In the heartbeat of the night (Jack Spicer x reader)

Chapter 2

(3,124 words.)

It'd been a few days since a new Wu had showed itself. The next one was the Shadow of Fear, a small bird statue that could bring to life a person's greatest fear. Quite a nasty Shen Gong Wu, if you were to ask Y/N, although she was morbidly curious about how it would conceptualise her fear. They ended up finding the Shadow of Fear on top of a rocky mountain where, of course, Jack was present as well. He had all of his fancy robots with him and they attacked as usual. Y/N felt a little guilty about destroying this batch of robots, but considering Jack was a spoiled rich boy, he'd probably have a production line somewhere where robots were being produced at that moment.

''I challenge you to a Xiaolin showdown, blondie!'' Jack's screechy puberty voice proclaimed in the distance.

''You're so going down, Spicer!'' Sunday shouted.

As the rest of the Jackbots had been taken care of, the Xiaolin monks gathered around the Shen Gong Wu to see how the rest of the showdown would play out. ''Let's play a game of basketball!'' Jack said, ''First to three points wins!''

Sunday nodded. ''I wager my Jet Bootsu.''

''And I wager my Monkey Staff! Let's go!''

The mountain platform turned into a basketball court, with rocky, floating hoops and court lines dug into the ground. Y/N sat down on the viewing rock where Wuya and the Xiaolin monks could watch the showdown, and pondered how this showdown was going to end. Of course, Sunday would win, but Jack would have a slight advantage since Sunday knew almost nothing about competitive sports.

''Gong ie tampai!'' The two of them shouted in unison, and a rubber ball came flying out of the air, right at the two players.

Unsurprisingly, Sunday, who was taller than Jack, caught the ball and ran over to Jack's hoop. Jack sped after her, and with a rather impressive motion, hit the ball out from under her hand.

''Who's the baller now?!'' He yelled with a grin as he ran over to Sunday's hoop, ''Aren't I awesome?''

Sunday caught up with him and blocked entry to her hoop by making herself as broad as possible. Jack, clearly exhilarated by his small victory, teased Sunday by feigning moving to the right, then to the left. Sunday moved towards him to try to hit the ball out of his hand, and he bounced the ball backwards between his legs. He didn't do the move correctly, though, and the ball rolled away from him. Sunday got to it before he did, and immediately threw the ball into Jack's hoop. A score of 1 appeared under her name, etched into the rock. The Xiaolin monks cheered her on. All of them, except for Y/N. Of course the high and mighty Sunday would do well, she was up against a pathetic little worm like Jack. It had always been the same when Y/N and Sunday were up against each other... no matter how hard Y/N tried, Sunday would always come out on top. Jack sulked for a moment, but managed to pull himself together for the next round. The ball was shot into the air, and Jack caught it this time. While bouncing the ball, he gave Y/N wide grin, and tried to land a halfcourt shot. It obviously failed, and Sunday got a hold of the ball. She did a difficult zig-zag move they'd learned during training, and landed another shot in Jack's hoop. Y/N felt her blood boiling as the others cheered. Jack had to win this one. He had to be the one to show the world that yes, underdogs could come out on top and that Sunday wasn't an all-powerful, perfect angel that couldn't be beaten. Before she knew she'd made the decision, she yelled:

''Don't be a show-off! Stick to the basics, dumbass!''

Jack looked up at her, clearly a little puzzled as to why she was giving him tips. Then, he nodded and took place behind the halfcourt line, across from Sunday. The ball was shot into the air once again, and Sunday caught it this time. Y/N watched the two of them as she held her breath. Had she really just doomed her sister? Well, of course not, Sunday would still more than likely win... however, it was a little suspicious for her to encourage her enemy, wasn't it? Jack, like before, swept away the ball from Sunday's hand, and with a speed one wouldn't expect from a teenager who sat in his parents' basement all day, he ran over to Sunday's hoop, and landed a shot. A little 1 was carved into the rock beneath his name. Sunday looked at him with wide eyes, took a deep breath, and walked back to the halfcourt line. She scrunched the hem of her flowered dress between her hands and waited for the ball to shoot into the air again. When it did, she jumped up a little later than usual, and as a result, Jack got the ball. It was actually a little strange to see Sunday lagging behind Jack as he ran her around the court. She was clearly trying hard to keep up, but she kept tripping over her own feet- not something Sunday did often. Jack scored another goal, and he grinned at Y/N and raised his thumb after this one. It was nice to see Jack happy for once, but Y/N looked away as she couldn't bear the guilt. Not only was she risking Sunday's safety, she was risking the others' safety as well. They were fighting over the Shadow of Fear, after all, which could be used to torment one's enemies. Y/N was starting to feel a rock in her stomach at the thought of how Jack would abuse this new power. The ball was launched for the participants again, and it wasn't long before Jack scored the final goal, and won the showdown.