Chapter 2: Darkness Unleashed
"So… how did you know how to use that thing?" Shego asked once they were back in the lair.
"Simple, Shego! That one flying kid told us the name of this thing. Then, when you were fighting those monks, I noticed that they shouted out the names of the items they were using! It was quite obvious, actually." Drakken was quite pleased with himself for figuring out how the Shen Gong Wu worked.
"That's great, but what should we do with it?" Shego asked.
"I've got an idea," said a familiar voice from one corner of the room. Jack Spicer pulled off the Shroud of Shadows and walked toward Drakken. "You'll have to trust me in order for it to work, though."
"Oh sure, I'll trust you… especially after you almost blew us up with your stupid robots!" Drakken shouted. At this, Shego's hands lit up. Jack waved his hands in front of him and backed away.
"No, no, please! Not the glowy hands! Come on, guys, I'm here to help you!" Jack started whimpering.
"Yeah, sure," Shego said. "What could you possibly do for us? As far as I can see, you're just a scared little boy."
"I've got knowledge that you guys want," Jack said. "It involves the Orb of Concealment and my Shroud of Shadows, but I need both Shen Gong Wu in order for it to work!"
"Why don't you give me your Shen Gong Wu?" Drakken asked.
"Because I like the Shroud of Shadows! You give me the Orb of Concealment!"
"No, you give me the Shroud of Shadows!"
"No, you give me the Orb of Concealment!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
Meanwhile, in the Shaolin temple, Master Fung had explained the Shen Gong Wu and the struggle with Jack Spicer to Kim and Ron.
"I see. This is all very interesting, but what does it have to do with us?" Ron asked Master Fung. They were all sitting around on the floor near the Shen Gong Wu vault.
"You obviously know the blue-faced one. That means that you can help us defeat him," Master Fung answered.
"Trust me… you guys don't need help. Drakken is easy," Kim said.
"That may be true, but you have information that we do not. For example, how to get into his lair. And besides, we don't want him to have the Orb of Concealment. It is a powerful Shen Gong Wu that could be devastating in the wrong hands. If Drakken teams up with Jack Spicer, and they combine the Shroud of Shadows with the Orb, then they could unleash an evil spirit from more than 1,500 years ago."
"Wait a minute… that's around the time when Grandmaster Dashi defeated Wuya!" Raimundo said.
"Exactly, Raimundo. Dashi defeated many evil creatures in his time, including the evil spirit known as Diego," Master Fung said. "Once defeated, Dashi transformed Diego's spirit into the two Shen Gong Wu, the Shroud of Shadows and the Orb of Concealment. If they recombine, they will unleash Diego upon the world again."
"In that case, let's go kick some Drakken butt!" Ron shouted. He paused for a second, and then said tentatively, "Do we have to ride the dragon again?"
Omi sighed. "If it makes you feel better, we can take the Silver Manta Ray instead."
Dojo crawled into the room. "Guys, we've got a new Shen Gong Wu!" He laid out the Shen Gong Wu scroll. "It's called the Jow-Gem. It has the ability to create new Shen Gong Wu by fusing existing Wu together!"
"Oh no! That will allow Jack to completely fuse Diego's spirit together!" Omi exclaimed.
"Let's go," Kim said.
Fifteen minutes later, Kim, Ron, and the Shaolin warriors had made it to Tokyo, where they were supposed to find the Jow-Gem. Little did they know that another criminal was at work in the city, and he had plans for the Shaolin warriors.
"Don't worry, Mr. Nakasumi. Your company is in safe hands with me," Pandabubba said. Mr. Nakasumi and Ms. Kyoko were tied up in front of Pandabubba. "Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the rest of the world! You see, Mr. Nakasumi, I plan to use your company to create a weapon that not even the Shaolin warriors will be able to stop!" Pandabubba broke out in a fit of evil laughter.
Drakken, Shego, and Jack Spicer arrived at a jewelry shop in downtown Tokyo. A blue gem sparkled in the window. "That's it," Jack said. "The Jow-Gem is almost ours!"
"Oh, get on with it already," Shego said. She got tired of waiting and shattered the glass so that Drakken could get inside and grab the gem. Alarms were sounding all over the place, but the Jackbots held off anybody that tried to interfere.
Kim and the others arrived just in time to see Drakken holding the gem over his head. "Jow-Gem!" he shouted. "Shroud of Shadows! Orb of Concealment!" The Jow-Gem shot a beam of blue energy at both of the other Shen Gong Wu, drawing them toward Drakken. The Wu transformed into energy and were sucked into the Jow-Gem, causing it to turn black. "What's happening?" Drakken asked.
"The spirit is being released!" Jack shouted. The Jow-Gem shattered, and dark energy surrounded Drakken. At this exact moment, the Kimmunicator beeped. Kim answered it.
"Uh, kinda busy, Wade," she said. She showed him what was happening to Drakken.
"Whoah, that looks serious," Wade said. "But we've got another problem, too! Somebody has kidnapped Mr. Nakasumi and is holding him hostage in his own building!"
"Oh, give me a break. How can I deal with two problems at once?" Kim shouted.
"I'll see what I can do about Nakasumi. You need to deal with Drakken right now," Wade said. Before he could explain anything more, he disconnected. By this time, the dark energy had made Drakken's skin turn gray. His eyes glowed red with the spirit of an evil sorcerer.
"I thought Drakken was ugly before," Ron commented.
"Finally, I'm free!" Drakken shouted, although his voice was much more sinister now. "Dashi thought he could stop me by separating my spirit, but he was wrong!"
"Diego has been unleashed!" Omi shouted. "We have to stop him! Tornado Strike, water!" Omi jumped at Drakken, but an invisible force field caused him to fall on his back.
"You'll have to do better than that," Diego said menacingly. "It took Dashi all he had to defeat me, and he was one-hundred times the warrior you are." With that, Diego aimed a lightning blast at Omi. Just as it seemed that Omi was done for, a lasso caught him around his waist and pulled him out of the way. The lightning blast charred the area around where it struck.
"You okay there, little partner?" Clay asked. He quickly untied the lasso.
"Thank you, my friend. Now, let us show Diego how we take care of our dealings!"
"I think you mean business, but whatever," Raimundo said.
"Anything I can do?" Kim asked the warriors. Shego took the opportunity to jump at Kim.
"Are you forgetting about me, princess?" Shego asked as she began a relentless attack. It took all Kim had to keep her away.
"I wish I could," Kim responded.
"Right… I'll just be back here…" Ron said. He started to sneak away, but Jack Spicer jumped in front of him.
"I don't think so, blondie! Monkey Staff!" As he shouted the name, Jack Spicer transformed into a half-monkey, half-human.
"AAAAAAAH! That is sick and wrong!" Ron screamed. He ran in the other direction with Jack following on his knuckles. "Rufus, help me out!" The naked mole rat peeked out of Ron's pocket and yawned. Seeing the monkey creature chasing Ron, he jumped at Jack and tried to get the Monkey Staff away from him. Jack screeched and attempted to throw the mole rat off of him. "Go Rufus!" Ron shouted.
Back in the building of Nakasumi Toys, Pandabubba was almost finished with the construction of his super weapon. He had hooked up a satellite dish on top of the building that, when activated, would pull any target into his deadly video game. And his target was only a few miles away: the Shaolin monks.
"None of you have the power to defeat me!" Diego shouted. "Soon, the world shall be mine!"
"He sounds a lot like the normal Drakken," Shego thought to herself as she fought with Kim. Black lightning crossed the sky and struck very close to the warriors.
Pandabubba realized that something strange was happening very close. He looked outside and saw the thunderstorm that had been caused by Diego. "Activate the device now," he said to one of his henchmen. "I can't afford to take any chances."
The satellite dish on top of the building turned toward the direction of the storm. It began beeping, and a few seconds later it released a bolt of energy in the direction it was pointing.
The Shaolin warriors kept throwing their best attacks at Diego, to no avail. The Shen Gong Wu had no effect on him, he was always able to block their attacks, and his lightning strikes were getting closer and closer to their targets. Just as he was about to finish them all off with a huge bolt, the energy from the dish appeared over them. It appeared as a blue spark in the sky.
"What's that, some sort of star?" Raimundo asked. The huge lightning bolt hit the small spark, causing it to explode and cover the entire area. When the light had cleared, everybody was gone.
