The Army

Chase Young's conquest over the Xiaolin took less than an hour. His cats had already done most of the work for him. They had looted the vault of its priceless Shen Gong Wu and fought Raimundo and Omi to a standstill. When he had arrived with Kimiko and Clay as well as the dragons Dojo and Tiamat, he had sent a small contingent of his warriors searching through the Xiaolin temple. They found Master Fung and the rest of the monks trapped in the library and taken them to Chase Young, who had sealed most of them in stone and imprisoned them in his dungeon.

Finally, he destroyed the Xiaolin Temple.

He was standing on a ridge when he did it, overlooking the sacred monastery as the shattered remnants of the Ring of Fire island hovered impassively behind him.

"Terrarcanum!" Chase's voice boomed over the sounds of the raging storm.

Tremors shook the weakening Temple to its very foundation, smashing walls and crushing floors.

"Lunarcanum!"

Tongues of scalding hot water erupted from the fissures in the ground, washing away the wreckage of the Temple and eliminating every last remnant of its solemn glory.

"I wish I'd forced the monks to see this." Chase Young said wistfully. "Ah, no matter. When I rule the world there shall be plenty of opportunities to have them witness destruction."

"You are so right, Chase Young... sir!" Jack Spicer said. The evil boy genius started striding along beside him as he surveyed his work. Chase had forgotten he was there. "Say, now that you've beaten the monkeys and taken control of the Shen Gong Wu, what next? See, I was thinking 'take-over-the-world' time but maybe you could go taunt the prisoners or A-A-AAACK!"

Jack was cut off when Chase grabbed him by the throat and hoisted him into the air. "I'm done with you, insect." Chase said as Jack's face turned purple. The pale teenager clutched at Chase Young's strong hand, trying to get him to let go. "I don't need to keep you around any more."

Jack was starting to pass out when Chase loosened his grip somewhat and said, "Although, you have been a useful ally. I confess myself...surprised... that you were able to outwit the Xiaolin monks and fetch the Lunarcanum for me. So I will reward you by... "

"Giving me Canada?" Jack gasped.

Chase shot him a threatening glare, and that brief flash of hope was extinguished.

"I was thinking more along the lines of sparing your life." Chase said. He dropped Jack flat on his rear end and turned away. "You are dismissed, Jack Spicer. Go home."

"But--," Jack said, raising a hand in protest.

A blast of fire arced through the air and landed a few inches in front of him. He took the hint and ran off. Only when Chase was out of view did he dare to take flight, his helibot whirring high above the rumbling storm.

Chase heard a feline growl then; his army was returning.

The wall of jungle cats slowly padded across the vast plain where the Xiaolin Temple once stood. They were incredibly powerful, but not enough to conquer an entire world. For his plans, he would need a stronger fighting force. One that was vast, and implacable.

He knew just where to find one.


Chase Young's dungeons were dark and terribly silent. Raimundo had been forced to watch the warriors carry off Master Fung and the elder monks to be entombed in stone. Dojo and his Great-Uncle were bound and gagged and tossed in a sack in the corner of the room. Raimundo never got to see where Omi, Kimiko, and Clay were taken, but he was sure that it was somewhere worse than anything he could imagine.

"It's my fault, isn't it?" Raimundo said to himself. In the dungeon, he had little to do but think, and brood. Chains bound his arms to the wall. "I lost to Spicer, I let Dojo run off, Isplit the group up, and let Chase Young win!"

In his mind's eye, all he could see was a string of bad decisions. He had believed so much in his own brilliance, in his own leadership ability, that he had let his friends down. And now, he didn't even know where they were.

Master Fung made a mistake when he made me the team leader and the Shoku warrior... Raimundo thought. All I can do is screw up... Ugh! What is the matter with me? My friends are in trouble and all I can do is sulk! Come on, Raimundo! You can do this! You've defeated Chase Young before, and you can do it again! Remember what Omi used to say. Remember him, and Dojo... and Clay. And Kimiko...

Raimundo took a deep, rattling breath. "Wind!" He shouted, lashing out towards where he thought the door was with his foot. "Nothing!" It was as if the cell was robbing him of his elemental powers.

I have to get out of here somehow! Raimundo thought. If not for my sake, then for the sake of the world. And my friends...

"But how?" He snapped, speaking to no one. "How!"

"How... indeed." answered a voice.

Raimundo could not see through the darkness, but he recognized that voice. And it chilled him to his very core.


The Chasm of Everywhere. Chase Young stood at its very edge, staring into the gloom below. It was the ancestral cemetary of the dragon species, where the great wyrms of old deposited their old bones as they regrew new ones, over and over until the ends of their lives. Hundreds of dragon skeletons lay within that canyon.

The Heylin warlock extended his arms out of the chasm. Evil powers surged through his body, flowing from the bottom of his feet through his long, pallid fingertips. Heylin magics, forgotten by the world, spread out through the canyon. For a moment, all was still, then...

A long, narrow white skull rocketed out of the chasm and hovered hundreds of miles above the ground. It was joined by a flurry of bones that jostled and jolted each other out of the way before arranging themselves into the body of a giant lizard, at least fifty feet long with an impossibly wide wingspan.

More dragons appeared, of all different sizes and shapes. They rose steadily out of the chasm, unwearied by age and the ravages of time. Only their eyes, wide and hollow, glowed with an eerie spark of life.

The grand army of walking or in this case, flying dead was the last piece of the puzzle, the only thing he needed to wage war on the world.


Raimundo still couldn't believe his eyes.

"Hannibal Bean?" Raimundo said.

"That's mah name, don't wear it out." The evil bean said as he flew into the dank prison cell. He was riding on the back of his partner, the Ying-Ying Bird. When he saw Raimundo's dumbfounded face, he added, "Well, aren't you gonna ask me what I'm doing here?"

"What--," Raimundo began, but the bean cut him off.

"I'm here to rescue you." Hannibal Bean said.

"Why?" Raimundo demanded.

"Because... I need help." He said. "And so do you. We might as well work together for the time being."

"I'll never help you!" The Dragon of the wind declared.

"Have it your way." Bean said. "But before I leave you here, let me tell you what's happening to your friends."

Raimundo turned away from him.

"Chase Young took them into the caverns below his lair, and sealed them in a prison -- more like a tiny, cramped, tomb, really -- made of molten rock. I'd say they've got enough oxygen to last them less than 24 hours. After that, well--," Bean said.

"Enough!" Raimundo snapped.

"You can end it, you know." Bean said. His bird turned around and prepared to take off. "The Terrarcanum can free them from that, and even help you rebuild the Xiaolin Temple that he destroyed..."

"I said enough!" Raimundo shouted. He took a deep breath. "Alright... I'll help you... I'll help you get to Chase Young. But after that, all bets are off. The two of you are going down."

"Ya made a good decision." Hannibal Roy Bean said. He raised one of his tentacles and sent a bolt of white lightning towards the manacles binding Raimundo to the wall. They glowed red-hot for a brief moment then fell broken to the floor.

The Dragon of the wind rubbed his raw wrists anxiously then looked down at the evil Bean that had released him.

"Come on. We have a ways to go and not enough time to do it!"


Author's Note: Yeah, I gave Chase Young an army of skeleton dragons. That's the explanation for the Tiamat-bone thing one of you guys brought up a while ago. It might seem weird now, but I really am going somewhere with this. Anyway, thanks for sticking with me after all this. You guys are the best. Don't forget to Read & Review.