Chapter 8 – Defiance

It had been at least a week since the struggle at the skyscraper in Chicago and Master Monk Guan had not left his bed from then, his wounds were bad and Master Fung was taking care of them, occasional sending Clay and Dojo on errands for healing ingredients and messages to his temple. Raimundo was frustrated at the damage that this Synyster character had dealt within the few short months he had been here, although for most of them he lay dormant; Kimiko was also deep in thought, she thought back to Jack and was curious to see if he was okay, but was battling her own mind, trying to figure out if it was a ploy, just like the hostage situation back at the skyscraper.

"Clay, could I send you and Dojo to go look for another herb, for this you will have to journey to the Amazon rainforest, it is a rare herb and needs to be kept cool. So if you could take the Orb of Tornami with you to drip some water on it every half hour it would keep cool, thank you" Master Fung was giving out some instructions, and had send Clay and Dojo away yet again, "Omi, Raimundo, Kimiko; you can stay here and relax for a while, or perhaps if you wish to expel some anger, you can train, I will be with Master Monk Guan, tending to his wounds, a combination of some of the ingredients Clay brought back seems to have a positive effect" he had said, smiling with hope. "Master, how can we beat this guy?" Rai asked, but Master Fung looked grim and walked into Guan's room, locking the door behind him.

An hour later, Omi was walking by a temple corridor and noticed Rai staring out at the Moonlight through an open window. His curiosity overcame and he decided to have a look reaching the windows using the Monsoon Sandals, "Where is Kimiko going?!" Omi yelled, but Rai put his hand to his mouth to stop him shouting out. "Omi, she's going out to see Jack, she saw him at the skyscraper and he looked pretty beat up, she just wants to check on him. Besides, I'm leaving too" Raimundo walked away and Omi looked stunned, "But why?"

"Not for good, Omi. I'm going to confront Syn and Chase, you're welcome to come along, and I may need the help"

"Are you crazy? He is too strong, what did you plan on doing? Batting your eyelashes and hope he gives the Shen Gong Wu back?" whispered Omi in a high tone.

"No, I'm gonna fight for them, and Omi, I may need your help to do it"

Omi looked hesitant. "Okay, okay. Just don't tell Master Fung, now I'll get the Shen Gong Wu"

"NO! Omi!"

He stopped dead in his tracks and slowly turned to face Raimundo, "But why?" he said sadly.

"This guy is slowly stealing and taking every Shen Gong Wu we can get our hands on, I'm not gonna risk any tonight, okay?"

Omi looked up to Rai and replied as he bowed, "You really have turned into a great leader Raimundo, now let's go"

Kimiko had arrived at Jack's house and started to creep around the perimeter to ensure it was safe to cross the courtyard without any alarms sounding. Once this was done she was cautious and used the garden decorations for cover as there were bright spotlights that looked out onto the courtyard, she reached the house and began to climb the walls of the building slowly and carefully, avoiding the windows at all costs. She reached the roof; it was dark as the lights did not reach up here, all that lit her path was the moonlight. She edged around the spires and edges until she found an access hatch in the roof that overlooked a study of sorts, the room had a rich wooden floor and a velvet red mat that sat in front of the blistering fire, which sat in the marble fireplace and family photos; all surrounded by settee's of a high quality with golden studs all along the edge of it. Kimiko opened the window slowly to avoid the possibility of it creaking while it was being opened, she then gracefully glided down to the floor, as she landed the door opened and she rushed to a suit of armour that stood beside the fireplace, hiding behind it.

"Jack I don't know what to believe anymore, you keep running off across the world with these gadgets that you made. They aren't stable; you should really stop all this nonsense. And then you claim that the puzzle box I sent you from middle Asia contained an 'evil ghost lady' that made you get these mystical objects and that the warrior's glove I collected from Rome was one of them. Let me ask you a very serious question Jack; are you on some sort of narcotics? Because I can get you help in rehab"

"God dammit, dad. You don't understand, this is all true, I'm not on drugs. I am a genius who builds stable robots and transport vehicles and I can take care of myself" Jack screeched across the study. "If you can't understand that then I might as well leave this house". He stormed off out of the room; his dad yanked something from underneath his chair and followed him. Kimiko then crept around the outer walls of the study and entered the corridor; she saw Jack's dad walk around the corner at the other end of the hall wielding what looked like a radio antenna in his fist. At the sight of this Kimiko got concerned and ran down the hall to help Jack out but got lost after she turned the corner as everything looked the same and there many doors leading to seemingly the same thing.

Omi was deep in thought at the moment, questioning Raimundo's methods and whether they should have went against Master Fung's orders. "Hey Omi. Wake up; we're almost in the Land of Nowhere. You gotta get ready, those mountain lions are gonna be the first obstacle to getting into that Palace, you better be ready for a fight" Raimundo had said, Omi had stirred himself and looked at Raimundo only to see a look of fear in his eyes. "Raimundo, are you sure about this?" Omi asked, but Rai didn't answer, he only bit his lip and nodded, trying to hold in tears almost. The Tunnel Armadillo then began to rise up and move at an angle as Rai moved the control stick up. They broke through the earth and straightened up, Raimundo let go of the controls and held his head in his hands just before getting out of the Armadillo, shortly followed by a worried Omi. "Hide the Wu in this log Omi" Rai had said as he inspected a dead trunk. "Now let's go"

The pair quietly approached the large cavern, shaped like a demon's head, which looked scarier than it ever had in the past. They had approached the door and Rai looked up, swallowed and then suddenly leapt from the ground up to the tunnel that Syn had destroyed months ago, but it was cleared now and deep within Rai could hear the sound of snoring tigers, Omi joined him shortly and they nodded at each other, just before continuing.

They had reached a cave that had many levels, each with sleeping lions, possibly hungry too. Omi and Raimundo had to carefully tip-toe their way in between them, making as little noise they humanly could while not emitting a smell of fear they knew the lions would pick up all too well, even while they slept. Eventually the two monks had reached the other side of the cave, and with a sigh of relive they smiled and high-fived each other, something they regretted greatly. At the sound of the clap, every creature in that cave had immediately awoken and growled at the intruders, they shock of the mass amount of the lions had the two monks frozen, but then decided it would be wise to run, and run they did. They ran down the narrow passageway that presumably leads to the beautiful entrance to Chase Young's Palace. They ran and ran while the growling and howling of lions was heard tight behind them, occasionally getting scratched on the back of their heels and legs. Finally they reached the palace, where they ran down the stairs to the open area and prepared for a battle, they had no time before the first lion pounced on them with no hesitation or threatening growls. Raimundo ducked and grabbed it by the tail on the way past, flinging it back the way it came with such a force it shook the ground and other lions were knocked off their feet. Omi was sharp as an arrow, dealing out lethal jabs to any single lion that dared challenge him, and when it came down to a group of lions he jumped into the air and allowed them to collide with each other's skulls and using their own prowess against them.

The lions never seemed to end as they fought them, but they lasted much longer than they had done before and had much more power and abilities that benefitted the fight in the monks favour.

"Enough!" came a thundering voice from the top of the incredible staircase above, it echoed around the walls of the palace, and eventually drowning in the crashing waterfalls. The lions had paused and become calm, just before they started to slowly traverse the staircase up to the source of the voice. Higher still than the top of the staircase was a platform; it was quite far away but the two monks could make out the silhouette of Chase Young, just before he turned and walked back. Rai and Omi cautiously made their way up the steps with the tigers, preparing themselves for whatever may lie ahead, hoping for safe passage out of the palace, Wu or no Wu. Eventually they came to a large archway which marked the crossover from beautiful palace lobby to creepy villainous lair, and it was a sudden change as they passed through the archway as the lighting had changed from peaceful illuminous waterfalls crashing against bright blue stone to dimly lit black torches shaped similarly to large spikes that procured from rough cavernous walls. Shortly after passing the contradicting archway they came to a room that was all too familiar with them, and at the other side of the circular throne room sat the throne of Chase Young, which was quite large, so large that the back rose up past the balcony overlooking the floor. Chase himself sat with his head down on his throne petting one of his pets while he sneered at the monks, glowing red eyes just visible past his luscious black hair. However, perched atop the throne on the high back was Synyster, looking as relaxed as ever using the unknown power of his scepter to keep a few of the Shen Gong Wu held in mid-air, slightly above himself surrounded in a black and red aura all while they circled his upper body. The two of the villains began to laugh simultaneously getting louder and louder until a howling wind had suddenly passed through the room out of nowhere, causing all the flames of the torches in the room went out and Raimundo and Omi were left in the dark with no comprehension of what was yet to come.

Kimiko was still wandering around the mansion trying to find the entrance to Jacks lair, but she got incredibly lost; she was still trying to be discreet and not draw any attention to herself but also examined many family images and loose documents that were scattered throughout the house and everything became clear. Jack's father was a wealthy man that was one of the head financial experts for a large American computer company that was very well known in the modern world, but he was a worker and was always away on business trips or something similar, and when he wasn't away he was punishing Jack for being who he is, he was never happy with Jack's attitude toward the world, he saw his desire to conquer the world as a desperate cry for attention and tried many things to stop it, even if it means getting physical. Kimiko became very worried after analysing this information about the house so she rushed to find the lair. After another five minutes of searching she found it and burst in to stop Jack's dad from doing anything, but she saw something else that she would have never expected.

She had barged into the room to find the figure of Jack's father lying on the ground, blood oozing out of his neck where a large dagger had been buried; Jack stood by his side, traumatised but not crying or weeping, and then there was Wuya sitting provocatively on Jack's table drying her hands on what appeared to be a blood soaked wash cloth. Kimiko had almost fainted with shock, she had just laid her eyes upon a crime scene, a pretty violent one too; and with the feeling of vomit in her mouth she yelped, "How could you? How could you kill a man in cold blood?" Wuya's reply was just as devastating, "I was told to do something that may need some improvising, I decided to get a bit creative" she smirked, Kimiko stood paralyzed and breathless at the events that had transpired here tonight, she then screamed at the top of her lungs, "How could you kill an innocent man that you never even knew just because it was creative?! You evil bitch!"

Wuya looked offended, and calmly spoke, "My dear, that type of language doesn't suit you. And you should also be aware of who your using it against"

Meanwhile Jack had walked over to a large pile of rubble and began breathing quite deeply, trying to take in the situation, eventually he stopped and Wuya had walked over to him and put her hand on his shoulder and whispered to him "Breath", immediately he whipped round and hugged her, whimpering the words, "Thank you, thank you Wuya, thank you"

At this Kimiko was in awe, things we clearly more complicated between Jack and his father than what appeared, and since the ordeal had begun she had held up until now. She fainted and through her eyelids she could vaguely make out the silhouettes of Jack and Wuya leaving, pushing Kimiko aside as they did so.

"Foolish monks, coming here unprepared for a true battle" echoed the voice of Chase Young

"And I thought they were training to become dragon warriors" loudly sneered Synyster

"A task, for someone with your previous skills Synyster, could accomplish, overnight!" taunted Chase.

"Indeed, even the powerful Master Monk Guan wasn't a match for me" howled Syn

"Something I myself would have taken great pride in doing"

"The deed is done, and the plan is one step closer to achievement"

"Thus the arrival of the monks makes their Shen Gong Wu ours!"

Raimundo spoke up, "We have no Shen Gong Wu with us, this is gonna be a fight of our fighting skills"

There was a pause before Chase spoke again, "A worthy challenge no doubt, if you are game that is"

"I be game Chase, I do wonder how our rivals fight in the dark?" howled Syn.

"It won't matter, make it a challenge for us and have them fight in the light; you will be at a disadvantage"

"There was a time I fought in the light, and for it. But now that that's changed let's get to the task at hand, shall we?"

"Agreed"

The lights had come back on and Chase and Syn stood beside the two monks, they didn't notice until they were put into a headlock by the villains.

"Interesting technique this is Synyster, I like it" growled Chase as he held Omi's head tighter towards his chest, not long before he broke free. Raimundo managed to do the same, but was worse done by; this was clear by the hard coughing he was subjected to after breaking free.

"And that was a normal choke, not a Draco's Choke" grinned Syn. The two villains had begun to advance on the two monks, caught by surprise. Chase started on Omi, diving towards him putting his fist forward, and landing it in Omi's chest, but the monk had time recuperate and respond with a cartwheel that lead into an uppercut to Chase, which he had almost avoided. Beside this Syn and Rai crossed blades, Synyster armed with his scepter and Raimundo's Blade of the Nebula. It was a swift sword fight and Syn had made it difficult as he only used one had and continuously swapped in a successful attempt to offset Raimundo and his fighting style which had to constantly be adjusted to suit Syn's sword hand. Many times when the Blade of the Nebula had met with Syn's scepter, Syn had simply whisked it away making a full circle with the scepter and striking Raimundo in this confusion. Omi and Chase had persisted in hand to hand combat, which got quite rapid at times where they fought so fast that a spectator would be unable to perceive their exact actions; however, Chase always managed to throw Omi away in the end of these furious spars. Occasionally, Syn and Rai would lock blades during battle and the last time they done this, Synyster got close and hissed at him, "If you do not back down and leave this place I can guarantee that those you love will be hurt, a fate worse than death. Imagine Kimiko, with her mind lost, inside pleading for you but on the outside, cold and dead, incapable of perceiving your appearance" Rai looked devastated, but it got worse. "You know, I think Wuya's keeping an eye on her right now, and as a matter of fact I can send telepathic messages using this scepter"

"AARRRGGHHH!" Raimundo had put all his weight into the blade pushing against Syn, while he smirked. Suddenly he fell to the ground; Syn had backed off, leaving Rai defenceless pushing all his weight forward, down to the marble floor. As he tried to get up a cold blade was met with his neck and a boot on his back, pushing hard and the blade sharp against his neck, drawing a spot of blood. Raimundo looked up to see Chase and Omi fighting. It was intense; in a single stroke Chase and blown Omi across the room, cracking the pillar he was thrown into.

Then something happened that Raimundo hadn't seen in a while. Chase stood tall and focused, and transformed into a monstrous creature, a snout quite large and long with bright white teeth that would challenge a shark; his hands had mutated into lethal claws that matched his jet black mane that started on his head and fell down to lower back, his tail large and heavy with spikes procuring from it. The prince's eyes had went from humanly white with a black iris to feline yellow and a narrow slit pupil. When the transformation was complete, Chase let out a roar that started a chain of roars throughout the entire palace while Syn leant down to Raimundo and whispered to him, "Beautiful isn't it? Such power that a simple potion can grant, a power that you cannot possibly hope to truly defeat. You have never defeated Chase Young; you have merely been a thorn in his side and if you continue, the ones you love will perish at my hand"

Omi had then charged at Chase with his Wudai weapon in full swing, ready to kill; but Chase had other plans, he dodged and flicked Omi into the air with his tail and on the downward he had clenched the monk's throat with his tail and holding it at a distance while examining the Shimo Staff. "Impressive performance young monks; however you lack the power and skill to truly defeat us, and you ought to be willing to kill if you truly want rid of us permanently"

Syn had reached down and helped Raimundo up only to hold him in a vice again, "So here's the deal, we will let you leave now with one of your Shen Gong Wu, the Mantis Flip Coin, and you won't return unless we say otherwise" He had let go of Rai who stood in shock seeing Omi kick his legs violently trying to break free. Just as Omi was whipped away and let free, Raimundo fell to his knees and held his head in his hands while Omi tried to get himself up stroking his bruised head.

Suddenly the scenery had instantaneously changed and the two monks where outside the mouth of the palace. Omi walked over to Rai who was still in shock of their battle, head still in his hands and once Omi got close enough he could hear that he was sobbing; "I'm so sorry Omi, I didn't mean for it to go that badly. Are- are you okay?"

Omi put his hand on Raimundo's arched back and replied with a quivering voice, "Do not fret Raimundo, the enemy is powerful and we are expected to be faced with challenges like this. I am okay, I will make it through. Don't let this get you down, we must keep fighting and never give in to the dark forces"

Rai looked up and said more proudly, "You're right Omi, I'm the leader and I can't be seen in a position of weakness, I gotta up my game and fight until my last breath, with my best friends fighting with me, helping me make the tough decisions and keep a level head, thanks Omi, you're a good friend"

And with that they had left the Land of Nowhere with the Mantis Flip Coin, a small step closer but it was a pity move and they were ready to step up their training and do what is necessary to defeat Synyster and Chase.

Kimiko had woken up to Master Fung over her head and she shot up extremely fast once she fully came to. The rest of the monks and Dojo had gathered round, even Master Monk Guan was present, using a crutch, but still there for moral support. "Easy now Kimiko" Master Fung had said gently, "You had fallen quite hard, the shock of whatever happened must have mentally affected you a lot, and the explosion may have caused some physical injury too"

"Explosion?!" Squealed Kimiko, shooting up to her feet.

"Relax Kimiko, everything is fine now and you are safe. I will not ask you about what you were even doing at Jack Spicer's house in the first place until you have rested up" Master Fung had said before standing up and walking out of the room.

"There was an explosion?" Kimiko had said, in a sorrowful tone of surprise. Hanging her head as she remembered some of what happened; she got up and began to walk away, before stopped by Raimundo. "Is everything okay Kim? I know we were all pretty beat up after the showdown in Chicago but to do something as bold as this." He looked concerned while staring into her eyes, while Dojo was talking to Omi behind his back "He's one to talk, coming home from somewhere covered in bruises and scars, you and him both"

"I'm fine Rai, I'll tell you about it later, okay?" She pushed his hand away from her shoulders and walked on out of the room while Clay, Omi and Dojo left too; mentioning food; but Guan and Raimundo stayed behind and gave each other piercing looks. "Meet me in the vault room tonight at nine, it appears we have much to discuss"