Monkey Business
At the Xiaolin Temple, the heroes were enjoying the recreational activity of horseback riding. Clay was riding on a bull, Max was riding on a mustang, Emily was riding on a pony, Raimundo and Kimiko were riding on horses, and Omi was riding on a donkey.
Everyone jumped over a hedge, but the donkey stopped and began eating from it. Omi used the Tongue of Saiping to talk to the animal. "Horace, what are you doing? You are supposed to jump over the hedge, not eat your way through it."
The donkey understood and replied, "It's too high. I'm lowering it."
"Perhaps if you did not eat so much, you could leap higher," Omi suggested.
Horace had a different suggestion. "Perhaps if we switched places, you could carry me around for a while." So he threw Omi off of his back and jumped on him.
The commotion caused a monkey to wake up from his afternoon nap. He removed his blindfold and asked, "Do you mind turning it down? Some of us are trying to get a little shuteye."
"In the middle of the day?" Omi asked. "You are a very lazy animal."
A rabbit hopped over and commented, "What a mouth on someone so small."
"I am not small," Omi argued. "I am compact!"
Two bluebirds perched themselves at the fountain. One of them laughed and said, "Any more compact, and we'd need a microscope to find you."
Omi had enough. "You animals are all very rude and very lazy!" He began fighting with the animals not just verbally, but physically as well.
Master Fung came by to get them to settle down. He took the Tongue of Saiping and suggested, "Perhaps I should hold on to this until you learn to get along with the animals peacefully.
Dojo came by and alerted the heroes of a new Shen-Gong-Wu that had revealed itself. It was the Fountain of Hui. This treasure had the power to bestow inexplicable knowledge to anyone inside its compound. Alone, it provided an unstable multitude of knowledge, but when combined with its sister Wu, the Eaglescope, the Fountain of Hui allowed the user to find the answers they were looking for.
For now, the heroes had to find the Fountain of Hui. The Eaglescope would not reveal itself until a short time afterwards. The Fountain was hidden in a junkyard. Jack was ready to fight. He sent in his robots to attack. Though he wasn't the brightest, he did understand the importance of recycling and built his robots out of old parts he collected in the junkyard. The problem was the robot wasn't wireless and had to be connected to an outlet in order to work. Max pulled the plug and the robot deactivated.
The vibration of the crash caused most of the debris to fall nearby, revealing the Fountain of Hui. As usual, Jack left in shame for being unprepared while the heroes celebrated their victory. Unbeknownst to the heroes, Chase Young was observing them. "The young monks have grown quite strong in such a short time. They are proving to be as promising as the Dark Lord said. Perhaps it is time that they are given a taste of true evil."
That night, Chase presented himself before Jack Spicer. The self-proclaimed evil boy genius started acting like a fanboy now that his idol was here. Chase had no patience for Jack's behavior, but he decided to get down to business. "I have a proposition for you," he said calmly. "Do you still have the Monkey Staff?"
Jack eagerly presented his favorite Shen-Gong-Wu to Chase. The warrior also required the Tongue of Saiping. Jack remembered that in was in the Xiaolin Temple, but he was confident that he could steal it from the heroes. Jack remembered that when he first met Chase, the warrior said he wasn't interested in Shen-Gong-Wu, so he had to ask, "Why do you need them?"
Chase grabbed him and said, "If it was important for you to know, I would have told you. But I will tell you this: by the time it is over, you will lead your own evil army."
It sounded like a dream come true for Jack. He said he always wanted his own evil army and now he was about to get it. He just had to deliver on his end of the deal.
The alarms went off at the Xiaolin Temple. The heroes saw a stone statue of Jack holding a fruit basket in his arms. The statue also contained a message that read: "Will u be my friend?" on a plaque. It seemed like a Trojan Horse trick. The heroes destroyed the statue, but there was nothing inside. Still, the monks weren't going to let down their guard. Jack may not be the brightest, but he is smart enough to set a decoy.
While the monks left to guard the vault, Jack emerged from the banana costume he hid himself in. With stealth, he quietly passed through the temple grounds. Kimiko was playing games on her PDA, Raimundo was playing with his soccer ball, Emily was going through her Duel Monster cards, Max was playing Pokémon, Clay was playing with his action figures, and Omi was on guard duty. Jack tormented Omi with shadows and managed to sneak into the vault successfully.
As promised, Jack went to Chase's palace and presented him with the Tongue of Saiping. He used its power to communicate with the monkeys. "Monkeys of the jungle, I summon your presence!" Hearing his call, a horde of green monkeys approach the base of the mountain. "Today, I assemble the greatest army of monkeys in the name of all evil," said Chase. "It is the year of the green monkey. Monkey power is strongest now and the Monkey Staff is most dangerous to whoever uses it." Chase knew Jack would be the perfect candidate for the job, but it wasn't because the Monkey Staff was his favorite Shen-Gong-Wu. It was because Chase knew of Jack's dim intelligence, so he decided to take advantage of the boy.
"Your orders are simple," Chase was saying to the monkeys, "You will follow the big monkey and do as he does." In response, the monkeys began imitating Jack move for move. He waved at them and they waved back. When he jumped and screeched, they jumped and hooted with him. Jack began having fun and got an amusing idea. He decided to dance by doing the robot and the monkeys did the robot too.
It was humiliating, but Chase decided to bear with it. He let Jack have his fun for a while because he knew it wouldn't last.
At the Xiaolin Temple, the heroes were confused when they found out that the Tongue of Saiping was the only Shen-Gong-Wu that was stolen. The trouble of stealing on particular Shen-Gong-Wu is that one must have the patience to use its power when the time is right. Master Fung was aware of this time and warned his students that monkey power was most powerful right now.
The heroes were about to find out just how powerful when they heard Jack screeching like a monkey. They weren't surprised to see him monkey-like, but they didn't expect to see his army of green monkeys.
While Max and Emily had the power to talk to animals and understand them, they wouldn't be able to command the green monkeys. They would only obey Jack. He commanded his monkeys to attack the heroes. Even with their martial arts skills, the Xiaolin monks didn't stand a chance. Every time they attacked one monkey, several more would take its place.
All the heroes could do now was retreat. They ran back inside and barricaded the door. Sure enough, the monkeys were formidable at this time. That night, Jack thought he was living the dream. He was an alpha monkey and these were his soldiers. The monks were safe for the time being, but they knew they would have to go outside soon.
Raimundo got an idea and wondered if the Fountain of Hui could provide a solution against the green monkeys. Max and Emily didn't want to take that chance without the Eaglescope, but Omi, being the hasty monk he was, activated the Fountain's power. It was wondrous at first, but then it started to get painful. Clay lassoed him out of the Fountain's compound. Omi began speaking intelligently, sharing his newfound information with his friends. But from all that Omi had learned in less than a few seconds, he didn't find a solution to stop Jack and his simian soldiers.
Chase continued to observe the heroes. Wuya finally warmed up to Chase and decided to join him. She was never able to tolerate Jack as a monkey until now and this was actually amusing to her.
"It's necessary for me to keep the monks occupied," said Chase.
"Did the Dark Lord command that?" Wuya wondered.
"Whether or not he did is irrelevant to the matter. I cannot allow the Eaglescope to fall into their hands. With the Fountain of Hui and the Eaglescope, the monks can learn the secret to rid this world of evil. Still, as a servant to the Dark Lord, I cannot let the monks discover that secret. Not just because the princess is with them, but because her friends are warriors of Millennia too."
The next day, the Eaglescope finally revealed itself. The monks knew they had to leave the temple grounds, but that meant having to fight the green monkeys again. With all of the new knowledge Omi acquired, he finally understood the meaning of all the recent events. Chase was taking advantage of Jack, using him to keep the heroes occupied so they wouldn't be able to covet the Eaglescope and use its power to unlock the secret of ridding the world from evil. Also, as he was recovering mentally, he managed to come up with an idea on how to bring down the alpha monkey.
Jack, having lost almost what humanity he had left, followed a trail of bananas to the bamboo garden. From inside, Omi placed the Changing Chopsticks inside a banana and dropped it in front of Jack. He was about to eat it until Omi placed his fingertips on the banana, challenging Jack to a Xiaolin Showdown. He decided to wager his Mantis Flip Coin against Jack's Monkey Staff. Jack jumped and screeched. His soldiers hooted, encouraging their leader.
In this game, the players would swing from bars in a jungle gym and the first one to fall to the bottom would lose the game. Omi tried to swing from the bars, but Jack grabbed him by his legs and bit him in the rear end. After that, Jack started mercilessly kicking Omi around and used his tail to snare him and toss him.
"I must admit, Monkey Jack is a much more worthy opponent than regular Jack," said Omi.
"Don't forget, he's stronger now that he's a monkey," Max reminded him.
"But he does seem to have lost what human intelligence he has left," said Emily.
Omi used the Mantis Flip Coin and charged into Jack, sending him flying to the other side of the arena. He flipped around the arena again and approached his friends. "Banana, please."
Clay took a banana out from his hat and gave it to Omi. "Don't you think you should concentrate on winning first?"
That was exactly what Omi was doing. He placed the banana on a pole between two bars that were too close to each other. Jack tried to take the banana, but he couldn't pull it out. Omi approached Jack from behind, unveiled his face, and bit Jack in the rear end. Jack screeched in pain, lost his balance, and fell to the bottom of the pit.
Max laughed hysterically and said, "You know, I think that move would have worked on Jack even if he wasn't a monkey."
"It seems he always gets bit in the rear end," Emily said, minding her language. But that statement was true in so many ways.
Now that the Xiaolin Showdown was over, the heroes could finally hurry to covet the Eaglescope. Also, now that Jack was no longer in possession of the Monkey Staff, he no longer had his monkey qualities and was no longer the alpha of the green monkeys. He came to, not knowing where he was, what was going on, or why he looked and smelled so disgusting.
By the time the heroes arrived at the designated spot, they were too late. Chase got the Eaglescope first, just as they feared. "I should have been more prepared," said Max. "Chase has been observing us all this time. He knew we would try to find the Eaglescope and he picked the best time to stop us."
"We never would have been prepared for this anyway," said Emily. "This means we're not prepared to fight him for the Cobalt Star shard either. Like him, we have to wait until the time is right."
"And when would that be?" Raimundo asked.
"I don't know," said Emily. "I can only say our battle has just begun."
Using the Eaglescope, Chase saw the heroes expressing their disappointment. Wuya cackled and said, "By losing the Eaglescope, the fools lost all chances of defeating us."
"But they've also gained every chance to join us," said Chase.
"Join us," Wuya echoed. "That's ridiculous."
"It is Max's fate as a fellow servant to the Dark Lord," he reminded her. "However, there is another I speak of in particular. As a chapter of his life closes, a new one will soon open."
"Who?" Wuya asked.
"The one I plan to let rule by my side," Chase answered. "But he's not the only one in mind. I also have a few plans in store for the princess."
Wuya was even more confused. "You mean you want Emily to walk on the path of evil?"
"Through the centuries, Millennials have reformed many of the Dark Lord's servants, turning them into followers of the Great Goddess. It may be time for one particular Millennial to serve the Dark Lord."
"She can't do it," Wuya protested. "She has the Millennium Star!"
"True, but the Millennium Star can be corrupted," said Chase. "When that happens, the princess will no longer be fit to wield it inside her. If the princess can join us, Millennia will fall and Cobalt will reign supreme." He placed his Cobalt Star shard in his fingertips and looked at it in delight.