Chapter 17. Meg Kake Goes Searching

Jack was having a grand time trampling Hollywood. The constant onslaught of helicopters and gunfire was a bit distracting, but it was nothing his minion Mini's couldn't handle. Sure enough, the word "MOLDY LOO" was written out on the side of the smog-shrouded mountain, and a Warner Bros. Studious building had a giant flaming "H" sticking out of it. People were screaming the streets and cars were backed up trying to escape the city. Then, it finally sunk in to Jack:

"I am the news!" he exclaimed. "I'm the absolute center of attention! If anything else happens in the world, they won't report it because no one cares about anything other than what I'm doing!"

Jack pulled his goggles over his eyes and cranked up techno-remix of his Evil Theme music. He made the rock n' roll symbol and rammed his SMART into another building.

"Burn, baby! Muah-hahahahaha!"

As Hollywood went up in flames, Meg was back in the Mother SMART, which Jack had programmed the regular SMARTs to fix. It was floating in the Pacific, a few miles out from where Jack was hard at play. She was looking through some of Jack's things, for no other reason than that she was bored. She came upon his Monkey Staff, stored in an instrument case. She took the staff down to the on-board playground and spent some time swinging around and doing wild monkey tricks. She even spent some time in bullet-time and bounced all over the ship monkey-style.

But, once she became bored with that, she abandoned the staff for the Ring of the Nine Dragons.

"I wonder if there's a story behind nine dragons?" Meg said as she inspected the ring. "Why nine? Why not twenty eight dragons?"

Before she could try it on, an alarm went off throughout the ship. Incoming fighter jets attempting to take out the Mother SMART while it was damaged approached from the Californian coast. The SMARTs were forced to pick up shop and migrate a bit further west, deeper into the Pacific.

"We're closer to China, now!" Meg noticed, looking down at the digital map on the Mother's massive display board.

Just then, a feeling of loneliness overcame Meg. It was sudden, but she knew just why.

"I don't have anyone to play with," she sighed. "Jack was so much fun, but then that first SMART arrived and it's all he's been into since. Too bad the Xiaolin monks are such losers. They'd never play with me anyway. Not only that, but Miss Patience has completely vanished." She paused and leaned against the main control chair. "I wish I was older. Like, right now. When I'm nineteen, Jack will be, like, 30 or something. Well, maybe more like 26."

She wandered away from the control deck and back to Jack's room, where he kept all his Shen Gong Wu. She went to put the monkey staff away, when a familiar object dropped out of a bag. It was the Green Thought, the little hat that looked like a snow-cap with ear flaps and long, vine-like drawstrings.

Meg stared at it for a moment, something formulating in her brain. She had a feeling that she was about to make some connection that would help her…

"I have an idea…!" she said slowly.

Excited as ever, Meg grabbed the Green Thoughts and jammed it on over his red dreadlocks. Then, she put the Ring of the Nine Dragons and the Monkey Staff back in bag with all of Jack's other Wu.

"Luck favors the prepared, even though I have no idea what else is in this bag!" Swinging the bag over her shoulder, Meg headed out to the docking bay. She ran there in bullet time just to save time.

Jumping into a regular SMART, Meg started it up and put the bag of Wu in the seat beside her. Dropping away from the Mother SMART, Meg shot off west. Since regular SMARTs are much faster than the Mini's, Meg was soon over the Pacific, passing over China, and approaching the home of Dr. Seek Patience.

In the fairy-tale field at the base of the snow-capped mountains, Meg landed the SMART and bounced down, taking only the Green Thoughts. She and Jack, too, had been to Patience's house when they couldn't contact her, not long after the Xiaolin monks had inspected the place and cleaned up a little.

Meg ran through the front door and went to the kitchen. Sitting on the windowsill was the little potted plant that Patience seemed to have acquired no more than a month ago.

"Green Thoughts!"

The cap lit up for a moment, and then the drawstrings curled back and up, sticking out the top of the cap like antenna.

"Hi, there, little guy," Meg said. "Do you remember what happened here?"

The plant shuddered and seemed to make a coughing noise.

"…Water!" it gasped.

Immediately, Meg took the plant and ran it under the faucet.

"Ahh! Too much! Too much! I'll drown, you nut cake!"

"Nutmeg," Meg corrected the plant, placing it back in the sun. "I'm Nutmeg. But, you can call me Meg."

"All right…Meg. Thanks for the water. Now, what did you want?"

Meg couldn't help but giggle. She's never had a plant respond to her before. It wasn't speaking any language, necessarily, and it wasn't really speaking. Rather, it was just thinking, and the Green Thoughts let Meg receive and comprehend those thoughts.

"I want to find out what happened to Miss Seek!" Meg said. "Did you see what happened here?"

"No, I didn't see anything. But, I know what happened. That Patience woman got up very late one night- it might have been early in the morning- and went outside for a few minutes. I don't know why, of course. You'll have to ask the plants outside. Anyway, when she was outside, a man in black crawled in through this kitchen window. He headed towards Patience room, and changed into this horrendous pig-dog thing!"

"Chase!" Meg exclaimed.

"What? Chase what?"

"Oh, never mind. Please continue."

"Except, it was green. Maybe it was a dragon…or an alligator. Never mind. He went towards Patience's room and let himself in, dragging that deep gash into the wall as he went. But, he heard Patience come back into the house, and he walked right into her."

"They broke out into a huge fight. At least, as huge a fight as can fit in this house. That's why everything in here is destroyed. She actually put up one intense battle, but he seemed to know her every move. He whipped her in the end, but I don't think he killed her. He took her away, and that's all I know. You'll have to ask the plants outside."

"Really? Thanks!" Meg sprinkled some more water on the plant and opened the shade a little wider. Then, she ran outside and wondered which plant to talk to.

"Hello, little flowers."

"Hello! Hello!" the flowers chirped. "It's a beautiful day! Hello! Hello! I love the sun."

Meg raised her eyebrows and cocked her head to the side.

"Oh, don't talk to them," said a wise, sly voice. "They are so immature."

Meg looked up and realized she was hearing the thoughts of the twisting vine that wrapped around the house.

"Do you know what happened to Miss Seek outside?" Meg asked.

"Of course I do!" the vine replied, a little indignant. "I know just about everything that goes on outside this house. Here, walk around to Patience's window."

Meg did so, stepping to the west side of the house. There was the one window in her room, and Meg could see that it was untouched.

"The night it happened, a very large and unusual cat came to the window," said the vine. "It had big teeth and black striped. It tapped at Patience's window with its claw until she woke up. She was very angry about being wakened. She came outside and chased that cat around into field for a few moments, until she suddenly went dashing back inside. There was a terrible ruckus inside the house, though I don't know quite what happened. Before long, a man in black dragged her out the door and used one of her SMART bots to leave. They headed east, but you'll need to talk to the trees over the forest to track his course. That's all I know."

"Thanks a bunch," Meg said slowly, caught up in thought. "I'd hug you, but you look like you might be poisonous."

"Poison oak and sumac," the vine said with a hint of pride.

Meg looked towards the trees of the forest, but she had a feeling that she already knew where Chase had taken Patience.

"Wait a second," Meg said, taking off the Green Thoughts for a moment to shake out her dreads. "If Chase wanted to kidnap Patience, why did one of his cats go to her window to wake her up?" She scratched her dreads and wandered back into the house. She followed the deep claw marks raked into the wall to the sliding bedroom door.

Standing in Seek's room, Meg glanced around. That glass of ice tea minus the ice was still there, with some kind of residue formed on the inside. She looked over the wardrobe filled with expensive suits, and the nightstand covered in papers.

Meg walked up to the nightstand and took a look at some of Miss Seek's pencils, pens, books, and some kind of Game Boy.

"Cool pen," Meg muttered, before turning away. Suddenly, she turned back around at it all made sense. "Oh! That's the Master Pen! That must've been what Chase was after!" She snatched it up and held it for a moment like a sacred object. "Good old Miss Seek! She hid it in plain sight! Chase probably would have searched for ever."

Meg paused and stared at the wall for a moment, listening to the poisonous vine outside.

"Jack probably would have searched forever. Chase would've found it."

"You know them?" Meg asked, impressed that the Green Thoughts could communicate through walls.

"I know Jack because Chase used stopped in here every once in a while and complain about him," the vine said.

"How many things has he tried to steal from Seek?" Meg exclaimed, holding on to the Master Pen tightly.

"He wasn't here to steal anything the other times. They just…well, they just talked, really."

Meg furrowed her brow and walked from Patience's room, trying to figure out yet another mystery.

"But, Miss Seek despises Chase Young! With a vengeance! Oh, whatever. Adults never make any sense, anyway."

Outside once more, Meg thanked the vine again and headed towards her SMART. She forgot to take off the Green Thoughts as she settled back into the driver's seat. She secured the Master Pen in a pocket between two over her shirts.

The SMART took off again, heading back towards China. As she flew, not far above the trees, the thoughts of the forest floated up to her.

"Yes, he went that way!"

"Keep going and you're sure to find him!"

As Meg got closer to China, and the Land of Nowhere, the personalities gradually changed.

"Turn back now, stupid girl! You'll get yourself killed!"

"You don't know what you're getting into."

"We'll tell him you're coming!"

That last thought made Meg think twice.

"Maybe I should go get Jack…He knows how to use this stuff," she looked at the bag of Shen Gong Wu. "And, he's in charge of all the SMARTs." Meg nodded, turning her bot towards Hollywood again. "Besides, I wouldn't want him to miss out on the fun."

Meg flew right past the Land of Nowhere. She could see the fearsome entrance to Chase's palace, but there didn't appear to be anything special going on. A wave of curiosity suddenly overtook her.

"Well, it won't hurt if I just take a peek inside," she snickered, bringing the SMART bot to a rest in the gray wasteland. "I'll just bounce in using bullet-time, and I'll be out again before anyone even sees me!"

And that's just what she did. Taking only the Master Pen with her, for safekeeping, she bounced up to the palace gates and let herself in through one of the stone entryway's fiery eyes.

Going into bullet time, Meg's entire wander through the palace took about a second in real time. She even stopped at points to try to see if things actually moved around her, specifically, Chase's jungle cats. They did move, but it was a lot like trying to watch the hour hand move. After all, Meg's average bullet time speed was, give or take, three thousand feet per second. That's just over a mile a second.

Meg took long, soaring steps up the marble steps that laced the palace, in search of either Chase or Miss Seek. Any normal person would have search in, say, the dungeon first, but…it's Meg.

On her way there, Meg passed an unusual sight. Wuya was there, clearly stealing Chase's Shen Gong Wu. When Meg passed her, Wuya had the Eagle Scope, Fountain of Hui, WuShun Geyser, and Serpent's tail gathered in her arms, and she was looking very devious. For the time, though, Meg was more concerned with finding Miss Seek and Chase Young.

Eventually, Meg found them in the throne room. However, the room was completely different.

"It looks like they're caught up in a showdown," Meg commented, looking at how the blue, stain glass windows were broken apart and each section was floating on its own. The braziers that normal sat in the throne room had broken down into a pool of molten rock and metal. Stone from the marble floor had shattered to form floating platforms at many different levels, clearly the only means the two had to keep from falling.

Meg was standing on the very edge of the showdown, but easily bounced in and zipped around the almost-frozen combatants.

Chase, in his spiked battle-armor, was right in the middle of a flying kick. Meg had never been so tempted in her life to go at someone's head with an electric shaver, but she didn't have one on hand.

Just a few feet away from him, also in mid-air, Patience looked like she was ready to evade the attack. Her clothes had changed, probably for the battle, to gold and black armor, similar to that of her SMARTs. She had upper-body armor with leaf-shaped shoulder guards and a black border running along most edges. Flexible black band-armor wrapped around his torso, and overlapped her skirt-like armor. It was the same color and design as her upper-body armor, but Meg was sure that, it was unwrapped from around the waist, it would be a perfect semi-circle shape. Lastly, under the armor, Patience wore all black, with cream-colored strips of material wrapped tight around his forearms and below her knees, making ninja-style gloves and boots.

"Cool," Meg said, having never seen Miss Seek in battle before. "I didn't know she could Kung-Fu fight."

Abruptly, Meg broke out humming that Everybody Love Kung-Fu Fighting song.

"Well, I guess I should go tell Jack what's going on," she shrugged, jumped from a platform to leave the throne room. Suddenly, she came to a lurching stop.

"Wait a second!" she screamed out. "If Chase beats Miss Seek, he'll turn her into a jungle cat! Or worse, a Chinchilla! Then what will Jack do about robots! Who will clean my teeth? All my other dentists have thrown themselves out windows!" Meg turned around sharply, remembering the time, a while back, she heard Patience talking to someone in the woods. (Chapter 7)

"That was Chase! Of course! Miss Seek said something about why she helped Jack...somthing about revenge or…she said…!" Meg pulled at her dreadlocks, trying to remember just what was said.