I'm glad that I finally got che chance to update this. Bookworm even said this chapter was fun to write, heh. Anyway, here is Episode 4!

"We're going to... Atacama Desert. And no, Jade, you can not come."

"Aw..." the teen moaned in protest. "But that place is so close to—"

"We know, Jade," said Jackie. "You said it a million times."

"I still do not understand what is so great about that city," Paco said, sitting on a desk and swinging his legs underneath him.

"Did Jackie not say I explained it a million times?" Jade demanded, whirling on him, though she was too busy being excited to be irritated with him. "Jackie, I have to come!"

"And so do I!" Jimmy perked up.

"No," Jackie said sternly. "You are staying here. No one is accompanying me or Uncle to find the Ski Demon chi.

Jade put on her best puppy-dog face. "Please!?" she asked hopefully, clasping her hands out in front of her and falling to her knees. "PLEEAASSE!"

"No."

Jade pouted. "Shoot," she muttered. But, being a teen, she actually didn't say 'shoot' but something far far worse, but we changed it for the sake of the story.

"But I can go!" Jimmy butted in, leaving Jade to fend for herself. "I once went there for a field trip, and did a report on the place!"

Jade gaped. "That's a lie!" she declared, jumping to her feet in conclusion.

"No it's not!" Jimmy told Jackie. "Please—I know the place better than anyone here!" He sank to his knees and clung on to the hem of Jackie's shirt. "Take - me - with - you!"

And so they brought him.

"No fair!" Jade yelled.

(LINE BREAK)

Jackie had been in deserts before. Tons of times, actually. But he'd always been for normal archaeology digs, not saving-the-world-in-the-nick-of-time adventures (most of the time). He'd never been to this particular desert, though. He was curious. He wanted to go without Jade pestering him about how hot it was, how little water they had left, and how her feet were getting tired—the usual stuff Jimmy was currently complaining about.

Unfortunately, he had forgotten how hot the desert could be.

Finally, after what felt like hours of walking aimlessly into the desert, Uncle's chi locator began to glow green.

"It is near," Uncle announced as if Jackie hadn't realized it yet.

Jackie squinted and looked in all the directions around them. Just desert and desert faune et flore. No special shrine or temple, no tall and looming pillar standing out in the open, no fake rock to hide behind...unless somehow they were concealed.

About fifty yards west there stood a tall rocky hill. Maybe the chi was somehow hidden in there. He prodded his head in its direction and Uncle understood, and together they walked over to it. Uncle's chi locator shone brighter than ever. Jimmy hurried along behind them.

"What is it?" the teen asked anxiously.

"We're not too sure yet," said Jackie. He walked around the hill twice, searching for hidden contraptions or something similar to it. He came out with nothing.

"So we know where the chi is, we just can't get to it," said Jimmy, leaning back against a desert tree. "That is such a not-so-epic fa—ahhh!"

The desert tree snapped backwards, taking Jimmy down with it. He landed on a mess on branches and twigs. A hollow noise came from the hill, like the sound that would come out from banging a clay pot with an empty center, and all three of them turned to see what it was.

A large bolder that Jackie had seen but taken no attention to rolled out of the way, revealing a small hole wide and tall enough for someone to crawl through. Jackie, his archaeology instincts coming over, walked over to it and peered inside. Knowing perfectly well the whole thing could be booby-trapped, Jackie took out his flashlight and crawled inside. "Jimmy," he hollered out, "stay here."

"Sure," the teen yelled back. "I just got comfortable on these annoying twigs anyway."

Jackie ignored him and kept crawling. Eventually he reached a point where the corridor was tall enough for him to stand up in, so he did, and became aware of the fact that Uncle was following him.

They kept walking until they reached a large fancy wooden door. It was old and frail, and the lock had stopped working it seemed decades earlier. Jackie gently pushed it and the whole thing just fell off its hinges and landed on the floor with a loud thump. They didn't hesitate to enter the next room.

The thingamabober keeping the Sky Chi safe was a pedestal made of wood resting in the center of the room. Four marble pillars surrounded it at the four corners of the room, each around 13 feet tall. Jackie and Uncle approached the pedestal where a small box wooden case lay wide-open. The Relic this time was made of sapphire, and on it were Sky Blue coloured markings that made up the shape of a flute.

"The Sky Demon chi," murmured Uncle. Jackie quickly pocketed the gem in a special bag Uncle had made to hold it until they got back to their hotel. (For some reason they didn't allow chi-o-matics into the desert, saying something like "no weapons allowed in the ecosystem".) The two men promptly walked back the way they had come, leaning the broken door against the wall (not that anyone would be going back in there after them anyway).

"Don't you think it's odd Drago hasn't attacked us yet?" Jackie asked Uncle.

Uncle shrugged.

They exited into the hot and humid desert weather, and that was when Jackie realized how nice and damp it had been inside. Now it felt a million degrees hotter outside. Jimmy was still resting on his pile of branches.

"Good to see you back," he said, sitting up. "I think those sticks were giving me heartburn. Or maybe that was the sun."

"Heartburn is an irritation of the esophagus that is caused by stomach acid," Jackie told him.

Jimmy shrugged. "Okay, then it was neither. Must have been that awful hotel food they fed us." He stood up and dusted some remaining twigs off his shirt and pants. "Get the chi without anyone attacking?"

Jackie nodded, pulling out the bag with the gem in it and holding it out so that Jimmy could see.

"Thanks!"

All of a sudden, the bag wasn't there anymore. Something or someone had sped by so quickly they hadn't had time to react and snatched the bag right out from Jackie's grasp. He and Uncle were knocked right off their feet. About fifty years away, Drago, the Ice Crew and Tyke stood, MC Cobra in the process of handing Drago the bag holding the gem.

"Forgot to knock on wood," Drago scolded Jackie, taking the sapphire out.

"Twice, actually," Uncle added unhelpfully.

"Now get rid of them!" Drago ordered his gang.

"Bad day," Jackie muttered.

Uncle quickly whipped out his puffer-fish and shot green lightning at the nearest dragon—MC Cobra. He absorbed the blow and it slowed him down slightly, but he was still going fast enough that he plowed right into Uncle and sent him flying off his feet. Cobra snatched the puffer-fish from midair.

"Cool souvenir," he said to himself, pocketing it.

That was when Jimmy performed a flying side-kick right into his head. Caught by surprise, the dragon fell. Jimmy grabbed the puffer-fish, and—handling it like how his sensei Tohru was teaching him—shot three bursts at Cobra on the ground before he could get up.

Jimmy whirled around to find a fist flying toward him. He barely ducked, backing away. Fist-to-fist fighting was not his thing, even though Jackie was teaching him and Paco self-defense for their own safety. He dodged three more attacks, but eventually DJ Fist managed to hit him, and he crumpled easily.

Jackie had it worse. He had to fight Tyke and Ice at the same time, which was about as easy as it sounded. He also had to prevent Drago from absorbing the chi, which he was three seconds away from doing.

Jackie redirected a punch from Ice so that it hit Tyke in the face. "You idiot!" Tyke snarled at him, and Jackie was able to roundhouse kick them both in the chests and run over to Drago. In a stupid leap of faith, he kicked the gem away from him, but instead of absorbing it like Jimmy had it landed on the rocky desert ground and shattered, the demon chi floating into the air.

"Come over here!" Drago beckoned it.

"No! Don't come over here!" Jackie told it.

The chi seemed to like Jackie more than Drago, as it had flown away, zipping over the distance and gone before Drago could fully understand what was happening. The dragon demon snarled at Jackie, but yelled out to his small gang, "Come on! We're leaving!"

The dragons scurried away, leaving Jackie alone in the desert with Uncle—who had all of the peices of the shattered Relic and was easily repairing it with a chi spell while sporting multiple injuries himself from his fall—and Jimmy—who was still unconscious from his hit in the head.

"We have to hurry," Jackie told Uncle as he picked up the fallen puffer-fish and tossing it to his addressee. "I suspect the chi will be headed for the nearest city. We must hurry over there and quickly find it before Drago does."

Jimmy moaned.

(LINE BREAK)

Drago was breaking things; he always did this when he was upset, which he was a lot. The Ice Crew had learned the hard way to not interrupt one of his tantrums, and Tyke had just been able to tell from the beginning.

"The Chans have allies and an entire Section to help them look for the chi!" the lead dragon was yelling. "All I have are four failures!"

"Then maybe it's time to start reconsidering your assistance."

"Oh," Drago said when Omnis stepped into view. "It's you."

"Of course... miss me?" Draco Just scowled. Omnis continued nonetheless, "There is nothing wrong with any of these guys. You just need... more help this time around. Luckily I've found a place, juct crawling with the very aid you could use."

Omnis dropped a newspaper at the dragon's feet. Drago picked it up and read the headline.

CLOWN PRINCE OF CRIME BREAKS OUT FOR ENCORE

"Perhaps it is time to find some new allies to strengthen yourself with?" Omnis asked in a sort of all knowing tone.

Drago grinned despite himself. "Come on, guys," he said, burning the newspaper and dropping it, letting it fall to the ground.

"We're going to Gotham."

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