Work Text:
“Hah!” Raimundo’s bragging voice echoed through Jack’s throbbing eardrums. “In your face, Spicer!”
Jack held his hand against his chest, panting with ragged breaths. Cold sweat poured down from under his goggles and down his chin.
He could barely make out his opponent’s triumphant figure against the blinding sunlight. When he finally managed to shake off the sting in his eyes, he saw Raimundo, looking down at him, condescending .
He grit his teeth, anger simmering in his chest, the bitter taste of defeat stuck like a lump in his throat, refusing to go down.
He had just lost a showdown.
Again.
“Jack, what in the world was that?!” Wuya yelled, her screeching doing nothing to ease his pain.
The odor that came out of her ghostly mouth was so putrid it made Jack tear up.
Yes, it was definitely because of that, and not for any other reason.
“You couldn’t have been any more pathetic if you tried! ”
“Relax, will you? We’ll get them next time.” His tone came out much less confident than he intended.
“That’s what you said last time, and look how that went!”
Wuya was way past the point of buying his poor excuses, and Jack couldn’t help but flinch at her ruthless scolding.
“You’re so… god! Damn! Useless! UGHH! ”
Being told he was a disappointment and a failure… wasn’t anything he shouldn’t be used to already.
Yet, just like every other time, Wuya’s grating words felt like a bucket of ice being mercilessly poured on him.
“I’m… trying, okay?” He faltered.
“Wooo! The girls are fightiiing!” Kimiko taunted as the rest of the monks approached them.
“It is most convenient for us if our enemies stay busy fighting among themselves.” Omi chimed in.
“Dang right you are, little feller.”
They laughed.
They were making a spectacle out of them… no, out of him .
“Mind your own business, Xiaolin suckers…” The cracking in his voice was glaringly obvious, even to him.
His feeble attempt at a comeback only intensified their laughter further.
“Dude, how can you still gloat after I’ve wiped the floor with you?” Raimundo shook his head in disbelief.
“Don’t mind ‘im Rai, this poor mama’s button here wouldn’t ‘now what modesty looks like even if it smacked ‘im right upside the head.”
“Good one, cowboy.” Dojo chuckled.
Jack blocked out their snickering by checking the damage done to his dispatched robot army.
Seeing how little remained of his precious machines, his heart plummeted.
Not a single bot from his fleet survived the battle. The only remaining evidence of their presence were the scrap pieces of metal scattered all over the ground.
“That reminds me, when will you build an invention that doesn’t break after a single blow?”
He did his best to ignore Wuya’s babbling while picking up the pieces he could carry off the floor.
“Don’t be so harsh on him, Wuya,” Kimiko retorted between giggles. “those are his only friends!”
“God, imagine how sad you’d have to be to only have your own robots as friends.” Raimundo snickered.
“I don’t have to imagine. We have an example right here.” She pointed at Jack, and they all laughed, except for Omi.
The tiny monk put himself between Kimiko and Raimundo, shaking his head in disapproval.
“Come now friends, it is not Jack Spicer’s fault that he cannot dream of being as worthy as the rest of us.”
Jack couldn’t tell if he was defending him or bullying him further.
“Oh, c’mon, Omi, Jack’s always putting us down. He deserves a taste of his own medicine.” Raimundo said with his arms crossed. “And you know it’s all true. He is a good for nothing.”
“That is besides the point, Raimundo!” Omi objected. “Yes, Jack Spicer might be an incompetent foe, and sure, his character might be obnoxious, despicable and mean-spirited, but…”
It all happened in a blur.
Jack didn’t know how or when his body fell to the ground, dropping everything he was holding with a clang.
His vision went cloudy while his ears rang. It felt like a bell was inside his brain, and every time it jingled, his head split with a pounding ache.
Desperate, he placed his hands on his head, as if that would stop it from bursting open.
Unfortunately, there was nothing to be done about the growing black hole in his stomach.
If he wasn’t already on his knees, the familiar nausea that followed afterwards would have been more than enough to do so.
Excruciating agony spread across his insides, through his chest and abdomen, robbing him of the air in his lungs.
Pain, sickness and anguish combined into one, leaving him nothing more than a pathetic sack of meat, gagging, wishing to be relieved of this torment.
He tried to look at the monks, but the tears muddied his sight beyond comprehension.
He tried to utter a snarky comeback, but when he opened his mouth, only sobs and hiccups came out.
Clutching his hair as tight as possible didn’t help stop his hands from shaking.
It never did, but he ought to try anyway.
Between the gasping and wheezing, he could barely hear the murmurs coming from all around him.
He jumped back, screaming, when he felt something touch his shoulder.
“You okay there, little fella?”
It was Clay.
The cowboy’s robust hand squeezed his shoulder, firmly but gently, pulling him back to reality, reminding him how to breathe.
“Sorry ‘bout that. My friends and I put our cart before the horse and let it ride ‘til the land of tomorrow.”
“I…” Jack’s heart gradually stopped racing. He coughed and cleared his throat. “What?”
“What Clay is trying to say is,” Kimiko interrupted. “we’re sorry.”
Jack blinked away the tears. The bell in his mind wasn’t ringing as loudly anymore, and the hole in his stomach was closing up slowly.
He looked around, finally noticing the sheer amount of stares that were focused on him.
Not just the monks, but also a few passers-by, watched his breakdown in bewilderment.
The feeling of anxiety faded, giving way to the embarrassment that sunk in.
“Can ya stand?” Clay offered his hand.
“I’m… fine!” Jack refused, getting up on his own while wiping his face clean. “I don’t need your pity!”
“But…”
“Goodbye!”
He activated his heli-pack, completely disregarding the remains of his robots that he’d be leaving behind.
He had to get the hell out of this place, before his enemies noticed the blush that was spreading across his cheeks!
In the blink of an eye, Jack’s figure had already disappeared from their view.
“... What in the world just happened?” Wuya muttered, running after Jack, leaving the monks to wonder what to take from this experience.