The Dodon Dojo
When he reached the upper floor, he gasped. Gochu stood in what looked like a pool of gold. Her ankles were glowing!
"Gochu!" he exclaimed.
Her eyes left the fight. The gold left her ankles. "Mr. Strike!"
The aged teacher found his way to a chair and sat down, eyeing his pupil intently. "Your power… It's greater than you let on, didn't you?"
Bewildered, she stared at him like a deer caught in a pair of headlights. "What are you talking about? I top out at 25,000 pic," she proclaimed.
"Just now, your power level matched that of a mid-level military officer," Mr. Strike declaired. "If my estimates are right, it piqued at almost a hundred thousand."
Taken aback by the revelation, she stumbled back a step. "What? How?"
"Did you become fully Golden?" he asked.
Unsure of what this would mean, Gochu shrugged. "No. At least… I don't think so… Did I?"
Mr. Strike sat silent, thinking for a moment. The power surge came from Gochu, of that I'm certain. That pool was no illusion either. However, I've heard the transformation is unmistakable. Unforgettable. She would know for certain.
"No, Gochu," the elderly master deduced. "You did not become a Golden."
Gochu sighed, dejected.
Meanwhile, Phoenix and Peatree were tearing each other up and rending the sky in two at the same time. Their battle was fierce enough that they didn't even notice Gochu's incredible energy fluctuations. The two on the ground looked up at the fight.
Gochu smiled. "Peatree's improved greatly since we last saw him."
"Yes, he has," Mr. Strike commented. "He did receive some training at the Dodon Dojo."
"That's where those… strange moves come from?" Gochu asked, imitating Peatree's fighting style briefly.
Mr. Strike nodded. "At one point it was well-respected. Its founder, a man by the name of Tien, founded the school long ago along with his pal, the child-emperor Chiaotzu. However, as the school aged, it became filled with all sorts of dark-arts types. Assassins, thieves, thugs… you know the type. The teachers diverged wildly from what they were taught, opting instead for training from unknown masters, simply called 'The Cubes'. Rumour has it one is an android that predates all the people in that picture I showed you."
Gochu extracted the picture from her shorts pocket and analyzed it. "This picture looks to be thousands of years old," she commented, "and you're saying this robot's even older than that?"
"Yes. He is an evil man, driven by money and power," Mr. Strike informed.
Gochu pinched her chin between her index finger and thumb. "Wonder if he knows who I'm descended from?"
"Gochu, you're not thinking of actually…" Mr. Strike sternly began.
But when he turned to look for the girl, she was gone.
As Gochu flew, she began to search for any sign of the dojo. She had forgotten she knew not where it was. A little embarrassed, she pulled a U-turn around the next mountain intending to return to Kame Island and get directions from Peatree.
She didn't travel far when she passed over a large complex with several hundred very dark power levels. The concentration of evil made her sneeze. She dove down atop a roof, hiding just behind the peak with her back to a large wooded area. She peered overtop the peak.
There were at least four hundred pupils in the large training plaza. Towards her left, heading north, she spied several people sparring in a large, red fighting arena. One was a white-haired, red-skinned individual about as tall as Gochu was. His cocky purple eyes reminded her of Peatree's. His hair was long, his muscles were rippling and his distinct accent and loud, nasally voice caused Gochu to chuckle. It seemed mismatched to her, especially as he shouted to his partner.
This woman was tall, thin and looked fast. Her torso was demure, but her hips and thighs suggested powerful training, like that of a marathon runner. Her head was covered in scraggly, unwashed green hair. Her eyes were sharp and blue.
A third person approached them – a green-haired man enrobed in ninja's garb, face obscured except the eyes. He muttered something that caused the other two to crack up, laughing.
Something out of the blue caught her eye. It was a strange man, dressed in pink and black. His head looked like it had a strange helmet on it, with odd, beady red eyes. His hands were encased in metal gloves, striped like plate metal.
Her face registered slight shock. She didn't know the android would look half-human!
Just then Phoenix landed beside her. She looked over, checked over her friend, smiled, then went back to spying.
"Hey! That's the idiot that attacked me months ago!" he exclaimed, indicating the short, green-haired man.
Peatree hovered just behind them, eyeing the field.
"Mr. Strike sent you two after me, didn't he?" she asked.
Peatree chuckled. "Yep. He wants us to bring you back."
"I see the android-man," she said. "I want to ask him a few questions."
Just then, the man dressed in pink looked their way, then looked back to his friends. Gochu gasped.
"Y'think he saw us?" she asked Phoenix.
Phoenix looked around, then saw Peatree miles up in the sky.
"They probably saw Peatree," he said. "Let's get out of here."
Gochu held up her hand. "Wait. We didn't cause any alarm."
The man in pink and his two comrades departed away from the trio, across the courtroom into an eastern building.
"That's weird," Peatree observed. "Usually spies cause some kind of disturbance. Wonder why they're not coming after us?"
Gochu, Phoenix and Peatree continued observing the field. Eventually, the man in pink re-emerged from the domicile and moved to another part of the building. The green-haired man emerged with him, then shot a look directly at Phoenix!
"Incoming!" Phoenix warned, just before being impacted by a large purple fist.
The ninja materialized behind the suddenly-there limb and delivered a swift, flipping kick to Gochu's head. It sent her crashing hard into a nearby grove of trees.
Having watched his partners get assaulted, Peatree was prepared for the other leg that came around to meet him. He received it with crossed arms, bearing down hard with a counter push. The man's leg swept underneath Peatree and out of harm's way as the boy leapt over the redirected moving limb. Peatree laid into the man with a flurry of lightning-fast punches. He was grabbed by the hair and suddenly torn from his concentrated point of attack, flipped around and drilled into the earth face-first.
"Punk," the ninja said in a deep, guttural voice. "Lord Tao has no use for spies from Rokotaz's camp."
As quickly as he was thrown down, Peatree was ripped off the earth and given one solid punch that sent him crashing into the recently self-erected Gochu. Phoenix, however, snuck in two swift blows to his back and a kick to the head that toppled the ninja over.
"We're not from that loser's camp," Phoenix said. "How dare you bring my friends into this fight!"
He kicked at his assailant, but his foot was caught by the foe and he was quickly reduced to a pile of flesh atop Peatree and Gochu by the same punch that had knocked Peatree into the hapless girl initially. Gochu growled.
"This hurts," she said.
She crawled out from under her friends and stood. "The only reason you got that shot off on me was because you surprised me," she said. "Rest assured it WILL NOT happen again."
Instantly, she saw the fist appear in front of her again. This time, she readied a strong defence and not only set the ninja off-balance, but countered and sent him face-first into the dirt! She quickly stomped on his shoulder. He screamed in absolute agony as his shoulder came dislodged.
"Damn you!" he cursed. "How did you do that?"
Gochu growled again. "The method doesn't matter. The fact is you are now on the ground, where you should be after a cheap shot like that!"
She stepped off his shoulder. He lifted his battered body up.
"How did a kid like you gain that much power?" he asked, seething at his defeat.
Gochu's serious look terrified him. She had more confidence in her abilities than most adults. The ninja began to sweat. She was just a kid, and yet something about her terrified him. He decided he was better off not knowing, so he changed his query.
He swallowed. "What do you want?"
Gochu replied, "I want to ask your master what he knows about the people in a photo."
He was taken aback. "You don't want to kill me?"
"As Phoenix said, we aren't from the camp of Rokotaz," she explained. "I have no desire to kill you. We may need your help to kick Rokotaz out of here."
The ninja swallowed again. "Lord Tao's gonna kill me, but as long as you act like new recruits I shouldn't have a problem."
Having recovered from their blows, Phoenix and Peatree were now standing up, watching Gochu interact with the ninja.
Gochu sighed. "Mr. Ninja Guy, You don't seem like a bad guy. Why do you side with this Tao?"
As they began walking,
The man in black began leading them to the entrance of Lord Tao's training ground, leaving the question hanging. He made sure to stay out of eyesight of the kids as he began shedding tears for his lost world. He had been a part of this organization for years, but recently had begun questioning the motives of the group. However, he had not forgotten about the family Tao had mercilessly taken from him when he was six years old. When Rokotaz invaded, the ninja had hoped that the alien would destroy Tao, but his master had struck a deal with their new overlord and his hopes were dashed. Through Gochu, he now had renewed hope that Tao could be toppled.
They entered the grounds by telling the guards they were merely curious new recruits. As they entered, the mood in the entire facility dropped at least ten pounds. Everyone was staring at Gochu, Phoenix, and Peatree.
"Get a load of those freaks…"
"Who invited them here?..."
"Betcha Mr. Strike's dead…"
"Why's Peatree with them?..."
Those were just some of the comments they heard passing through the complex. Peatree smiled. He was seeing a lot of familiar faces from his month at this camp.
Phoenix growled and stared intently at their new leader. He was incredibly upset that Gochu had sided with him, but could not refute her logic that they may need dark ones like… him… if they were to drive Rokotaz off the planet. He wanted the fight to be about pure hatred, not Rokotaz. Not only that, but he had been played in their fight before. This ninja was not fighting at his full power.
He sighed, thinking, Things have not been going my way lately…
Peatree heard the sigh and looked at his frenemy. He smirked out of secret satisfaction. He and Tao had a score to settle from when he was here last, and he was sure Gochu was going to settle it for him.
Gochu was ignorant of her friend's state of mind as she looked at each of those who were staring at her. She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth slightly. Each looked like they were ready to tear them apart, so she prepared herself for attacks from all angles. She did not like this place.
After about five minutes of walking, they reached Master Tao's room. The ninja sat them in the reception area and told them to wait as he got his Master.
The ninja teen walked out of the room and right into Master Tao.
"I see you've brought in the spies from the rooftop," he observed. "Have you executed them?"
"No, sir… they were curious, so I told them that they could come in and look around," the ninja replied nervously. "They are new recruits."
"Let's get this straight, Wesley," Tao sternly replied, "The only new recruits allowed are the youngest children of those we kill, without exception; those too young to remember anything only, and no one else."
Wesley the ninja sighed. "So I kill them, then."
Tao nodded. "They are surely no threat to you."
"One is Peatree," he recalled.
Tao's face fell. "Peatree shall be left to me. Kill the rest."
"They all bear the mark of Strike," he said.
Tao sighed. "Never could I master Roshi's pupils while they lived. I will make certain these ones die… by my own hand!"
He picked off one of his arms and stormed into his secretary's office, blazing the room with gunfire. Phoenix, Peatree and Gochu dove for the ground.
"So, you're the students of Sparta Strike," Tao said flatly.
