U.F.O.
Jack Spicer's mansion looked the same as it always did, except with a slight reduction in the amount of Jack-bots that were floating around. Usually, the building was swarming with guards but when Omi arrived, there were only two Jack-bots on duty. He didn't even need to fight them; he just leapt through an open window and descended down into the basement.
Jack had scattered his belongings all over his lair. Robot equipment from a thousand or more bizarre machines tripped Omi up as he stumbled through the dark and gloomy place. "Jack Spicer could learn a lesson in cleanliness." Omi muttered as he picked up a brown sock that was sitting in an upturned bowl of pudding. If the Crown was here, there was no way Omi would find it. He would be surprised if even Jack could find it in all of this mess. He decided to try the vault next. At least that couldn't be as messy as the rest of Jack's lair.
"Yech!" As soon as he opened the vault, several pounds of pencil shavings, used napkins, old toothpicks, and plastic forks and spoons came pouring out. Omi managed to jump out of the way just before the mess nearly buried him. "How is any of this Shen Gong Wu?" He demanded, tenatatively picking through the mess in search of the Crown.
"INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!" A tinny mechanical voice boomed. "ACTIVATE SYSTEM ALPHA ANNIHILATION X!"
Omi turned quickly, spotting the closet door on the opposite side of the basement sliding open to reveal rows of Jack-bots. Instinctively, he assumed a combat stance. The Jack-bots just stood there. There were twenty of them, lined up in neat rows of five and completely immobile. After watching them hover in place for five minutes, Omi cautiously left the crane stance and padded towards the robots. He spent a few more moments examining their blank, steely visages, then tapped the first robot with his knuckle. It swayed back and forth before collapsing, knocking over all of the other robots like dominoes. It was then that he noticed that the Jack-bots were all made of cardboard.
"This is the fearsome Alpha Annihilation X system?" Omi said mockingly. He turned away in disgust, stumbling over yet another glass of water that Jack had carelessly left lying around. As he hit the floor hard, he noticed a steady hissing sound coming from behind him. He had expected it to be a gas leak, but when he bent down towards it, he noticed that it was coming from a small shaft of light was emerging from a crack in the floorboards. "Hello?" He said, waving his hand into it. To his surprise, it felt solid.
"Hello," said a voice from the light.
"Who are you?" Omi asked.
"I am... the King of Storms."
Clay stood atop the tallest mountain in the mountain range. Up there, he could see all across the sea, and view the vast plains that surrounded Master Monk Guan's Temple. If anything was approaching from any direction, he would see it before it got within shouting distance. And with the arsenal that he had brought with him, he would be ready no matter what Jack Spicer or anyone else came up with.
As he waited there, he got to thinking about the way the battle between good and evil had been progressing so far. It looked like they were winning. Chase Young had been rousted during the Dragoncircle Ceremonies several weeks before, and Hannibal Bean's evil had apparently been purged from him by magic. But the Xiaolin Warriors were still making mistakes. They had been helpless to stop Chase Young from gaining access to the Lunarcanum and the Terrarcanum, and they couldn't stop the old Xiaolin Temple from being destroyed during his invasion. They couldn't even stop Kimiko and Omi from losing their chis. Even though all of those problems had worked out alright, they still kind of worried Clay. What if they messed up on something big in the future, something that they couldn't fix in the end. What would they do then?
Raimundo will work it out. Clay assured himself. Master Fung made him team leader for a reason. I'm sure he knows what he's doing.
But another, even more worrisome part of himself, doubted that. You don't really buy that, don't ya, cowboy? I bet you think you could do a better job.
No, I don't. Clay insisted. I never wanted to be the Shoku Warrior. That's for Omi and Raimundo, not me.
Clay quickly stifled that other part of himself. He didn't need to distract himself with internal conversations. Not while Jack Spicer was messing around with one of the most powerful Shen Gong Wu ever created. "Don't need that, no sirree," He said to himself, and tried to put all such thoughts out of his mind. He had to concentrate on the matter at hand.
A faint whistling sound seemed to echo from above his head. Clay looked up and saw a tiny dark shape moving rapidly through the sky. What's that? He thought. It moved closer. I sure hope it ain't a bad guy.
"Maybe Jack won't attack this time." Dojo suggested. He and Kimiko were on busy patrol over Master Guan's monastery, keeping a close watch out for the forces of evil.
"I doubt it too." Kimiko admitted. "He's probably still trying to forge an evil alliance with one of the other villains."
"Then... why are we out here?" Dojo asked.
"Hey, he might attack." Kimiko said. "We have to keep prepared, just in case."
"Oh." Dojo closed his eyes, gently drifting around and around in a circle. Kimiko had chosen the most boring of the four tasks, but it was still important. The Heylin side had almost won before by splitting them in half and sending them scurrying around to all corners of the globe. They were nearer now than they had been before, but they would still need speedy backup; Kimiko was perfectly placed now to provide this to her friends. Except for Omi, of course, but all he had to contend with was Jack Spicer.
Kimiko peered off at something in the distance. "Dojo, did you bring the Eagle Scope?"
"No. Why? Did you see something?"
"I think so." Kimiko said. "C'mon, let's fly over for a closer look."
Raimundo and Hannibal Bean had just finished several rounds of air hockey and were going up to relieve two of the other monks on guard duty. One of them was a very old, and very fat cook who looked immensely thirsty. "The fountain's dried up, young monk." He wheezed, wiping his sweat with the back of his hands. Rai glanced across the courtyard to see that he was right; without the towering spouts of water that issued forth from the top of the waterspout, the fountain looked like it had been fossilized.
"Here, try this." Bean said. He handed the monk a cool bottle of water, from the same case that he and Raimundo had been drinking from while playing sports. Normally, the cook would have been suspicious but right now he was too parched to care. He removed the cap and poured the freshing drink down his mouth, stopping only once to cough and choke as some of it sprayed into his nose. Rai watched the cook and his companion walk off then and followed Bean out into the courtyard where they could begin guarding the Temple.
"Whatever happened to that master of yours?" Bean asked. "Guan?"
"Oh, he and Master Fung left a while ago. They're hunting down Chase Young." Rai explained. After a moment's thought, he said, "You wouldn't happen to know where he is, would you?"
"Naw, he's secretive when he needs to be." Bean said. "It ain't real likely that Fung and Guan are gonna catch him unless he wants them to. Still wish them the best of luck, though. They're gonna need it."
Raimundo nodded. He knew firsthand how powerful Chase Young could be. The Heylin warrior was a strong and clever fighter and his army was unparalleled whether in human or feline form. If some of the skeletons he had raised earlier still served him, then defeating him would be tougher still. He could only hope that Master Fung and Master Guan had a good plan so that they could bring in Chase before he could join up with Wuya or another of their dormant enemies.
"Raimundo!" said Bean.
"Hmm?" Rai looked down at the diminutive creature.
"Look up there!" He pointed one tendril at the sky. Raimundo squinted in the direction that Bean was pointing.
"I don't see... " He murmured. There it is! He narrowed his eyes even further. It looked like something was falling towards them at a violent speed. "C'mon, let's go check it out."
"Who's gonna watch the Temple?" asked Bean.
"Good point." Rai replied. "I'll go, you watch." He handed Bean a keyring. "These are the keys to the Shen Gong Wu vault. Only use them if there's an emergency."
"Emergency?" Bean murmured.
"Fire raining from the sky, demons tunnelling their way to the surface world, an advancing army of darkness marching onto the Temple with torches and spears... you know, typical Xiaolin business."
Bean looked oddly nervous as Raimundo took off. For a moment, just a moment, he felt a twinge of worry as he soared into the sky, borne by a gust of wind. Then he dismissed it. It wasn't worth worrying about. Hannibal Bean would be fine, alone with the monks and all those Shen Gong Wu.