To his credit, Raimundo barely flinched at the blade near his neck. He stared at the man like a tomcat eyeing a growling dog in his territory, cold and calculating. Jack scooted closer to Kimiko, acutely aware of his lack of robotic back-up or a cowboy to hide behind. Perhaps oblivious to the tension in the clearing, Omi stepped forward and said, "Greetings, honorable stranger. Those shoes are of grave importance to us. May we please have them?"

Bewildered at Omi's words, Jack glanced down. He had been so distracted by the man's giant glaive and gorilla-like arms, he hadn't even noticed the pair of metallic shoes in his other clenched fist.

"Omi!" Dojo curled near Jack's ankles, eyes round. "That's Heylin Warlord Guan!"

Omi's outstretched hand clenched, and his legs carefully shifted under him into a battle stance. Jack tried and failed to contain a small squeak, but Kimiko stared blankly, and Raimundo said, "Who?"

"Heylin Warlord Guan!" Dojo repeated, digging his tiny claws into Jack's mismatched socks. "Servant to Master Monk Chase's evilest enemy, Hannibal Roy Bean!"

"Who?" Raimundo asked again, granting the large man an unimpressed frown.

Guan audibly snarled and peered down at Dojo. "Chase's pet calling me a servant? You're lucky I have no need for more soup today, Dojo Kanojo Cho." He spat out the dragon's name like spoiled meat. As his attention shifted, his spear's point edged away from Raimundo.

Omi puffed out his chest. "Warlord Guan, for your own safety, I advise that you surrender the Jetbootsu at once."

"I see Chase's newest ducklings take after him," Guan said, cracking a sneer at the smallest monk. "He was always exceptionally arrogant." His spear tilted to point at Omi, and Raimundo watched it move with an odd, conflicted expression of alarm.

"We take after him in skill as well," said Omi, matching Guan's smile with his own, "as you shall soon discover in your humiliating defeat!" Nine glowing dots appeared on his forehead, and he sprang into action. "Water!"

Before Guan could thrust the spear, Omi grabbed onto it and yanked his own body forward, using the weapon as leverage to kick off the ground and fly at Guan's face. Guan swatted him aside, and the small monk smacked into the bamboo. Jack stumbled back in shock, and Raimundo's eyes widened. Leaping into battle, Kimiko cried out, "Fire!" She landed a kick on Guan's arm and bounced right off of him, completely ineffective.

Jumping back to his feet, Omi pulled something out of his pocket. "Changing Chopsticks!" He aimed the Shen Gong Wu at his palm, and the Sword of the Storm expanded in his hand to full size. While Kimiko dodged a thrust of Guan's spear, Omi called, "Sword of the Storm!" Charging back into battle, he cast a gust of wind to send him into the air. With a front flip, he landed right on Guan's skull.

Guan barely winced. He swung his closed fist upward, but Omi summoned the sword and flew into the air again. At the same time, Kimiko pulled a Shen Gong Wu from her own pocket and yelled, "Tangle Web Comb!" Ropes sprang from the comb and shot out at Guan, but they wavered in the air before they could reach. Kimiko gritted her teeth, but before the ropes could pick a definite target, Guan swung his spear and sliced them out of his way.

As Omi landed another kick on Guan's head, Raimundo dashed toward the two. Bending his legs and skidding to a stop at Guan's feet, he yanked something out of his sleeve and sliced it through the back of Guan's ankle. Guan finally stumbled, grunted in pain, and dropped the Jetbootsu. Raimundo planted a foot against Guan's leg to push himself out of harm's way, and when he rolled back onto his feet, he held a bloody switchblade.

Kimiko paused to gawk at him. "You have a knife?"

Raimundo glanced at her. "You don't?"

"Jack Spicer!" Omi called, clinging to each of Guan's ears. "Get the Jetbootsu!"

With a start, Jack realized he had been standing motionless for several seconds. "R-right!" He ran to the dropped shoes, scooped them up, and dodged one of Guan's swinging arms with a shriek. Baring his teeth, Guan spun to face him. Jack stammered, "M- Met-"

Guan opened his mouth and roared. Omi tumbled down with a squeal, and several horns sprouted out of Guan's head. A mud-colored, thorny exoskeleton encased his skin. His arms somehow grew even bigger, morphing into enormous lobster claws. His jaw unhinged, his eyes turned scarlet, and the newly formed monster bellowed down at the petrified monks.

Jack screamed and fled.

"Jack- Jack Spicer-" Omi staggered backward as Guan's webbed tail swung past him. With an audible gulp, Omi squared his shoulders and yelled, "Sword of the Storm!" The wind tossed him back up, but one of Guan's massive pincers snatched him out of the air. Omi yelped and flailed, flattening the Sword of the Storm against his own body and perpendicular to the pincers clamped around his torso. While Guan's grip tightened, the sword's width kept Omi from being sliced in half.

Raimundo leaped onto Guan's back and stabbed the switchblade into his shoulder. The blade snapped against the exoskeleton. Guan spun in place, swinging Omi around with him as he tried to reach back and grab Raimundo. Kimiko jumped and aimed a punch at Guan's face, but Guan caught her arm in his massive jaws. As the creature's teeth broke through her skin, Kimiko screamed. Raimundo grabbed onto two of Guan's horns, front flipped over his head, and kicked him in the eyes.

The monster roared, dropping Kimiko. He threw Omi aside, and the small monk hit and bounced off the ground. Catching one of Raimundo's legs in his pincers, Guan swung the teen overhead and slammed him into the dirt. Kimiko pressed her injured arm to her chest while she scrambled to dodge Guan's clawed feet.

All the while, Jack Spicer watched the beatdown from within the bamboo forest, clutching the Jetbootsu against his chest. His eyes snapped to Omi, who was somehow heaving himself to his feet despite something across his torso staining his robes a darker red. As Guan's other pincer reached around Raimundo's skull, Omi picked up a dead bamboo stick and threw it. It bounced harmlessly off of Guan's back.

Raimundo panted and gritted his teeth, but his body was too stunned to move while Guan's pincers clasped around his head. Omi yelled, "Raimundo, no!" The teen weakly grabbed at the pincers and squeezed his eyes shut. A strangled noise escaped Jack's throat, and then something slithered against his ankle.

Dojo sprang away from Jack's legs and expanded to full size. With a bellowing roar, he blasted out a fireball that slammed into Guan's tail. When Guan dropped Raimundo and turned, Dojo reached back and snatched Jack out of the forest. Jack screamed again while Dojo swirled across the battlefield, snatching up all three of the other monks and retreating out into the open sky.

Several hours later, Master Monk Chase stood outside the infirmary doorway, head bowed. Though he seemed perfectly calm on the surface, his closed mouth held clenched teeth, and his hands twitched angrily under his sleeves. When Master Fung stepped out of the infirmary with Dojo on his shoulder, Chase snapped his head up and said, "How are they?"

"They will all make a full recovery," said Master Fung.

Noticing Chase's scowl, Dojo clarified, "Raimundo's pretty battered, Kimiko's got some puncture wounds on her arm, and Omi's got a couple cracked ribs and some nasty-looking cuts around his chest. Jack's unscathed but spooked." After a pause, he added, "I'm also unharmed, thank you for asking."

"I should have known that Guan would show up sooner or later." Dropping the serene facade, Chase gripped at his hair and started pacing down the hall, barely keeping his words at a low whisper. "I should never have allowed them to go hunting for the Shen Gong Wu alone. I know Guan; if I had gone with them or gone alone-"

"He does this every generation," Dojo said into Master Fung's ear while they followed Chase. "Every new batch of Chosen Ones, every new group of kids... the moment they get hurt, Chase fusses and fusses like a mother hen and decides that he's going to take over their jobs for them-"

"This is different, Dojo!" Chase snapped. "These children... they weren't prepared! I failed to prepare them for this battle, and they paid the price!"

"None of us could have predicted Warlord Guan's attack," said Master Fung kindly, "not after his years of inactivity, and especially not for the Jetbootsu."

"But see, that's what I'm wondering about," said Dojo, putting a claw to his chin. "Why would Guan come after this Shen Gong Wu and none of the others?"

Chase took a long breath and came to a stop at the open doorway to the porch. "Guan came after the Jetbootsu because Hannibal Bean sent him." Scowling out past the porch, he said, "They must have been spying on us, learning about the young monks before they chose to strike."

"They waited to attack until after Clay left the temple," murmured Master Fung. "Perhaps they saw Clay as a threat?"

Chase shook his head. "Clay is certainly the closest physical match to Guan, but I doubt Hannibal Bean could have predicted Mr. Bailey's arrival, not unless he somehow manipulated Mr. Bailey himself." He frowned deeper at the possibility. "I shall check on the Bailey ranch to find out. Until then, I believe the two events are merely coincidence."

Dojo sprang from Master Fung's shoulder to Chase's. "Do you think Hannibal Bean could be the guy who took our other Shen Gong Wu? The Shroud of Shadows and the others?"

"It's possible, but he has never had any interest in Mala Mala Jong, not when he already has Guan as his willing minion." He crossed his arms and shook his head again. "If he were our thief, he would have taken the Yang Yoyo and the Moby Morpher. Those two Shen Gong Wu would be disastrous in his hands."

"Then perhaps Hannibal Bean is acting in response to the thief?" mused Master Fung. Chase and Dojo turned to look at him, and he continued, "He was content to observe at first. Maybe he did not know how to break into the vault. However, now that someone else has successfully done so, he wishes to steal the Yang Yoyo and Moby Morpher before the thief can."

Chase's lips pulled back into a grimace as he finished Master Fung's train of thought, "So he had Guan attack our students to weaken us, leaving me as the only defender of the Shen Gong Wu." Moving swiftly down the porch and toward the vault, he said, "Then I am left with no choice: I will take the Yang Yoyo and the Moby Morpher away from here. I will lead Hannibal Bean and Guan away while the young monks recover-"

"There's the mother hen again," said Dojo.

"No, Master Chase," said Master Fung. The certainty in his voice made Chase pause in his path. Master Fung calmly stepped between him and the vault. "There is no honor in senselessly marking yourself as bait. You know how to combat Guan better than any other warrior alive. You must stay here and teach the young monks how to fight him." He gestured out toward the dark horizon. "The northern temple further into the mountains has another vault. I will take the Yang Yoyo and Moby Morpher, and I will hide them there."

Chase's breathing slowed as he pondered Master Fung's logic. Slowly, he said, "Hannibal Bean certainly won't expect an elder monk to carry something so valuable." Narrowing his eyes, he added, "But you are meant to be the main teacher to this generation of Chosen Ones. You would need another reason to leave, an excellent reason, to keep Hannibal Bean from growing suspicious."

"Master Chase, I have somehow survived years of Jack Spicer's mischief and robotic antics." Master Fung chuckled. "Do you think anyone would doubt my need for a vacation?"

Jack Spicer sat on the infirmary bed with his legs crossed, fiddling with a computer chip he had found in one of his many pockets. Next to him, the other three monks lay in their own beds. Kimiko propped herself up with several pillows, holding her bandaged arm gingerly. With his leg elevated and in a splint, Raimundo glared up at the ceiling with more rage than Jack had ever seen in him. Omi idly tugged at the gauze wrapped around his middle and held an ice pack to his forehead.

Voice weary, Kimiko finally said, "Master Monk Chase sounded really mad."

"He must be disappointed in us after our humiliating defeat," said Omi.

"We can bounce back, though!" Jack smiled weakly. "And we got the Shen Gong Wu, so really, we won the battle, right?" Omi gave a derisive snort and pointedly turned his head away.

"It doesn't feel like we won." Kimiko carefully sat upright and looked across the beds. "Why did it take so long for Dojo to jump in? He's bigger than Guan. Couldn't he have turned the tide sooner?"

"Warlord Guan eats dragons," said Omi, causing Kimiko's face to pale. "His monster form is perfectly designed to kill them. Dojo told me so. He is terrified of Guan, and he would not win in a battle against him. He only jumped in when he had no other choice. He is a brave dragon."

Twiddling her fingers, Kimiko sighed and turned her gazed down to her bedsheets. "I bet things would have gone differently if Clay had been with us."

"Things certainly would have gone differently if all four of us had been fighting." Omi finally made eye contact with Jack, sending him a withering glower.

"What? I panicked, okay?" Jack's voice rose an octave while his arms wrapped around himself. "That Guan guy was massive! At least I got the Jetbootsu! What else was I supposed to do?"

"Guan's size did not stop the rest of us from trying," Omi spat. "What are you even doing in here? You are not injured. You ran away like a coward before Guan could touch you."

Kimiko cradled her arm. "Yeah, Jack, you kinda bailed on us. Thanks a lot."

"I told him he wasn't cut out to be a Xiaolin Dragon," murmured Raimundo, the only one not glaring at Jack. Instead, his hateful gaze remained fixed at the ceiling.

Jack winced anyway. "Come on, guys, I'll do better next time!" Perking up, he held up the computer chip and grinned. "How about this? My Jackbots are almost fully assembled, and they're going to have laser guns and all kinds of other weapons. We'll bring them with us, our own Xiaolin army! Guan won't stand a chance!"

Kimiko shrugged. "I guess that's better than nothing..."

To Jack's horror, Omi's eyes turned watery when he said, "If Guan threatened to crush you into two pieces, Jack Spicer, I would not rely on robots. I would save you myself." Wincing at his own movement, he rolled to his side to face away from Jack.

"Come on, Cue Ball, I'm sorry..." Jack's voice cracked when he heard Omi sniffle, but the younger monk otherwise did not respond. Kimiko sighed and lay back down, choosing to look away as well. Jack turned frantically to Raimundo, whose angry gaze at the ceiling finally shifted to Jack and softened into pity, which was far, far worse.

Jack scrambled out of bed and left the room. Though his Jackbots would soon be capable of many things, they weren't going to build themselves.