Omi paced back and forth in front of the jury, his eyes closed and deep in thought. Tiger instincts were good for the adrenaline rush of a Xiaolin showdown, but out of that they felt almost worthless. He would have to rely on his other skills, ones that had nothing to do with asceticism or fighting.

"Ladies and gentleman of the jury," He began, clearing his throat as someone snorted loudly in that background. "I have only this to tell you – I did not hurt Jack Spicer, and it is not true that Jack Spicer is even injured. You have to believe me."

"Yeah, right." One of the Shaolin monks muttered.

"Is that all you have to say?" Judge Roy Bean asked.

Omi sighed. "No. Furthermore, I would like to bring up the fact that Jack Spicer is an evil boy genius who wishes to enslave humanity, and that this is yet another bogey--,"

"Bogus." The judge corrected.

"That too." Omi replied with a faint sort of smile. "This is another bogey plot to allow him to take away all of my Shen Gong Wu and use them to take over the world."

"Okay, you're runnin' a bit long. Go sit down." The judge said, and started rifling through the papers on his podium.


Clay was using his stealth to try and find a way to rescue three friends. Jack hadn't made his task easy for him, though. Clay hadn't seen a single Jack-bot since he had arrived at Spicer's mansion, but Jack had quickly solved that problem by filling his lair and the area around it with spider robots. The robots marched in militaristic regiments, making sure that Clay couldn't come within 20 feet of Jack Spicer's mansion without being spotted and zapped.

Normally, Clay would have felt safe just plowing through them using his enormous strength. But, according to the designs on their backs, they had been constructed by Chase Young. He'd have to exercise some caution when dealing with them…

"Charge!" He roared, running right into the middle of the spider robots. In a blink of an eye, he found himself being zapped by their stingers and struck by their webs. It didn't take ten seconds before he had been immobilized completely and was being dragged into Jack Spicer's lair…where Kimiko, Raimundo, and Dojo were probably still being held.

It was Lawyer-bot 2.0's turn to talk. "I'd like to call Ashley, a.k.a. Katnappe to the stand."

"Wha?" Katnappe said, blinking owlishly.

"Get up there!" The robot barrister snapped.

Katnappe got up and walked over to the witness's booth, where she quickly began filing her nails.

"Miss Ashley," The robot began.

"The name's Katnappe!" Katnappe said with a purr.

"Y-yeah. Right. Miss Katnappe, how do you know Mr. Amy?" The Lawyer-bot asked.

"He's this whiny geek that's always picking on me." Katnappe said coolly.

"Really?" The lawyer asked.

"Yeah!" Katnappe replied. "I used to work for--with that red-headed stepchild over in the plaintiff's box when they started bugging me. Apparently I was 'misusing the powers of a Shen Gong Wu', whatever that meant. I took 'em down a few times, piece of pie."

"What happened at Catatonia Land?" 2.0 prompted.

"It was a purr-fectly sunny day." Katnappe began dreamily. "I was having fun with my Golden Tiger Claws when all of a sudden Cueball and his pals showed up to ruin my day. I would have taken them down then too but then that stupid cowboy started hugging me for no reason. I would have sued for harassment but I didn't know their addresses."

"You see?" The lawyer cried. "They went and beat up this innocent little girl--,"

"Hey!" Katnappe and Omi exclaimed in unison, but for two very different reasons.

"—for no reason! If that's not a good excuse to send this Mr. Annie to jail, then...then…may lightning strike my circuit boards!" The lawyer hurried over to Jack Spicer's section, just in case some passing god tried to make his wish come true.

"You may, ahem, cross-examine the…uh…the witness." Judge Roy Bean said. "I think."

"That shall be easy, because I am cross right now." Omi said. He walked over to Katnappe. "Do you deny that you were misusing the powers of the Golden Tiger Claws to commit crimes?"

Katnappe looked around nervously. "Do I have to tell the truth?"

"Have you been sworn in?" 2.0 asked.

"No!" Katnappe said with a smirk. "No, I haven't been sworn in."

"Ah. We can do that now." Omi said. He pulled out the Ancient Scroll of the Shen Gong Wu. Do you swear to not lie, tell the truth, and the whole truth, so help you Dashi?"

"Huh?"

Omi put the scroll away. "That is good enough for the court. Answer the question." Judge Roy Bean.

Katnappe sighed. "Yeah…I was using the Tiger Claws. But I had a good reason! I needed to steal from schoolchildren, jewelry stories, nuns, and banks because my parents…never…hugged me!"

On cue, the jury gave a loud, pitying 'Awwwwwwwwwww' sound that completely obscured Katnappe's crocodile tears.

"That is no excuse!" Omi said. "I am an orphan; my parents never hugged my either, but I still fight on the side of good because it is the right thing to do."

Katnappe began sniveling. "C-can I gosit down now? I need to…take a break."

The judge was feeling really charitable. "You go sit down now." He turned on Omi. "I'm watchin' you. Call your first witness!"