Demon Inferno

Chapter 1: Countdown

In the quiet countryside of China, the Xiaolin temple stood out as a symbol of peace and tranquility. From the outside that is, inside the four Wudai Warriors were practicing the combinations of their elements and their Shen Gong Wu. "Orb of Tornami: Water!" cried Omi holding the blue ball. An enormous amount of water erupted from it and swept away the practice dummy. "Sword of the Sword: Wind!" cried Raimundo clutching the strangely shaped sword. A strong wind came from the blade and blew his practice dummy to the other side of the courtyard. "Third Arm Sash-Fist of Tebigong: Earth!" cried Clay putting the bronze gauntlet onto the blue-green sash. The sash came to life and flew toward the practice dummy. As it went, the sash became a stone gray and the gauntlet on it glowed yellow. The sash and gauntlet smashed into a bull's eye on a small brick wall and made a hole through it. Kimiko decided to test out their newest Shen Gong Wu, the Visuvius Skullcap. It resembled a skullcap with a volcano-like spout on top of it. When activated, it projects an eruption of lava. It becomes more powerful the angrier the user is. Kimiko put the Shen Gong Wu on her and cried, "Visuvius Skullcap: Fire!" Fiery lava shot out of the spout and burned the practice dummy in front of her. "Wow this thing really is powerful," said Kimiko. "I'm not sure you should use that," said Raimundo. "Why not?" asked Kimiko. "Well, one little hissy-fit and you'll burn the temple to the ground." "I do not have hissy-fits!" yelled Kimiko. Globs of lava shot out of the Skullcap and headed towards Raimundo. He nimbly jumped out of the way and said, "Missed me." Then he sniffed the air and said, "What's cooking?" He looked behind him to see that the seat of his pants were on fire. Instead of stop, dropping, and rolling like he should have done, Raimundo ran around the courtyard screaming. Omi aimed the Orb of Tornami at Raimundo and said, "Orb of Tornami: Ice!" Icy water came out of the Orb and hit Raimundo. Raimundo sighed with relief as the flames were extinguished but groaned when he saw that his lower half was in a block of ice. "At least you have plenty of time to chill out," said Kimiko grinning.

Before Raimundo could say anything, Dojo ran out of the temple. "Stop everything!" yelled the dragon. "Has that Shen Gong Wu you were talking about finally activated?" asked Omi. "No but it's about to," said Dojo eyeing the zits on his back. Two weeks earlier, not too soon after the Wudai Warriors had found the Visuvius Skullcap in Pompeii, Dojo sensed that a really powerful Shen Gong Wu was going to activate as soon as the zits came to a head. "I hope it's as powerful as you say," said Raimundo, chopping the ice block he was in half. "Trust me, it's going a very strong Wu." "We better round it up before that dirty snake, Spicer, gets it," said Clay.

Meanwhile in his evil lair, Jack Spicer was trying to ignore the annoying ghost floating right next to his head. "Please." "No." "Pretty please." "No!" "I promise I'll be loyal." "You've said that eight times all ready!" Wuya sighed with recognition and floated to the other side of the lab. "What do I have to do to get you to change back to my solid form?" "You remember what Chase Young said," said Jack. Indeed Wuya did. She was living with Chase Young in his evil lair as her beautiful solid form. But she had been trying to overthrow Chase one time too many. Chase summoned her to his throne room. Much to her surprise, Jack Spicer was there. As usual he was gaping at everything Chase had and drooling all over the place. "What is he doing here?" asked Wuya. "He's here to do some business with me," said Chase. "Let me guess, you're going to use him as a puppet in another scheme to defeat the Xiaolin warriors," said Wuya. "Actually this has nothing to do with the Xiaolin Warriors," said Chase, "It's about you." "Me?" "Yes, Wuya, how long have you been living here?" "About three months." "And in those three months you have done nothing but collect Shen Gong Wu behind my back and try to get rid of me." "What gave you that idea?" asked Wuya nervously. "My eyes are everywhere," said Chase. Then several of Chase's jungle cats and a flock of his crows entered the room. Wuya chuckled nervously. "Normally I would ignore such minor threats, but recently you have been allying yourself with Hannibal Bean." Wuya gulped and said, "It wasn't anything to threatening besides that partnership is long dissolved." "Oh is it?" Chase snapped his fingers and a hologram appeared in the middle of the room. It was of Wuya and Hannibal Roy Bean talking to each other. "Now just put this in Chase's soup tonight," said Hannibal pointing at a vial right next to him, "and Chase will be out for a week." "Don't worry," said Wuya pocketing the vial, "He won't suspect a thing." Wuya now knew that the jig was up. She tried changing the subject; "You haven't mentioned what Jack was doing here." Chase picked up a pebble on the floor. "The reason that he's here is that he will be your caretaker." "But I don't need a caretaker," said Wuya. The pebble glowed yellow and turned into a puzzle box. "You do now," said Chase and opened the puzzle box. Wuya screamed as yellow light from the box covered her. She felt her body transform back into her ghost and disappeared into the box. As the puzzle box sealed itself, Chase told the spirit trapped inside, "As soon as you have raised Jack to a level of considerable power, you will be restored to your human form." The puzzle box gave a loud moan. Chase handed the puzzle box to Jack and said, "And if you try to make Wuya solid before that, I'll make sure there will be plenty of room in there for both of you." "Yes Mr. Chase Young sir," said Jack as he quickly left the lair. Since then Wuya had been trying to raise Jack to greatness, but often it had proven fruitless. That's why she was begging Jack to restore before. But she had a little hope, for a while she had been sensing a powerful Shen Gong Wu getting ready to activate. And she had a feeling that today was the day.

"It's going to happen!" cried Dojo. He was shivering and trembling all over. "That new Wu is going to activate in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!" At the same time the pimples of Dojo's popped and sprayed dragon pus over the Xiaolin Warriors. "Ew," groaned the warriors as they wiped it off. "So where's the Wu?" asked Raimundo. Dojo scratched his chin and said, "Strange my timing must have been a little bit off. It should sounded off right around," Dojo suddenly started contorting his body in several different ways. At Jack's lair Wuya's form was being stretched to full capacity. "This can't be!" cried Dojo. "It shouldn't have activated now!" said Wuya. "But it is!" cried Dojo. "It's the Mala Mala Cannon!" yelled Dojo and Wuya. They both passed out from the stress.

Master Fung walked outside. "What is the matter with Dojo?" asked Master Fung. "He sensed a Shen Gong Wu called the Mala Mala Cannon and passed out," said Omi. Master Fung's face grew both pale and stern. "We must retrieve this Shen Gong Wu immediately," said Master Fung. "Why?" asked Kimiko. "What does it do?" Master Fung opened the Ancient Scroll of the Shen Gong Wu to a page marked, "The Mala Mala Cannon." It showed a picture of a cannon with a thick barrel, two handles, and the emblems of the Shen Gong Wu on the sides. "The Mala Mala Cannon is arguably the mightiest Shen Gong Wu." The picture then changed to a man holding the cannon and pointing it at a tall building. "It has the power to shoot out a beam of pure magic." The picture then showed something coming out of the cannon and destroying the building. "Wow that is powerful," said Clay. "It is capable of even more destructive acts but we do not have time to talk about them," said Master Fung. By that time, Dojo had woken up and had transformed into his 40-foot size. "Let's get a move on, gang!" The Wudai Warriors climbed onto Dojo's back and he took off. The Cannon's signal brought them to a particular antique shop in the Chinatown district of San Francisco.