took the envelope and looked it over. “We’re honored that you would choose us for this most important task. We will do everything we can to assure his safe return to the dojo.”

“That is, if you find him. I doubt he’ll be found if he doesn’t want to be.”

“But if he knows the Order wants to see him-”

“He’s a little on the…cautious side. He sometimes over thinks, and thinks the worst, of things. This mission is much difficult than it looks, but I have faith in both of you.”

Theo frowned, but held his tongue. “I understand. We understand.” Both of them bowed.

“I have prepared traveling packs for the both of you. There are enough supplies for four days inside, and the trip is two days both ways. I wish you both the best of luck.” Master Mao bowed to both of them, and they grabbed the color coded bags and left.

Casey stood in front of the stone structure, trying to do exactly what Jarrod had done. He waved his arms frantically in front of the door, thinking that there was some sort of camera or sensor in front of the door. However, one soft wave of his right forearm caused the wall to open for him. Casey smiled at his good fortune and made his way down into the darkness.

As the wall closed up behind him and Lily, Theo sighed deeply.

“What’s up?” Lily asked him as they began walking down the hallway.

“Why would Master Mao have us looking for someone who can’t be found even by Master Mao himself?” Theo griped.

“Well, he has the dojo to run upstairs, Theo. He needs us to do this for him, okay?”

“But we’re basically looking for a hermit in a huge town with no leads. The only thing we know is that he has the Mark of the Order on his right arm, and I doubt he’s gonna be flashing that around if he’s a recluse. We don’t even know if this guy even lives there anymore, or even if he’s alive or not!”

“Theo,” Lily said, putting her hand on his shoulder. “stop thinking so hard about this. We’re Pai Zhuq masters; we can do pretty much anything we put our minds to.”

Lily smiled widely, trying to encourage Theo to do the same. She only managed to get a gloomy half smile out of him, but it was enough to satiate her. “Now c’mon, we got things to do.”

Jarrod walked down the left corridor, as he was instructed, and found himself passing by Lily and Theo. He hung his head low to avoid eye contact with them, but Lily watched him walk by, feeling a sense of dread as she noticed his attire.

Jarrod entered Master Mao’s chamber and set his bag down. “I’m unsure as to why you’re wearing civilian clothes, but I suppose everything has a reason.” Master Mao commented as the door closed behind the young master.

Lily and Theo continued their way down to the end of the hall and turned down towards the exit. “Lily, seriously-”

“Theo, not another word.” Lily replied coldly, effectively shutting Theo up.

“You know why I wished to have this discussion with you in private?” Master Mao asked Jarrod as he began to pace.

“I did not mean to harm Initiate Collins. He ran up behind me and tried to grab me after we had a falling-out. I thought he was going to attack me, so I locked his arm to prevent it. He squirmed, causing himself harm.”

“I see your side now, and I have no reason to believe you’d lie, nor do I feel there is any reason to reprimand you. However, that is not why I called you down here.”

Jarrod’s eyes widened. “It’s not?”

“You’ve been in this room before, have you not?”

“Yes, once.” The look on Jarrod’s face spelled it all out for the arch master.

Master Mao gave a half smile. “I suppose then there is very little to say, other than the true reason for this meeting.” Master Mao turned to face the oak case as Jarrod gave a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile…

Casey continued down the passage, and the silence was broken by two sets of footsteps. He panicked and dove into an alcove to his left as Lily and Theo passed by him, and he waited until they had gotten a good distance away from him before continuing.

Once he approached the T-junction, he looked about, wondering which way Jarrod might have gone. He ran down the passageway on his right, griping that there was absolutely not enough light in the underground path under his breath.

Casey let his hands glide against the walls, making them his guiding tools as he wandered through the pitch-black hall. Suddenly, his fingers hit a rock that pushed inwards, causing an audible shift in the wall…somewhere. Casey sighed, as he had no clue where the shift occurred. A few steps farther, and the wall gave way on his left, causing him to fall into it and land onto his side. He rolled over to look up, and as if it were responding to his presence, the room’s candles instantly lit themselves up.

“About damn time.” Casey muttered as he got up and looked around.

Meanwhile…

As Jarrod left the room, Master Mao smiled. “I have faith in you…Master Mallory.” Jarrod grinned brightly while walking backwards, then turned to leave. As he approached the central hall, he saw a bright light down the opposite hall, despite the fact that he was certain that Lily and Theo had left. He hummed a curious tone and walked down the hallway, in pursuit of the light source.

Outside…

Lily suddenly stopped, confusing Theo. “What’s wrong?”

“I left my shoes in the alcove when I got changed.” Lily replied.

Theo gave her a scolding look. “You should’ve double checked. Now we’re going to be off-schedule.”

“Sorry. I was just really excited about everything and…” Lily sighed wistfully. “I’ll be back before you even notice I’m gone.” She smiled widely and ran back into the underground passages. Theo merely crossed his arms and turned around, looking at the ground. He then noticed that there seemed to be a strange indent in the soft dirt, as if somebody had tumbled head first into it. “Hm…curious.” Theo muttered to himself before slowly and carefully smoothing out the path with his shoe.

Deep in the right wing of the underground passages, Jarrod found the illuminated room with ease, and was shocked to see Casey standing in front of the back wall, standing up in awe. Jarrod took a moment to take it all in himself; the room was vast, spacious even, and hundreds, if not thousands, of candles lined the walls. The room was empty and almost completely barren save for the back wall’s mural and the candles. Just as Casey reached out to touch the large mural that, even in the rather bright candle light, still looked like nothing either had seen before, Jarrod called out to him.

“Don’t touch that.” Casey pulled back and spun around. “How’d you get in here?”

“Just lucky, I guess.” Casey half smiled as he turned to face Jarrod. The Lion Style master walked in, setting his bag against the door.

“How did you find this underground place?”

“Just lucky.”

“Perhaps Master Mao would like to hear he has trespassers.”

“I’m not trespassing! I just got lost.” Casey replied, feeling a bit intimidated.

“Is Master Mao expecting you?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll escort you.”

“No!” Casey braced himself, which intrigued Jarrod. “I’m early…I was just looking for the room I’m supposed to go to, but I got lost…” Jarrod smirked, then began to laugh softly. “…What?”

“For a moment, I almost believed you, cub.” Jarrod replied. “Now. Please tell me why you followed me all the way down here. Humor me.”

Casey’s eyes widened. “How’d you-”

“You’re horrible at sneaking.” Casey turned white. “Feel like being honest now?”

Lily reached the end of the corridor and approached the T-junction, and voices and lights in the right passage drew her attention. She recognized the louder of the two; it was Jarrod. The other voice was softer, but she could hear familiar tones in it. She panicked and made her way to the lit room. Her shoes, and Theo, could wait.

Theo impatiently sighed, knowing that it didn’t take any person this long to get a pair of shoes if they hustled. He waved open the stone door and jogged lightly down into the underground passages.

Lily crept up against the wall, making sure to not make any noise.

“So you think sneaking up on me is a valid excuse to break the rules of the dojo and of the academy as a whole?”

“The way you were dressed, I thought you were leaving!”

“It’s none of your business, cub.”

“Yes it is!”

“You’re very defensive.” Jarrod replied calmly, feeling slightly humored.

“We hadn’t finished up earlier. I wanna finish.”

“We were finished to me.”

“Why? So you can spend more time beating on defenseless Initiates and first years?”

“They’re not important. Just in my way.” Jarrod looked to the wall on his left. “Those below me are not important, not worth fighting.”

“Not important?” Casey sounded insulted. “Everyone is important!”

“Not to me.”

“And that’s your problem! You don’t care about anyone but yourself!”

“They’re not my concern. Are we done?”

Theo walked into the T-junction and saw both the lights and Lily’s silhouette in the doorway. Lily threw her lone shoe at him to get his attention. Theo frowned and picked it up, dusting it off as he walked over to her.

“So what do you want, cub?” He looked Casey over, noticing that his body language was…overly aggressive. He grinned. “You want to fight me…?” Casey glared at him. “I see…” Jarrod straightened up, standing at attention like a soldier. “Fine. Take whatever shots you want. It’d be my pleasure, little cub, to put you in your place.”

Casey took an attacking stance and yelled as he charged. Jarrod recognized the stance instantly; the Tiger Style, one which was rather vicious and powerful, but not in its early stages. Jarrod watched him for visual cues.

Casey swiped at Jarrod; downward angled thrusts with open and downward facing palms, all shots that would’ve hurt or stunned someone who knew how to use them better.

Jarrod, however, had seen someone better than Casey use the same techniques before, and had even fought this one who knew them better before, and he learned the rhythm of the swings well. Knowing them allowed him to bend back and away from the blows in perfect synchronicity; every time Casey swung, he knew exactly where and when to dodge. The little Tiger Style user would tire, he presumed.

Casey growled as his chain of varying swipes reached the limit of his knowledge. He swung a right cross, which nearly took Jarrod by surprise.

Nearly.

Jarrod caught his blow by the wrist, then twisted his arm until he locked it. Casey’s face contorted in pain as he instinctually fell to his knees in an effort to fall out of Jarrod’s grasp.

“Are you done, cub?” Jarrod asked. Casey winced as Jarrod squeezed his wrist lightly.

Theo approached Lily and gave her a look. She looked concerned. “They’re fighting in there…I can’t stop them…” She whispered.

“What?” Theo’s eyes widened. He peeked in and Casey scramble back against the wall. He then looked back at Lily, who found herself looking back in.

Jarrod turned around and saw her looking in. He gave her a look suggesting that he was done with his current…distraction. Casey winced and stood up, not seeing Lily at all and charged as silently as he could.

Jarrod heard the soft tapping of his feet and turned around. Giving a look of disappointment, he decided to stop this once and for all.

Theo frowned and looked in, watching as Jarrod skillfully turned back around and slammed Casey in the jaw with a back kick, picking the Initiate up off his feet and sending him flying at an arc towards the mural and landing ten feet away from it with a thud.

Lily and Theo ran in as Jarrod sighed and walked back to grab his bag. “He’s trespassing. I’ll get Master Mao.”

Casey slowly got up and crawled back, leaning against the back wall for support. A surge shot through his body, and it gave him the energy to stand up. The wall behind him shined a brilliant gold, catching Jarrod’s attention.

Lily watched as Casey’s body seemed to illuminate on its own as he began to look like he was under an extreme amount of pain; a bright reddish orange aura set over his skin, marked with black stripes and all seemingly ethereal it still reminded her of a tiger’s pelt. Casey whimpered out a strangled chord of severe pain as he seemed to be glued to the wall.

“An animal spirit…?” She muttered to herself as the pattern dissipated and he dropped to the floor and took a deep breath of recovery.

The floor and walls around the four of them rumbled, and a segment of the wall near Casey opened up. Using what little of his energy the wall hadn’t drained out of him, the Initiate jumped up and weakly ran out in fear. “Casey!”

“Follow him!” Jarrod shouted, slinging his bag over his shoulder. “I’ll get Master Mao.” Lily nodded and grabbed Theo’s arm, dragging him along with her as she dashed down the path after the unusually quick Casey.

Jarrod only had to turn the corner before encountering Master Mao. “Master Mallory, what is going on?”

“Initiate Collins was trespassing, and I found him in here…he touched the mural and-”

“Say no more. Do not worry about this; go through with what I told you to do, but do not return. If you see masters Blumenthal or Ramos on your way, tell them not to return as well.”

“And Initiate Collins?”

“Bring him with you.”

Jarrod sighed, but bowed in respect. “As you wish.”

“Now go.” As Jarrod began to make his way out through the main entrance, Master Mao stopped him. “When you see him, tell him that Dai Shi has escaped. He’ll know what to do with you.”

Jarrod silently nodded, then continued on his way. Master Mao sighed deeply and walked into the holding chamber as the door closed behind him.

[Kaheraji]

O_O

Awesome.

[FlashmanX]

so before i read this

I would be correct in assuming this is your remake of geki/jungle fury

[DarkStarShadow]

so before i read this

I would be correct in assuming this is your remake of geki/jungle fury

Yes, it's a full season rewrite of JF, mixing elements of Geki and JF together, as well as putting my own twist on events.

[Angelfox]

very intruiguin

[akamaru13]

Holy crap dude, this thing is gold! It's amazing! I am totally gonna be sitting here comfortably, reading the rest of this amazing fic. Can't wait for the next installment!

[DarkStarShadow]

Holy crap dude, this thing is gold! It's amazing! I am totally gonna be sitting here comfortably, reading the rest of this amazing fic. Can't wait for the next installment!

^__^ Well, I'm glad you like it. You can take the couch in the south wing of the room. It's comfy. Just...avoid Akela's green recliner. That's his, and if people so much as breathe on it...well, fur will fly, literally. @___@.

[DarkStarShadow]

~Chapter One: Life in the City~





Casey’s eyes shot open and he breathed heavily. His vision was blurred and fuzzy, but he could tell that it was night time in the wide wooded area which surrounded and sheltered the temple that housed the Pai Zhuq Academy. He could see the roof peeking out from behind trees in the far distance, and he could only imagine how he got to where he was.

He had blacked out shortly after leaning up against the back mural, and even before then, most of anything after the back kick from Jarrod was hazy at best.

He slowly sat up, his entire body screaming at him, his inner temperature spiking suddenly in response. He looked down at himself and could see a thin layer of light dancing across his skin, red and black stripes in an interesting pattern he’d only ever seen in wildlife photography books as a child.

A branch cracked nearby, and he quickly looked around, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. “Who’s there?” His voice sounded off, almost ethereal. His voice and hearing were clearly off. A switch clicked in the back of his head, and his muscles tensed in preparation for any sort of attack.

“You’re awake.” A sultry female voice called out as a figure walked out from behind the trees. Casey’s eyes widened as the moonlight shone onto the figure approaching him.

The woman was tall and very pale, which made her jet black hair and its assortment of gold weaved-in ribbons stand out greatly, as well as drew attention that she wore little more than a pale green tie top and a long pale green loincloth with a gold belt and ankle bracelets. Her emerald green eyes peered deeply into him, looking beyond the surface and practically staring into his soul. She smiled widely and knelt down beside him.

“You look well-rested.” She delicately shifted some of his fallen bangs out of his face and smiled.

Casey pushed her hand away. “Who are you?”

“I mean you no harm, child. I’m just a forest dweller who finds a sense of joy in helping injured wayward souls find their bearings again.”

She could feel the clamminess of his skin and knew he was overheating fast. She’d seen it before and hummed. “Are you feeling overly warm?”

“Yeah…”

She grinned and lied him down. “I can fix this very simply.”

She focused her energy into her pointer finger and honed in on Casey’s Chakras. She grinned and pressed down hard on three points over his abdomen, forming a triangle. Shifting her energy to her palm, she slammed it down firmly down in the center of the triangle outline, hitting the Body Chakra right in the center.

Casey inhaled deeply as his body went numb, and she could feel the energy waning as his skin returned to its natural flesh tones. She smiled as Casey’s body trembled before falling limp underneath her palm.

“What did you do…?” Casey whimpered.

“Your Body Chakra was filled with negative energy, and you were having a bad reaction to it. You must’ve gotten into something horrible, but I won’t ask. I just temporarily locked your Body Chakra to let it heal. All you need now is a good rest, okay?”

“Okay…” Casey’s eyes closed softly as he found solace in the numbness that had swallowed his entire body. The woman softly laid her hand upon his neck and, without giving him a chance to react, pinched his nerve and knocked him out completely.

“Oh, so young, so strong…yet so senseless.” She muttered to herself. “This time should work without…interference.”

Meanwhile, a far distance away from the temple…

Night. The town of Ocean Bluff. Once a quiet and peaceful fishing hole and an easily forgotten freighter stop on the way down to San Angeles Bay, Ocean Bluff had benefited substantially with a boost in population in recent years due to unnatural events happening in nearby cities and towns. With the newfound diversity came both a new style of life and its share of seedy elements. Tonight, the town was about to get some very seedy elements, indeed.

Downtown, a lone figure walked down an alleyway carrying groceries. On his way home after a much needed food run, he was about to approach the stairwell that led to his home’s back door when he heard a scream from the front of the building. He tried to ignore it, but a nagging voice in the back of his head coaxed him into looking.

He set his groceries on the ground and slowly walked to the front of the building. He popped up the hood on his sweatshirt out of habit and peeked around the corner.

“Someone help!” A man screamed, slowly crawling across the parking lot away from the strange…hopping figure.

The strange creature wore a tied-on brown hat and a brown tunic with black pants, and its face looked…like porcelain, rather than like skin. The lone figure supposed that somebody had been watching too many masked hero movies, until he saw the back of the hopping figure. The symbol it bore on its back caused his eyes to widen, as he hadn’t seen it in decades, but he still knew what it was and what it meant.

He frowned heavily. He didn’t wanna play hero tonight, or ever, but it looked like he was going to have to.

He pulled his hood farther out, and pulled the bandana from his front pocket out and tied it around his face to conceal his identity. He then ran out and jumped into the air, smashing his knees into the strange creature’s back, tackling it to the ground. “Hey you. Go.” The terrified man on the ground scrambled to his feet and thanked the lone figure before sprinting out of the area.

The lone figure bashed the creature’s head in against the blacktop, causing it to crumble into rocks, then disintegrate to dust. “Of all the places for a Rinshi to show up…” The figure sighed as he walked back to his groceries and continued back up to his home. “Looks like I got lots of things to do.”

Two days later…

The rain had subsided, and Jarrod could see the outline of man-made buildings through the treetops, and could hear the sounds of cars far off in the distance. This was surely the town he was supposed to be in, the town of Ocean Bluff. He could even smell the faint saltiness in the air from the breeze off the coastline as he walked out into the clearing. He arrived in a fairly new and underdeveloped part of town, full of small corner shops and boasting a wide farmer’s market.

A cacophony of screams roared from inside the farmer’s market, drawing Jarrod’s attention. A pair of brown tunic wearing men bounced around in pursuit of a young woman, and the vendors were diving in an effort to avoid them.

Jarrod was not one to get involved in fights between other people, but his gut instinct told him something was wrong. The two bouncing figures seemed…off. Jarrod sighed and frowned, then assessed the situation.

As the young woman ran towards him, he moved around her then took a fighting position after securing his backpack. The first of the two creatures was coming down on its bounce right in front of him, and Jarrod rammed his palm upwards into its jaw, snapping its head back and tossing it into its partner in crime. The young woman cowered behind him as the two creatures crashed to the ground. The first of the two creatures shattered into a pile of crumbling granite while the second got back up. Jarrod furrowed his brow and gave an unamused frown before taking his pose again.

He pulled his fist back as the creature bounced towards him, and once in range he shot a straight left open palm into its gut, making it stumble back and double over in pain. He then dropped an axe kick on the top of its skull and dropped it like a ton of bricks, making it crumble and melt away like its partner.

The vendors looked up from their shops and over to Jarrod, which unnerved him a bit. He wasn’t used to drawing attention to himself. He sighed and turned around to check on the young woman behind him. “You okay?”

“Thank you!” The young woman replied, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him into a tight and frantic embrace. Jarrod winced and pulled her arms off of him. She then began rummaging through her grocery bag. “Here, take these! It’s all I have to repay you with for saving me.” She handed him a bag of green apples and handed them to him.

Normally, Jarrod wouldn’t have accepted such a gift, or any gift at all for that matter. But he had very little money to boost supplies and his rations were running low; giving up food for his morals was low on his list of priorities.

He took the bag cautiously and helped her up. “Thank you so much!” She blushed and left the market slowly.

Jarrod put the apples in his backpack and continued walking through the market, the area going back to the way it usually was, with the inclusion of eyes gawking at the new guy in town.

Jarrod wished he had taken his old master’s advice to always carry a baseball cap in his backpack in case of sudden moments of attention drawing.

A group of small children ran around the market square; Jarrod supposed that the oldest couldn’t be more than four of five, and from the occasional stare from a vendor here and there, he gathered that the group was most likely some sort of in-market day care for kids not old enough for primary school.

A little girl and boy from the group began following Jarrod around like lost puppies, and as soon as he caught onto their game, he turned around. “What?” He growled, making the girl jump.

“Hi!” The boy said.

“…Hi.” Jarrod replied, turning around.

“Are you new?”

“Yes.”

“Where do you come from?” The girl asked. Jarrod’s eye twitched; he didn’t have time to spend on a pair of precocious children.

“Far away,” Jarrod replied roughly. “which’s where you two should go.”

“You’re not nice, mister.” The little girl said.

“Yes he is! He save Miss Nancy!” The little boy argued. “He’s like a superhero!”

“He’s not a superhero! The Hooded Man is a superhero!”

Jarrod’s curiosity piqued. “Hooded Man?”

“Yeah! The policemans said he’s a veggie…a veggie-lan-tee! Mommy said he’s not, though. She says that he’s helping people when the policemans can’t. But he fights the bad monsters all by himself! No guns or nothing! He just punches and kicks like this!” The little boy tried in vain to properly mimic several moves that Jarrod recognized.

Maybe Lady Luck was smiling down on him today. Unfortunately, he’d have to take a page from Lily’s ‘Guide of Talking to Children’. “Tell me more!” He replied in the most cheerful tone he could muster up as he kneeled down and smiled. The little girl squealed and hid her face in the skirt of the dress.

“You’re scary, mister!” She commented.

“He’s not scary, Gina.” The boy replied. “He’s cool!”

“Can you tell me more about the Hooded Man?” Jarrod asked.

“The Hooded Man is the coolest!” The boy’s mind snapped back to where Jarrod wanted it.

Several hours later…

“Lily, for the millionth time, Casey is fine. We just have to go to Ocean Bluff and find this Order member, then get back to the temple and help Master Mao.”

“But Casey…something bad happened to him! Didn’t you see his animal spirit?”

“Huh?” Theo stopped and turned around to look at Lily. “When?”

“The light around his body when he hit the mural…it looked like a tiger’s pelt. You didn’t see it?”

“I didn’t know what it was…do you think he has an animal spirit, too?”

“I think he does.” Lily nodded.

“Well then, he must be stronger than the average student, like us then, right? It would explain why he’s advanced so far in such a short time…” Theo pondered. “Right now, we gotta worry about ourselves, okay? We’re running low on supplies, and I got caught in the rain storm and I could catch pneumonia, and we can’t afford that. So we go to Ocean Bluff, find a nice, warm, and dry place to stay in and a change of clothes, and then we worry about everything else.”

“Well, I see some buildings to the east. Maybe that’s Ocean Bluff.”

“Then let’s hurry!”

The duo ran through the forest, eventually arriving on the opposite side of the park that Jarrod had several hours before. People looked at them as they surveyed the area for any sign of a place to stay.

“…Are you two lost?” A woman asked the pair as they passed by her.

“Yes, we are.” Theo replied. “We’re looking for a dojo of any sort, or-”

Lily put her hand up in front of his mouth. “We need to get my friend’s clothes dried off. Where can we do that?”

“Laundromat’s two blocks down Cherry Street.”

“Do they have a bathroom with a lockable door or a stall?”

“They got two stalls in the ladies room and men’s room.”

“Thanks, ma’am.” Lily bowed and forced Theo to do so as well before she began dragging him down the street.

“I was trying to find out where we should go look for our master first.” Theo hissed as Lily moved her hand away.

“If you sit around in soggy clothes, you’re going to be too sick to be of any help. So let’s go!”

“I should’ve never opened my big mouth…” Theo whined as she walked him into the laundromat.

After making Theo strip down and hide in a stall while his clothes were drying, Lily sat down in a chair and watched the TV, which was set to the local news station. Lily found a special joy in watching the television; it’d been more than a decade since she had even seen a TV, let alone watched a program on it. After about ten minutes, a public interest story came on, and the other people in the laundromat perked up. Lily followed suit and listened to the newswoman talk to her two guests.

“Now, Police Chief Anderson, why is this…Hooded Man such a threat to the police force? He’s merely doing his duty as a member of the community to help the police out.” The newswoman rattled on. Some of the people in the laundromat seemed to agree.

“He’s encouraging copycats who’re not as skilled as he is to go out and fight these things. We don’t know what they are, or where they come from, or what they can do. We’ve had reports of little hooded punks from all over town ending up in the hospital trying to play hero like this guy. The way he moves, you can tell he’s got experience in some kind’ve martial arts, but this guy’s gotta learn to let the cops do his job.”

“Well, if the cops actually did their job and got rid of these things, we wouldn’t need to have these kids popping up everywhere to defend their homes from these…things!” The woman sitting on the opposite side of the newscaster replied angrily. Again, the laundromat crowd seemed to agree. “Now, I lived in Reefside several years ago, and we had our share of citizens stand up against a group of monsters, and they did way better than the cops did!”

“You mean those fruits in colored costumes?”

“Those fruits saved my hometown!”

A clip of the Hooded Man fighting several brown tunic wearing creatures played out on the screen as the two went back and forth. Lily recognized some of the moves as being similar to Jarrod’s, but the man himself looked smaller framed and moved faster than him.

She stood up, wide-eyed and shocked. Was this the master they had been sent to find? It had to be! She ran into the men’s room and banged on Theo’s stall. “I’ve found our master!” She shouted.

“What?” Theo peeked his head over the stall. “Where’re our bags? Go guard them!”

“They’re too busy watching the news report on our master to care. Besides, I hid them.”

“Well…tell me when I’m out, okay? I feel uncomfortable talking to you like this.”

“Fine. But you have to listen, okay?” Lily pouted.

“Fine, just stop pouting.” Theo responded.

Twenty minutes later, Theo and Lily were back out on the streets, talking to each other as the sun began to set.

“So you think this ‘Hooded Man’ is our master, just because he does a few moves Jarrod does?”

“Well, I’ve been thinking a lot…I know what you’re going to say, so don’t say it.”

“I’m surprised you still have brain power left to talk from all that thinking.” Theo teased playfully. Lily frowned.

“Like I was saying…like, maybe the master we’re looking for…is Jarrod’s old master?”

“You mean the one who just up and left six years ago?”

“Well, what if he didn’t just up and leave? I mean, Master Mao just sent us out without any formal deal or whatever. Maybe he did that with Jarrod’s master, too. Just…sent him out to guard the city.”

“I think you’re just grasping straws…but still, very surprised that you were thinking about something like that.” Theo frowned. “You seem to have Jarrod on the brain, so it doesn’t surprise me that you have this hare-brained thought pattern.”

“Well, if we can’t find Casey, we should keep our eyes peeled for Jarrod. I heard that someone saw a guy who fits Jarrod’s profile perfectly. Black clothes, shaggy brown hair, very anti-social, and very strong. I’m not going to give up on looking for our fellow Pai Zhuq, master or not.” Lily crossed her arms, letting Theo know that she was dead set on it.

As soon as they turned the corner, they spotted a trio of the strange tunic wearing creatures attacking cars by jumping on top of them and denting them heavily. “Well, the search’s off for now.”

The trio sensed the two Order members and turned around, charging at them. “Good, they want a fight. Let’s give them one.”

Theo saw that they were in a perfect triangle as they approached. “I got this. You clean up.” Lily nodded and let him charge forwards.

He leaped in the air and went through the motions of one of his more powerful moves. He turned his body to the side and pulled off a Brazilian scissor kick; a sidekick to his right, a twist kick to his left, and the two on his sides were down. The roundhouse kick directed at the third’s face, however, didn’t make it to its mark. The strange creature, despite appearing to have no way to see, saw the attack coming and caught Theo by the ankle and slammed him down onto the hood of the car.

Lily gasped and ran to Theo’s aid as the monster tried to jump on top of Theo, who was doing his hardest to both catch his breath and dodge the jumps. As the two monsters crumbled to dust, Lily leaped up on the hood of the car and went to punch the monster. It leaped over her blows and kicked her in the chest, knocking her off the hood and dropping her onto the pavement in a curled up heap. Theo rolled off the hood and quickly crawled to Lily’s side, making sure she was alright.

The Hooded Man darted through the alleyways and spotted the Pai Zhuq masters huddled up on the blacktop. He sighed and began making his way over to them.

Those’re Order style uniforms, but the Rinshi gave them trouble…?

As he approached, a black clad figure approached the duo and he stepped back in shock.

Is that…?

The Hooded Man ducked behind a tree and watched the fight.

Jarrod leaped over the two and slammed his kneecap into the monster’s face, cracking it and sending it rolling over the top of the car and crumbling to pieces by the time it hit the blacktop under the bumper. Jarrod turned around and looked down at Lily and Theo, then huffed. “Up.”

“Jarrod! You’re alive!” Lily shouted as she slowly got up.

The Hooded Man’s eyes widened. It *is* Jarrod…he’s hardly changed at all...

“So you’re here too, huh?” Theo commented, his voice laced with a strange sort of venom.

“Have you seen Casey?” Lily asked.

“No.” Jarrod replied, pulling an apple out of his bag and walking off while polishing it.

While turning around, he spotted the Hooded Man, and once the Hooded Man noticed that Jarrod was looking at him, he began to run back in the direction he came from.

“Hey! WAIT!” Lily shouted, following after him. Jarrod and Theo followed her. Unfortunately for the trio, he soon disappeared from Lily’s sight. She pouted, then crossed her arms. “That was him, too!” Lily shouted angrily.

“Well, he went this way for a reason, Lil. Maybe we should continue following in this direction…?” Theo suggested.

Jarrod continued down the alleyway while biting into the apple in his hand. Theo grimaced as Lily ran after him.

“Don’t you leave us too!” Lily shouted. “All of us Pai Zhuq must stick together right now!” She grabbed his left arm tightly, clinging to him.

Jarrod shook her off, but stopped walking to let Theo catch up to the two of them.

“Fine, he can stay with us. Just don’t cause any trouble, you hear me?” Theo warned. Jarrod gave him a confused look. “You know what I mean! If you didn’t get off on smacking Casey around-”

“He attacked me.” Jarrod replied.

“Right. A likely story.”

“He did, Theo.” Lily defended. Theo fumed and shot a dagger-ridden look towards Jarrod.

“I don’t like you either, okay?” Jarrod snidely remarked to Theo, getting an eye twitch out of him.

“C’mon, you two. We have to stick together! Have some camaraderie!”

“I refuse to work with the guy whose fault it is that Master Mao is in danger!” Theo shouted.

“That’s Casey’s fault!” Jarrod shouted back, feeling to need to defend himself.

“Casey’s fault, Casey’s fault! Sure, pick on the guy who’s not here to defend himself!”

“STOP IT!” Lily screamed, shutting them both up.

Jarrod took another bite of his apple and continued down to the sidewalk by himself.

“Hey! Get back here!” Theo shouted. He went to run off after him, but Lily grabbed him by his collar.

“Stop. Please.” Lily sounded as if she were about to cry. Theo turned his head around and looked at her; she had indeed started to turn red in the face like he assumed. “It’s nobody’s fault, okay? We’re the only three Pai Zhuq here right now; let’s please try to tolerate each other…please?”

Theo thought about it, then sighed deeply. “Fine, I’ll let him go, but only for your sake. Don’t expect me to be all chummy chummy with him though, got it?”

“Just don’t yell at him anymore.”

“I won’t…at least about the underground incident. If he acts up again-”

“I’ll deal with him from now on, okay?”

Theo sighed again. “Fine…” Lily let go of his collar and the two of them began looking for Jarrod once more.

They found him half a block to their right, and they dashed after him. Jarrod sighed and deftly hurled the apple core into a nearby trash bin.

“Jarrod…” Lily called out. He ignored her, and reached for another apple out of his bag. “Jarrod…we’re sorry.”

Jarrod stopped what he was doing, then turned around and gave Lily and Theo a confused look. “Why?”

“Well…because Theo yelled at you, and I haven’t been all that nice either. So I’m apologizing for the both of us.”

Jarrod looked at the both of them, then shrugged. “Whatever.” He grabbed another apple and began polishing it as he continued walking.

“We really do want you to stick with us, though. Anybody we can get from the Academy, we’d be more than happy to keep in our company, right Theo?” She drove her finger into his lower back and he winced.

“Yeah, sure, ow.”

Jarrod shrugged. “Whatever.” He then stopped and inhaled deeply. “Do you smell that?”

“Smell what?”

“I smell good food around here.” Jarrod looked around. “There.” He pointed northwest. “Come on.”

Lily and Theo gave each other confused looks, then caught up to him.

“What’s with the sudden niceness?” Theo snipped.

“Master Mao wanted us to cooperate. So, we cooperate.”

“So we’re cool?” Lily asked with a tone of hope.

“We’re co-workers. Besides, how you two feel about me doesn’t bother me. We’re not here to be friends. We’re here to find my master.”

“I told you it was him!” Lily shouted, poking Theo’s shoulder.

“How do you know that it’s him?” Theo asked.

“Master Mao said so.” Jarrod’s mouth began to water as the smell got stronger. “Can’t you smell it?”

“Oh wow, now I do…it smells like…” Lily thought hard. “It smells like…”

“Pizza’s up, you three.”

The three customers of the local pizza place looked up at the spectacled co-owner and head waitress of Jungle Karma Pizza and gave her looks. “Hooded Man story on TV, Fran.” The eldest teen spoke up.

“Oh, I’ll turn it up then.” Fran turned the wall mounted TV’s volume up before setting three plates of broccoli pizza down in front of them. She then walked into the back room/kitchen, her pigtails bobbing slightly as she went to fill another order in the absence of her boss, who both co-owned Jungle Kama Pizza with Fran, but who was also the mastermind behind it and was always making some sort of new and strange pizza.

As if magically summoned by her entrance, her boss rushed downstairs, this time notably wearing a zebra print skull cap to match his pants rather than the cheetah print he ascended the stairs wearing.

“Hey RJ.” Fran said, getting her boss’s attention. “How’s the cake coming?”

He looked up like a deer in headlights. “Oh, it’s coming out fine. Hand mixer acted up a little, though. It’s just in the oven now.” He grinned happily. “Sorry I left ya hanging like that.”

“Not a problem.” Fran replied with a smile. “Oh! Pizza for Table 8 is in the oven, and a Hooded Man report’s on the TV right now, so the radio needs to be turned down.”

RJ rolled his eyes, and Fran knew why. “Oh, c’mon. The customers sometimes come in and sit down to watch this guy…he’s a town hero.”

“What kind of town hero hides his face?” RJ questioned.

“Why does Batman or Spiderman hide their faces, huh?” Fran stuck her tongue out at him, knowing she had got him.

“Because they’re not real.” RJ roughly replied, walking out to get Table 8’s pizza.

“Hey RJ!” The girls crowded around the TV called out. RJ gave a half smile as he walked over to the oven and pulled out the broccoli and garlic pizza out of the oven and sitting it onto a pizza pan.

He blocked out the news report and the girls’ contented sighs of worship over it; he was one of few denizens of Ocean Bluff who couldn’t stand the constant reports of heroism going around. It bothered him to walk through the streets, watching little kids acting like the guy, to see people trying to be like this guy, and all of the insane media coverage of him. So the town was in trouble…the police could handle it, right? Why weren’t they interviewing the police officer who stopped one of these things invading Ocean Bluff from killing a little girl yesterday? RJ just zoned out as he brought the pizza to its starving and paying customers.

He began walking back towards the kitchen when he heard the little bell above the door ring. In walked an odd looking trio; the guy in the center looked rather normal, but to the sides of him stood a pair who looked like they just escaped an anime convention of sorts.

He sighed softly and grabbed three menus from under the cash machine.

“You three look hungry. Welcome to Jungle Karma Pizza. The name’s RJ. If you need anything, the waitress will be more than happy to get you anything ya want.” He smiled widely, causing the girl to cling to her skirt.

“How fast can you make one of these things?” Theo queried as RJ sat them down at an open table. Lily sat down between Jarrod and Theo in an effort to stifle their feud indoors.

RJ sat their menus down in front of them, then stood and waited for them to order.

The three looked over the menu, only to find a rather…unusual list of food.

“No pepperoni…” Jarrod mildly whimpered. “No sausage, ham, beef…”

“Not even anchovies.” Theo added. “And I don’t even like anchovies, either.”

“It’s all vegetarian stuff.” Lily noted.

“Of course it is. This’s a vegetarian establishment.” Lily and Theo glared at Jarrod, who glared back in a more ferocious manner. “…Are you three new here?”

“We’re just passing through.” Theo remarked.

“We’re looking for our master.” Lily added cheerfully.

“Aren’t we all?” RJ replied. “Well, good luck with your search. Pizza’s on me…if you’re still interested, that is.”

“How about just a plain cheese pizza? That’s fine with you two, right?” Lily asked, looking between the two.

“Food is food.” Jarrod remarked.

“Plain cheese is fine.” Theo replied.

“Is that okay?” Lily asked.

“Of course. You three are obviously on enough of an adventure; you don’t have to trek through the menu, too.” He forced a smile and took their order on his notepad. “Any drinks?”

“Three waters.” Jarrod ordered.

“Can I have a soda instead?” Lily asked.

“Sure. So, two waters and a soda.” He smiled and slid the notepad back into his apron. “Fran’ll be with you in a moment.”

RJ passed the girls on his way into the kitchen and gave a quick wave before walking in.

“Alright, Table 6 wants a plain cheese, two waters, and a soda.” He rattled off without looking at the notepad.

“That’s a weird order.” Fran replied.

“Well, they’re weird customers.” RJ commented, laughing softly.

“That’s mean.” Fran frowned, quickly shutting him up.

“You’re right. Rude, got it.”

“Need I remind you how weird you looked when you moved here?” Fran gave him a look suggesting that she was about to go on one of her long rants.

“No! No, I remember just fine.” RJ replied, holding his hands up and giving a worried look. “I’ll deal with Table 6.”

“So, what do you know about our mission?” Theo interrogated Jarrod while they waited.

“We’re looking for my master. He left six years ago to live here. Now Master Mao needs him again, so…” He looked back at the menu and studied the various concoctions. He had never heard of a pizza with roasted tofu and habanero peppers on it; if they weren’t busy tomorrow, he planned to return and get himself a slice or two.

“Why did he leave?” Lily asked. Jarrod shrugged. “So he just up and left?” He gave her a look suggesting that she was right. “…Huh.”

“Well, Lily said she thinks this Hooded Man is our master.” Theo added, sounding entirely amused at the idea.

“It is.” Jarrod replied. The two looked at him, their eyes widening.

“Told you!” Lily replied, slapping him on the shoulder.

“How do you know that?” Theo asked, completely bewildered.

“Saw him fight.”

“See? I saw it and knew it too.” Lily teased Theo.

“First time for everything.” Jarrod joked.

“Hey!” Theo snipped.

“I knew he was joking, Theo. Stop.” Lily glared, and he shrank down in his chair a bit. “So, you know your master better than we do, I guess. Where might we find him?”

Jarrod just shrugged. “Tried the dojos. Tried the parks. Got no ideas left.”

“Do you know his name? We might be able to find him in a public directory or something.” Lily asked as Theo opened the letter again.

“He’s probably not running around under the name of Master Finn.”

Fran walked up to the table with the soda and the waters. “Here ya go, guys.” She smiled nervously, then stood up and brushed her apron off.

“I got it now, Fran.” RJ called out to her.

“Kay.” Fran quickly left and RJ quickly replaced her spot.

“So, how long are you three here for?” RJ sat down suddenly as he turned a chair around and relaxed.

“Not very long at all.” Theo rudely replied, trying to shoo RJ off.

“Well, I haven’t lived here long either, so I kinda know how easy it is to get lost. Thought maybe I’d help you guys out with your search.”

“Well, we’re looking for our new master, Master Finn.” Lily replied.

RJ’s eyes rapidly blinked as he looked off to the side, as if trying to recall something. “Hm…don’t think I’ve heard that name before. Does he teach at the Blue Falcon Dojo down on Riverside Lane?”

“No.” Jarrod replied.

“Oh, you speak.” RJ replied in a joking manner. Jarrod just stared at him, and RJ looked away. “No, then? Alright. How about the Red Sun Academy downtown?”

“No.” Jarrod replied again.

“You checked there too? Hm…” RJ thought harder. “Well then, I guess he’s not here.”

“Look, we already know that. Do you know anyone who knows advanced martial arts or something, someone who may teach in the park or out’ve his living room or anything?” Theo ranted.

“Whoa, why would you think I would know something like that?” RJ asked, pulling back away from Theo, holding his arms up against his chest. “I’m a lover, not a fighter, kid.”

“Sorry, I’m-”

“It’s okay, Theo. Thanks for the help, Mr. RJ-”

“Oh, just call me RJ. If you’re in town again, feel free to stop by. Though, the food won’t be free next time.”

RJ got up and turned the chair back around before walking back into the kitchen. Lily looked back at Jarrod, who was watching RJ leave. “What’s on your mind, Jarrod?”

Jarrod merely smiled softly, keeping his eyes focused on the kitchen door.

As RJ reached for the refrigerator door, an explosion rocked through the area and shook the food stock from the cabinets. RJ’s eyes widened. “Fran!”

“Right here.” She replied from her position next to the brick oven.

“I’m gonna make sure nothing upstairs gets destroyed; you man the fort down here.” RJ ordered.

“Right!” Fran replied, causing RJ to dart up the stairs.

“Rinrinshi…” Jarrod muttered as he stood up; many of the patrons stared at him from their spots underneath the tables.

“You think?” Lily asked.

“Rinshi don’t make explosions…” He turned around and began walking out.

“Hey! Wait up!” Lily shouted.

The trio ran out and spotted a strange creature with a pair of Rinshi two blocks down.

“Take the Rinshi.” Jarrod ordered.

Lily took the Rinshi to the left and it began to punch at her as soon as she came in range. She quickly swiped away every shot that came towards her, surprised that the Rinshi was a little hard to keep up with. All the more reason to be happy that she could build momentum through her blocking movements. Once the Rinshi missed a movement, she grinned and slammed an open palm straight into its jaw, sending fractures up through its porcelain face and shattering the Rinshi to pieces.

Theo ran in against his Rinshi and jumped into the air, and in rapid succession smashed the Rinshi’s temple with a tornado kick and tossed it aside with a wheel kick, causing the Rinshi to twirl around gracefully as it disintegrated to rocks and dust.

Jarrod slowly approached the strange Rinrinshi, which looked like a bipedal spike-haired mantis, and caught its attention.

“A civilian child? Challenging me?” The Rinrinshi cackled in a high-pitched tone. Jarrod merely stood firmly and cracked his neck.

Jarrod took his stance and waited as the Rinrinshi ran up to him. As soon as it got close, he went in to slam his palm into its face.

The Mantis Rinrinshi, however, hadn’t mastered its martial arts style without learning how to get around such an easily avoidable attack.

The Mantis Rinrinshi quickly swiped his hand away and slammed its other claw sideways into Jarrod’s chest, roughly injuring his solar plexus and knocking the wind out of him. Jarrod was stunned by the sheer force the creature used as he stumbled back and shielded his solar plexus; he had never met a person who could throw such a devastating single punch like the one he just took.

In a blatant act of arrogance, the Mantis Rinrinshi followed Jarrod and slammed its claw against his temple, dropping him like a sack of potatoes. Lily and Theo’s eyes widened in shock as his effort to get back on his feet quickly failed, and he just fell back to the ground, motionless.

“Jarrod!” Lily shouted, getting no response from him.

“Well, he shouldn’t have let the thing just get so close to him…” Theo griped. “He should’ve waited for us. C’mon!”

Theo and Lily ran at the Mantis Rinrinshi from both its sides. “More children, eh?” It cackled. “Oh, those marks! Pai Zhuq sent children to fight me? How adorable!” As Lily punched and Theo kicked, it caught them both in its large pincers and put their joints in a painful vicegrip. “This’s like child’s play, literally!” It cackled with delight as it picked them both off the ground and swung them around like rag dolls, slamming them into streetlights, parked cars, and even the street itself.

Jarrod’s eyes fluttered open as blood from his head wound started to run down his face. He slowly started to sit up as the other two were tossed in his direction. Lily landed in front of him and rolled across the blacktop before coming to a stop against Jarrod’s body. She whimpered and curled up in a ball against him, making him frown at the thought that he was in no shape to help himself, let alone get her any. Theo flew overhead, and Jarrod forced himself to grab Theo’s leg to stop his momentum, which ended up slamming Theo headfirst into the blacktop.

“Thanks a lot, Jarrod.” Theo snarked as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. He then reached over to Lily and placed his hand carefully on her shoulder to make sure she was still conscious.

“I’m okay, Theo…” She mumbled as she slowly sat up.

Jarrod slowly inched himself in front of the two, desperate to get to his feet to fight again. As he collapsed once more, he could hear the sound of footsteps approaching. He looked back to spot the Hooded Man running up to the scene.

“Huh? Another Pai Zhuq child?” The Mantis Rinrinshi asked.

“Oh, not quite…” The Hooded Man replied. If the lower half of his face wasn’t hidden by his purple bandana, they would’ve seen him grinning widely in joy.

The Hooded Man ran and leaped high into the air, over the trio and landing several feet away from the Rinrinshi. He swung at the Rinrinshi just as Jarrod had before, and Lily hid her eyes in the fear of having to witness the same result.

The Rinrinshi laughed and blocked his hook, then prepared to smash the Hooded Man’s solar plexus, as it had before with Jarrod. Jarrod grinned and almost laughed as he knew what was coming.

“What?” Theo asked Jarrod as his attention broke away for the moment.

The Hooded Man lifted his leg up at the knee and knocked away the blow, then quickly shifted legs and roundhouse kicked the Rinrinshi’s kneecap, knocking the creature off-balance. The Hooded Man lunged forwards with his knee and slammed it into the Rinrinshi’s sternum, causing it to turn its attention from its leg to its chest. Before the Rinrinshi could even comprehend the fact that the Hooded Man was still there, the Hooded Man slammed his elbow diagonally onto the Mantis Rinrinshi’s temple, sending it spinning around wildly in place.

The Mantis Rinrinshi stopped spinning around after a few seconds, and his back was turned to the Hooded Man and the trio, which excited the Hooded Man. He pulled his left arm to his side, palm pointed upwards as he crouched down slightly.

“Heh.” Jarrod wiped the blood off of his face and grinned widely. “It’s over.”

Lily looked back at him. “Over…?”

He nodded his head in the direction of the fight, as if telling her to keep her eyes on it.

The Hooded Man then lunged forwards and turned his arm 180 degrees and opened his hand widely, clamping his fingers around the yellow hexagonal seal adorned with a white triangle and black lines and circles; the seal of Dai Shi’s army. As he pressed forwards to smash it, a rush of energy shot through his forearm, giving off a brief flash of violet light which pierced through the seal and shattered it. The Mantis Rinrinshi shrieked in agony and began to turn to rock as the violet light set the seal ablaze and the Hooded Man peeled it away. In mere seconds, the creature’s legs gave way to the heavy weight and it fell over like a smashed statue.

The Hooded Man took a long look at his striking hand in a disdained manner, as if disappointed with something, but then realized the trio was behind him. “Can you get up without help?” He asked them.

“We’re fine, Mast-”

“Ah, girl…not here.” He flinched and drew himself back a bit. “If you can get up without my help, then follow me.”

The trio slowly rose off the ground, and Lily helped Jarrod keep steady while he got his bearings. Theo ignored Jarrod and stumbled over to the Hooded Man’s side.

“Aren’t you going to help your fellow Pai Zhuq?” The Hooded Man asked.

“Are you kidding me? He’s fine.”

“He doesn’t look it from here.” The Hooded Man’s icy blue eyes pierced deep into Theo, making him shiver inside.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got him.” Lily chided.

“I’m fine.” Jarrod replied coldly, wiping the blood from his head again before stumbling awkwardly towards the Hooded Man.

“Here.” The Hooded Man grabbed Jarrod by his arm and helped him walk down the street into a back alley with Lily and Theo following close behind.

After a short walk, Jarrod looked up and sniffed the air, catching the scent of Jungle Karma Pizza once more. “So…hungry…” He muttered.

“You can have something upstairs. Don’t worry.” He helped Jarrod up the fire escape stairs and through the handleless second story door of a somewhat familiar brick building.

He lead them into a high-roofed loft, complete with a gymnasium-quality hardwood floor, a pair of raised catwalks, a basketball hoop and a large central fan against the back wall where a small collection of old TV sets and a dusty green recliner sat parked like a display in a museum of what the typical hermit of the 50’s living room might’ve consisted of.

The Hooded Man sat Jarrod on a chair at the small dining area and pulled a first aid kit from behind the counter and pulled out the antiseptic spray and a roll of gauze.

“Mi casa es su casa, kids. Go anywhere you want, except my chair.” He quickly lectured. “The green chair is mine, and it is my personal space. That, and the west wing of the loft. It’s forbidden.” He grinned.

“Master Randall…?” Jarrod muttered.

“Yes, Jarrod?”

“Am I still getting that plain pizza? I didn’t want it, but…” Lily and Theo turned around as the Hooded Man stopped wrapping up Jarrod’s head. Jarrod grinned. “You give yourself away easily.”

“You think?” The Hooded Man pulled his bandana down around his neck and revealed the lower half of his face, which was giving a worried sort of look.

“Not at first. It took a while, but you got too suspicious of Theo asking about your knowledge of training places.” Jarrod laughed softly. “Otherwise, I would’ve remained blind.”

“Glad to know I’ve done a good job on most accounts of hiding myself…” He pulled off his sweatshirt and tossed it at the railing to reveal a purple tie-dyed teeshirt, his Order tattoo on his right forearm below his elbow, and a jumbled mess of outgrown wavy brown hair. He smoothed it out to reveal the rather unexpected visage of the pizza chef from earlier, RJ.

“You’re Master Finn?” Theo asked half out of shock and half out of disappointment.

“Well,” RJ began, retracting back slightly and going through his rather quirky hand motions. “I’m not *the* Master Finn, but I’m *a* Master Finn. Finn is my family name, and it’s a first come, first serve sort of deal when it comes to using it as our title, so…I didn’t get to use it on the record if I was still teaching. I have to stick with my first name if I were teaching, which’s unfortunately Randall. So Master Randall it is, instead of Master Finn…that is, if I was still teaching.”

“You talk so much…” Jarrod commented.

“It’s my co-owner’s fault. She rambles on and on and well…I guess it’s rubbed off on me a little. Which reminds me…” He leaped over the railing of the catwalk and landed on the main floor, then walked over to his chair and grabbed his chef’s coat, pants, and skull cap. “I have a job to get back to. You kids stay upstairs and try to keep the noise level to a whisper and if you make any messes, you’re cleaning them. Consider my home to be your Pai Zhuq Academy, got it?”

“Yes, Master Randall.” The trio bowed to RJ, and he panicked.

“Please, call me RJ. And don’t bow.” He quickly ran upstairs to change back into his uniform.

Meanwhile, far away…

A shadowy figure walked hesitantly into a chamber deep within a dark and cold temple. They knelt down in front of a throne, where a rather bored figure sat meditating.

“What is it, Camille?” The figure on the throne asked harshly in a tone that sounded heavily ethereal and completely otherworldly.

“Master Dai Shi, I have come to report news from the field.”

“Have we destroyed the city yet?”

“We have caused quite a bit of damage and have greatly terrified the residents, but-”

The young man on the throne opened his eyes, revealing a pair of deep gold irises that glowed ominously in the dark. “But?” He sat up, trying to look intimidating. “But?”

“Four Pai Zhuq have been spotted…they destroyed Manticore.”

“Only four…?”

“Three children, maybe students, and one advanced student…maybe a master.”

The figure on the throne laughed softly for a moment, then let his laugh grow until it became a near roar. “Four? Just four against an army of millions?” He suddenly cut off his laughter. “I find your lack of faith in our power…disappointing. But, I shall remedy this. Tomorrow, we try harder.” He waved Camille out out. “Now, leave me be.”

“Yes, Master Dai Shi.” Camille bowed as Dai Shi cracked his neck and yawned out of boredom.

As she left, Dai Shi looked down at his hands. “Tomorrow, maybe…tomorrow we shall meet the ones who got away…and then we’ll kill them one by one…” He smiled sadistically, then laughed.

[cirvin06]

Whoa, I am defintely comfortable and I won't be going anywhere any time soon. Like you I too am a fan of longer fics, which is currently what my fic is. But as for yours, I defintely love everything so far.

Just one thing, Is what I saw what I think I saw? Are we gonna see the switch that many people talk about, Casey as Daishi and Jarrod as the Red Ranger?

[DarkStarShadow]

Whoa, I am defintely comfortable and I won't be going anywhere any time soon. Like you I too am a fan of longer fics, which is currently what my fic is. But as for yours, I defintely love everything so far.

Well, I'm glad that you're in it for the long run. ^__^ I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I love writing it.

Just one thing, Is what I saw what I think I saw? Are we gonna see the switch that many people talk about, Casey as Daishi and Jarrod as the Red Ranger?

:winks: Well, I thought the top banner would be enough of a spoiler...

[cirvin06]

:winks: Well, I thought the top banner would be enough of a spoiler...

Well that is true, but you could have started him as a Red then turning him into Daishi. Just making sure. lol

[DarkStarShadow]

...Well, the Black Lion Armor is Jarrod's personal armor, because the Black Lion is his animal spirit. Dai Shi has nothing to do with it, other than the fact that he uses it to his advantage in combat.

[DaiDekaRanger]

killer story so far

[dragomuseveni]

wow i really like this keep up the good work...i will be sure to keep reading -sets up inflatable mattress, a reading lamp, and some cookies- hehe

[Taioh No Kami]

i hope they morph soon. wondering what this story's version of Jungle Pride will look like. Any takers?

[DarkStarShadow]

wow i really like this keep up the good work...i will be sure to keep reading -sets up inflatable mattress, a reading lamp, and some cookies- hehe

Glad to see you're making yourself at home. XD. :skitters over and takes a cookie before going back to writing:

i hope they morph soon.

:begins mimicking RJ: Patience, young Padawan. Our journey may be long, but it will be fruitful. ^__^.

wondering what this story's version of Jungle Pride will look like. Any takers?

...I dislike merchandising.

[cirvin06]

How soon can we expect to see Chapter 2? So I''ll know when to get comfortable.

[Shycode]

This is the best Jungle Fury story I've read. Can't wait for more :)

[DarkStarShadow]

How soon can we expect to see Chapter 2? So I''ll know when to get comfortable.

I'm working on it, and it's about...15-20% done. I've had people coming in and out on vacation with me for the last two weeks, so there's been little writing going on. I've also been working on graphic art for the fic and been taking lots of notes, too, so...yeah.

Once I get back on my normal schedule, I should be pumping out text like crazy...I hope. XD.

This is the best Jungle Fury story I've read. Can't wait for more :)

:blushes: Um...thank you. I work really hard on all my stories, so I'm flattered to hear that.

[cirvin06]

I'm working on it, and it's about...15-20% done. I've had people coming in and out on vacation with me for the last two weeks, so there's been little writing going on. I've also been working on graphic art for the fic and been taking lots of notes, too, so...yeah.

Once I get back on my normal schedule, I should be pumping out text like crazy...I hope. XD.

Sounds good. Keep up the good work.

[[]V[]etal []_ion]

This has got to be the best JF/Geki hybrid i have read so far. I love how you've explored Jarrod's character much more and made him a part of the team, Lily and Theo seem as the show with subtle differences, such as the Heart charkra and Technique aspects from Geki. Those add in nice touches, since Geki actually focused more on the resons behind these things. Jarrod really does seem likable, much like Rio from Geki, but he still has that arrogant streak witnessed in JF.
Dai Shi, i am assuming is not Casey, possibly Ron's suit from Geki? I think Casey will be a servant of Dai Shi, much like Suugu. And RJ and Fran's characters are great, still likable like in JF but more developed so far.
This is agreat fic, keep it up :023::023:

[DarkStarShadow]

V[]etal []_ion;2853280']This has got to be the best JF/Geki hybrid i have read so far. I love how you've explored Jarrod's character much more and made him a part of the team, Lily and Theo seem as the show with subtle differences, such as the Heart charkra and Technique aspects from Geki. Those add in nice touches, since Geki actually focused more on the resons behind these things.

Well, I've had the idea of swapping out Casey for Jarrod for a while, and my last fic had RJ and Jarrod as former master and student, and the two just worked out here, so I went with it. I personally liked what I saw of Jarrod in the first ep more than all of what I've seen about Casey, so that...well, contributed to my choice. >__>. He seems to be a passive person with a troubled and unlucky life, so I write him that way. I even affectionately gave him the last name of Mallory (which means 'unfortunate/unlucky one') to reflect this lack of luck. He's a great character, but like all others, he's kind've neglected and forgotten about.

...And to divert away from my Jarrod fangirling, I used Geki elements because that was one aspect of the Sentai I thought worked ever so well, and I'll be using it to a greater effect as I go along. Although, I won't be using all those little special 'Rou Rou Dan' type attacks that the rangers have...but there's better things to do with that leftover space...

Jarrod really does seem likable, much like Rio from Geki, but he still has that arrogant streak witnessed in JF.

Well, I'm glad you like him, as I'm trying to shine a light on his good qualities and show my impression of him.

Dai Shi, i am assuming is not Casey, possibly Ron's suit from Geki? I think Casey will be a servant of Dai Shi, much like Suugu.

Hmm...maybe...it might be clearer next chapter, which btw is about 80% done. Should be up within the next week, but I make no concrete promises. Just keep an eye out for it. =P

And RJ and Fran's characters are great, still likable like in JF but more developed so far.

Well, they're going to be going in vastly different directions than the show took them, but it's good to know the little bits of them from Chapter One were ones you liked. ^__^.



>__> Well, I should get back to writing now...

[DarkStarShadow]

~Chapter Two: Shadows in the Rain~





As Fran finished cleaning up downstairs to end her shift, RJ took the nearly discarded cheese pizza from earlier out of the oven and packed it up before sneaking upstairs with it.

Lily and Theo stopped training as the sound of RJ’s footsteps grew louder. Jarrod opened an eye as the smell of the rewarmed pizza filled the air.

“Good evening, kids. I’ve returned with something healthy and delicious for dinner.” He grinned as he walked up to the small dining area on the east wing’s catwalk. The trio followed him up and practically drooled over the eight cut wonder. “Enjoy. It might be a bit on the gooey side, since I had to warm it back up, but other than that, it should be fine.”

Lily and Theo both grabbed a single slice, while Jarrod yanked out two.

“Thank you, Master Finn.” Theo replied, bowing.

“Please, please, just call me RJ.” He replied, looking quite pained.

RJ then walked back to his room to get into more comfortable attire before joining them again. The trio seemed a little disoriented as he walked out barefooted in a dark purple teeshirt and black yoga pants.

“Sorry for the lack of a proper introduction, kids. It’s been a long day for everyone.” He commented as he walked over to the dining area. “Namaste.” He bowed slightly, and they bowed back. “The name’s RJ, and I’m apparently your newly assigned Pai Zhuq master. Wish somebody would’ve called me to let me know, but I adjust quickly enough to sudden changes in plans.” He smiled. “I assume that Master Mao sent you three to me for a reason.”

“He didn’t say why he wanted you to return to the temple, just that he wanted you to return with us. We were sent as honorary scouts to find and escort you back.” Theo replied.

“Not now.” Jarrod replied before snapping into the crusts of his folded over slices.

“Why not?”

“We stay here. Master Mao said so.” Jarrod mumbled between chews.

“So, you three aren’t working together…? He sent out separate groups?” RJ asked. Jarrod nodded yes before swallowing.

“After Dai Shi was released-”

RJ’s eyes widened. “Whoa, Dai Shi’s escaped…? Now I get why he wants me back. I should probably leave then-”

“He said to stay here.” Jarrod replied. “Told me to stop you two from leaving, too.”

“So it’s just us four then, huh?” RJ asked, looking a shade paler than before.

“Well, we had a fifth, sort’ve…” Lily replied coldly.

“The cub’s not important.” Jarrod chided.

“Maybe not to you. He was badly hurt and probably needed medical attention!” Lily shot back.

“I didn’t hit him that hard.” Jarrod muttered as he reached into the box for another slice.

RJ eyed Jarrod warily. “I thought I taught you better than to pick on cubs.”

“He wanted to fight. I played defense. He refused to stop, so I stopped him.”

“You back kicked him about twenty feet back and about five feet off the ground.” Theo corrected.

“He was running fast. If he wasn’t, it wouldn’t have done that.”

“Well, if you weren’t such a damn blowhard, arrogant jerk, he probably wouldn’t have had to resort to the only thing you’d respond to!” Theo stood up while shouting.

“Theo! Stop it!” Lily shouted.

“Whoa, whoa, down kids, down…” RJ swung his arms about between the warring parties. “Please, let’s not fill the loft with negative vibes on your first night here.” He looked around at the trio. “I understand that you’re not really all in the same clique, but now’s not the time to let petty quarrels divide us. Everyone needs to have a nighttime meditation session before picking sleeping arrangements, it seems.”

“You’re letting us stay here?” Lily asked.

“Well, I certainly can’t toss you three aside if you’re Pai Zhuq. It’s better if you stay here until the city needs defending.”

“So the four of us’ll be fighting together soon?”

“No.” RJ flatly replied.

“No?” Theo and Lily looked up at him in shock.

“No offense, but you three are the fighters here. What I said earlier is about as truthful as I get; I was only fighting before because I had no other choice.”

Jarrod looked as if he was going to speak, but stopped. RJ caught him out of the corner of his eye, however. “Jarrod…?”

Jarrod pursed his lips for a moment, trying to think of the perfect way to convey his thoughts. “You’re…the strongest Pai Zhuq master I know of. We need your help.”

“Well, it’s no doubt that I was the strongest fighter in the academy, but I’m retired.”

Theo bit his tongue, but RJ, not missing a beat, caught his look too. “Do you have something to say, Theo?”

“You’re…” Theo stopped and thought for a moment. “No offense, but you’re being selfish. We’re begging you for your help; even Jarrod’s begging you. Please. Please just…even if you just teach us some of your techniques. We were horribly defeated without you, and…I hate to admit this as much as he does, but we’re powerless without your guidance and strength.”

RJ looked from Theo to Jarrod, giving a questioning look. Jarrod seemed to silently respond with his own look that suggested pleading. RJ looked back to Theo. “I will meditate on your request tonight, and you may ask in the morning.”

Lily squealed happily, then tightly hugged RJ. “Hey, hey, off.” RJ gave a heavily perturbed look and pushed her away. “Now finish eating and get to meditating.” He left the group and headed back to his room. “Oh, and before I turn in for the night, the door near the fridge leads to Lily’s room; you boys’re not allowed in there without her permission. You two will sleep out here; I’ll be right out with sleeping bags and hammocks, and you can decide who gets what and who sleeps where. I’ll set this alarm for midnight, and that’s when you’re to all turn in for the night. So, until tomorrow, goodbye.” He then continued on his way out.

Meanwhile, far away from Ocean Bluff…

Dai Shi winced and clutched his abdomen, and Camille ran to his aid.

“Are you still having problems, master?” Camille asked.

“This possession technique is not one I have mastered yet…” He muttered. “Perhaps I’m still not strong enough.”

“Perhaps it is your host who is not strong enough. He doesn’t look like he’s fully recovered from the injuries he had before…”

Dai Shi hummed. “Whose fault is that again…?”

Camille sighed. “I’m sorry, master. I was worried that you would fade out if I didn’t find a suitable host quickly.”

Dai Shi grinned and let go of his abdomen as the pain subsided. “Well, I can’t blame you for worrying about me, now can I?” He turned around and set a warm hand against her icy cold face. “I think you made a wonderful choice, my dear Camille. This body is young and vibrant and full of energy that’s just waiting to be aimed in the right direction…” He slowly stood up, gently lifting her up with him. “Perhaps this touch of feisty rebellion is a sign that it was a good choice.”

He smiled wickedly, then with lightning reflexes simultaneously scowled and slapped her across the face with the hand that had been cradling her jawline. She winced and pulled away. “However, I haven’t forgotten your recent failure, and it disappoints me. Tomorrow, I want to see a fully outlined battle plan, drawn out and prepared to use by the next day. Do you understand me?”

Camille dropped to her knees and bowed in an act of submissively pleading for mercy. “I will not rest until it’s done.”

“Good. Now get out of my sight.” Camille quickly turned completely transparent and left the room. Dai Shi smiled, then grabbed his plate of food that she had brought earlier. “I hope this pain isn’t because my host’s allergic to mutton…” He muttered softly to himself while getting back to his meal.

Back in the loft…

The subtle chiming of a homemade alarm clock woke RJ up exactly at six am. He opened his eyes and sat up, groaning at the prospect of another long day of work. Turning off the alarm, he stood up and stretched before wandering out into the west wing of the loft. He closed his eyes to shield them from the bright light of the morning sun while scratching the back of his head. As he opened them, he noticed that he was being watched.

Theo held his position midway through the kata he was practicing and looked up in confusion from the loft floor, while Lily looked across from the dining area, her mouth slightly agape while she held the cereal spoon centimeters from her mouth as her cheeks turned a soft red. Jarrod might’ve not even given a second look past a parting glance, but the Lion Style fighter was still dead asleep.

RJ felt slightly unnerved, but realized they were probably disoriented by the fact that he was in only his boxers.

“Right. House guests…” He muttered, promptly turning on his heel and wandering back down the hall.

“Wow, what a high Body Chakra…” Lily muttered softly, turning redder.

“Lily!” Theo scolded loudly, causing Jarrod’s eyes to shoot open.

“Quiet.” He growled before turning over in his hammock and falling back asleep.

Twenty minutes later, RJ returned to the main area of the loft in his work uniform. “Sorry about that, kids. Not used to there being anyone else around yet. That won’t happen again.”

“Thank god…” Theo muttered under his breath.

“You three are to go through your katas, and I’ll bring something up for lunch.”

“Jarrod’s still asleep,” Lily replied. “and the way he’s sleeping, he could still be out at lunch.”

“Oh, I’ll fix that.” RJ walked over to the isolated corner in the east wing catwalk that Jarrod had claimed for himself and hunched over him, ready to strike. His right hand shot down to Jarrod’s abdomen and before long, Jarrod’s legs flailed wildly.

“Ah! Off!” Jarrod shouted. RJ stopped and grinned.

“Good morning, sunshine.” RJ joked, letting the rather unsettled Jarrod sit up. Jarrod gave a bothered look before stretching and yawning. “Today, you’re going to go through your katas. I’d appreciate if you were up at the crack of dawn like your fellow Pai Zhuq from now on, or I could just run up here and tickle you to death every morning.”

“No!” Jarrod shouted, turning pale. Lily held in a laugh.

“So you’ll participate in everyone else’s morning routines?”

“Yes.” Jarrod replied, standing up.

“Then get some breakfast and get to training. I’ll see you all at lunch.” RJ then gave a brief smile and leisurely walked to the staircase. Jarrod gave a strange look to Lily, as if letting her know he was vulnerable.

“Sorry about that.” Lily replied.

“It’s odd to be scolded again.” Jarrod replied before going into his bag and dumping the contents of it on the floor. Dirty clothes, tent supplies, some rations and a near-empty bag of green apples, and a square parchment paper package bearing the Order logo.

“You got one, too?” Lily asked. He held up the package and gave Lily a questioning look. “Yes, you did get one! Open it!” Jarrod gave a half smile and opened it. Inside sat a black coat with gold trim designed similarly to Theo’s and a pair of pants identical to Theo’s, both tailored to fit Jarrod perfectly. “Awesome!” Lily cheerily commented. “You should wear that while we wear ours…”

“Like a team?” Jarrod frowned and set it aside. Lily sighed as Jarrod grabbed an apple and walked downstairs into the pizza parlor.

Jarrod sauntered down into the kitchen of the pizza parlor, catching RJ’s attention.

“May I ask why you’re not upstairs practicing or eating?” RJ asked as Jarrod opened the fridge. He got his answer as Jarrod held out the carton of skim milk. “Oh…right. I take it the soy milk upstairs left a funny taste in your mouth?” Jarrod grunted in disdain. “Sorry about that.”

“Everything’s so…hippie.” Jarrod complained as he closed the fridge.

“Well, a warrior is only as good as what he runs on, which explains why the Spartans were so bland and rigid.” RJ joked. “After a while of being here, I found that this…hippie food, as you call it…well, it’s not so bad. I mean, it’s not as flavorful at times, but I feel really good about eating it, and it’s usually better than its alternative.”

“Tofu?” Jarrod asked in a grossed out tone while he began to shuffle through the fridge again.

“Again; not terribly flavorful, but better for you.”

“I’d rather gnaw rubber.” Jarrod muttered, setting the tofu down.

“Well Jarrod, I’d like you to go back upstairs with a glass of milk and get to your katas. I’d like to not have to ask you again.” RJ calmly stated as he finished making the rest of the dough for the pizza crusts for the day.

“Practice…?” Jarrod sounded slightly offended.

“Well, that monster did manage to render you unconscious and breathless with a nasty concussion to boot. A little practice couldn’t hurt you, could it?” Jarrod scowled. “Like I thought. So…back upstairs.” Jarrod poured himself a glass of milk and began to walk towards the stairs.

“Yes, dad.” He chided.

“You did not just say that.” RJ gave him a dirty look.

“Well, it’s either ‘Master’, ‘RJ’, or ‘dad’.” Jarrod teased.

“I’m not old enough to be your father!” RJ shouted as Jarrod marched up the stairs.

“Later, pops!” Jarrod teased as he reached the top of the stairs and left the pizza parlor.

“Damn him…” RJ muttered.

Several hours later, RJ walked upstairs with a large cheese pizza for them to munch on for lunch, and found a scene that he was very surprised to see.

Jarrod had changed into the Order uniform’s pants, shoes, and shirt, but not into the coat; it was his own little protest against Lily’s efforts to unify the three of them into one group.

The last thing he wanted was affiliation with someone as hostile as Theo.

However, what caught RJ’s attention more was that while Theo and Jarrod were going through their katas, Lily was in the back of the room with a pair of headphones blaring techno music, just dancing around in a rhythmic pattern.

“Hey, Lily!” RJ shouted, walking up to the dining area. He got no response from her. “LILY!” She stopped and looked for the source of the shouting. She spotted RJ and jumped, pulling down the headphones.

“Hey RJ! When’d you come in?” She asked in a louder-than-normal voice.

“Take those off. I told you to practice your katas, not dance.” He sternly replied. A mental alarm went off and he sighed; the tone of voice he was taking was one he despised. He took a deep breath and waited for her response.

“I finished my katas already.” Lily replied.

“Oh really? Maybe you should go over them again, if you go through them so quickly.”

“But I’ve been waiting for you to come up with lunch.” Lily replied, walking upstairs to the dining area.

“I gave you an order for today, and that was to go through your katas until lunch. You didn’t do what I asked, though.” As she reached for the pizza box, RJ slammed his hand on top of it. “If you disobeyed Master Mao’s orders by not doing something for as long as you were told to, what punishment would he place upon you?”

“I would…” Lily thought for a moment. She had never broken Master Mao’s rules, so she couldn’t recall what the punishment was.

“She’d have to scrub the floors of the dojo practice room with a toothbrush.” Theo spoke up, still going through his final kata.

“Then that will be your punishment. Theo, Jarrod, you two get the rest of the day to rest. Lily, you’re to scrub the main floor of my loft with a toothbrush. I’ll be more than happy to donate one of my spare ones for the effort, too.”

“That’s not fair!” Lily complained.

“How is it unfair? It’s the same punishment as if you had done it in the Academy.”

“I did what you wanted me to, RJ. I did all my katas. They’re all fast attacks, so I finished them faster than the guys did.”

“But I said to practice until lunch time, and you were dancing when I walked upstairs. So you weren’t doing what I asked you to. It’s just the same as meditating for five hours instead of six.”

“But this floor’s twice as big as a practice room. She’ll be scrubbing all night.” Theo walked up and noted.

“Then she should start scrubbing as soon as she’s done with lunch if she wants to sleep tonight.” RJ remarked with a smile before he walked over to the fridge.

“Master Mao would only have her do half of the floor in this case. Everyone is to do no more as well as no less than everyone else.”

“I hate to be the bearer of both the obvious and the bad news, but I’m not Master Mao.” He took out a banana yogurt and closed the fridge. “I work by my own rules. I may borrow some of Master Mao’s set of rules when I need to or want to, but I always do things the way I see fit.”

“You’re being unfair, though, RJ. I didn’t do anything wrong!” Lily replied.

“Stop arguing.” Jarrod griped as he finished his last kata. “He is our master. We must obey him.”

“Well Lily, I assume that you’re roughly eighteen, since you’re part of the Order. In most civilized countries, you’re considered an adult and you can come and go as you please. If you wish to find another master, then go wherever your path may take you.”

Lily scowled and walked into her room, slamming the door behind her. Theo’s eyes opened widely and he ran to her door and began beating on it. “Lily! Wait a second! Lily, think about this!”

Theo stopped as he realized that he couldn’t get through to her. He sighed deeply, then slowly turned around and walked over to his alcove on the opposite side of the main room, all the while taking time to give RJ and Jarrod cold looks.

Less than ten minutes later, Lily walked out of her room with her headphones around her neck and her backpack on her shoulders, completely ready to go. Theo walked over to her, also ready to leave.

“Et tu, Theo?” RJ asked.

“If she goes, I go.”

“Well then, take care, both of you.” RJ closed the pizza box and held it out. “Here’s one for the road.”

Lily walked out without giving the box a second look. Theo sighed and grabbed the box. “Thank you, RJ.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Please forgive her; she’s just…” Theo gave a bit of a strange look, suggesting that he felt nervous about finishing the sentence. “She’s having a bad…time…of…well…”

“Say no more.” RJ replied. “Good luck on your journey.”

The two took the downstairs route, surprising Fran on their way out the front door of Jungle Karma Pizza.

RJ looked over at Jarrod, who merely looked at his lonely pizza slice. “So…it’s just the two of us for the time being.” Jarrod didn’t reply in any manner. RJ looked about, letting his mind try to grasp at what to say. “Um…so! I’m not sure what I should have you do until tonight, so just…relax. Sleep off that fight from yesterday, or watch a little TV. Just please stay outta my chair.” Jarrod merely nodded, then picked up the slice and idly began eating it.

After a full two minutes of awkward silence between master and student, RJ spoke up. “Sorry.” He apologized in a defeated tone.

“I didn’t like him anyways.” Jarrod replied softly.

Far away, in Dai Shi’s throne room…

“Camille!” Dai Shi’s eth