The Beast's Mouth
The Temple was dark and still when Omi arrived. No one was on guard, not even one of the indescript monks who had very few duties around the place. His flying companion, the King of Storms, was chittering along beside him, acting like a torch light as he crept through the many rooms of the monastery. He wondered what was going on; it was unlike Raimundo to let his guard down this much, especially after the disaster that had taken place at Master Fung's Temple. Omi hoped that his friends weren't in trouble.
His hopes were granted when he reached their rooms. Raimundo, Kimiko, and Clay were all safe and in bed while Dojo was reclining on the wall next to a half-eaten bag of potato chips. Even Hannibal Bean was still around, resting in the Meditation Hall. Omi thought about waking them up to tell them about his discovery, but decided not to. After the events of the past few days, they deserved a break.
He yawned.
And so do I, he thought.
"Well, aren't you going to tell them? Huh? Huh?" The King asked.
"Be silent!" Omi hissed when he heard one of his friends moan in their sleep.
"You promised!" whined the King.
"At dawn! Be silent until then, please!" Omi said. "Do you have a way to rest yourself?"
The King seemed to nod; it was hard to tell because he was only a ball of light with wings. He flew back away from Omi's head and collapsed into a single miniscule point that was somehow more intensely bright than he was before. Omi watched him flit about, searching for a place to stash himself. When it vanished into a cupboard somewhere, Omi felt safe to turn around and find his own room.
The monks slept for the next two days. It took Dojo, normally a late riser, to wake them up.
"What is it now?" Raimundo groaned when Dojo started shaking him awake.
"Nothing too important," Dojo admitted. "I just thought you guys would like to see something neat."
Raimundo joined Kimiko, Clay, and Omi out into the courtyard. For a second, he had no idea what they were looking at. Then Dojo tugged at his pants leg and drew his attention to the mountains.
Or, rather, where the mountains used to stand.
"You've got to be kidding... " Raimundo murmured.
The mountains had been levelled completely. In their place stood what appeared to be a giant city that had apparently sprang up overnight. The material looked like dark blue metal, shining in the sunlight with a steely sheen. The architecture itself was impossible; buildings formed spirals in the air, and some of the towers extended at a slant that was unheard of in urban settings or nature.
"Three guesses who built all that." Kimiko said.
Raimundo tilted his gaze even further up. There, above the highest buildings, floated a giant flag at least 30 feet across. Emblazoned on the red background was the face of Jack Spicer, goggles and all, grinning like a lunatic as he surveyed the land below.
"This must be the Crown's magic." Omi declared. "Jack Spicer activated it and now he has... a very strange lair."
"He's planning something." Clay said.
"Really? Do you think?" Raimundo muttered. "The real question is what?"
"Well, you can't plot against Spicer on an empty stomach." Dojo said. "I made roast beast!"
Dojo dragged them all into the kitchen and set them down in front of bowls filled to the brim with something that was hopefully chicken broth with lumps in it. He had applied a liberal amount of salt and pepper and one taste made Kimiko start gagging. Clay was wolfing it down and Raimundo managed to spoon some of it into his mouth. Omi ignored it entirely; he had just remembered the King of Storms who was hiding somewhere in the kitchen.
"My friends, I recently met a very interesting character," Omi announced. He let out a very hoarse-sounding whistle. The King of Storms came zipping out, as exuberant as can be.
"Oh, where were you?! I thought that I had been abandoned! Again! I am quite afraid of such things, as you can see. If you do not help me, I will never stop Mayun."
"What do you know about Mayun?" Raimundo demanded.
The King suddenly noticed the four other people in the room besides Omi. "Who are you?"
"These are my friends, the Xiaolin Dragons." Omi said. "Raimundo, the Dragon of the wind. Kimiko, the Dragon of fire. And Clay, the Dragon of the earth."
"Don't forget me!" Dojo said. "The Dragon of snoozing. Ha ha, I kill myself sometimes."
"Exactly. Whatever." Omi said, not listening.
"Yes, Raimundo," the King said. "I know Mayun from way back in the beginning of time, when he and I were allies against Typhon and Echidna."
"You never told me that!" Omi said.
"We once fought together against the evil dragons, but he betrayed me to them in exchange for power and wealth. He trapped me in the earth and left me there until Omi valiantly rescued me."
"Well, we took care of Mayun for you." Raimundo said, stirring the soup absently.
"You could not have!" The King said.
"Oh, yes we did." Clay said. "For such a tough guy, he's pretty darn weak when you get the drop on him."
"No, you do not understand." The King insisted. "Mayun is forever tied to Echidna, with whom he made his sinister pact. As long as she exists in some form, so does he. Only by destroying her completely can this hateful enemy finally cease to plague the world. However, I am so, so, so very weary. I fear that I cannot defeat the she-dragon alone. I need your help. Your help, Omi, and that of your noble order."
"That's kind of a long-term goal for us now." Kimiko said. "Our Wudai Quest says that we're supposed to keep Echidna from invading Earth, but there's nothing in my schedule that says we have to go and find her."
"Don't forget that Jack's doing something plumb crazy with our scenery that we're going to have investigate." Clay said. "I ain't sure that the two things are connected, so I was thinkin' that we ought to work with one problem at time. Spicer, then Mayun, then Echidna and Typhon, if we can find 'em."
"I agree." Hannibal Bean said, hopping into the room.
"Where were you all this time?" Clay demanded.
"Guarding the Temple while y'all were snoozing." Bean said. "Didn't want to wake you all up, see, so I took care of everything while you were resting. Dojo helped me, too."
"Yup. I was defending the kitchen. Quite fearlessly, if I may say so myself." Dojo piped up.
"You may not." Raimundo replied.
"Why can we not pursue Echidna first?" Omi said. "It is our imperative to defend the world against all evil, not just Jack Spicer."
"Spicer's easier, though." Clay countered. "And he might have some clues as to what Echidna and Typhon are planning."
"We are talking about the same guy, right?" Raimundo said. "Red hair? Pale skin? Creepy infected-looking red eyes? Totally clueless? If he knows anything about what's going on right now, I'll eat your hat."
"I would advise against that, friend Raimundo." Omi interjected. "His hat is very stringy and fibrous."
"Try some of this delicious gazpacho instead." Dojo offered, pushing Raimundo's bowl closer to his chest.
"Gazpacho? I thought this was roast beast." Clay said.
A new round of bickering fell throughout the room, and for a while everyone except for Rai and Clay went completely ignored.
"Guys! Guys!" Kimiko shouted. The two arguing monks fell silent. "We don't need to argue over this just yet. You know why? Because we don't even know where Echidna is right now! We should be doing research to find her, but that doesn't mean we have to forget about Jack too. We can do both things at the same time."
Everyone pondered this for a moment.
"Good point... " Raimundo murmured. "Very good point."
"Thank you." Kimiko said calmly.
"How about we... split up?" Raimundo suggested.
"NO!" Kimiko, Omi, Clay, and Dojo shouted at once.
Raimundo looked stunned. "Okay, okay, jeez, never mind. New plan. Kimiko, Clay, Omi, and I'll go after Jack, while Dojo, Hannibal Bean, and the glowing hairball over there will do some more research and Echidna. Is that good for everyone?"
Everyone nodded. Clay still looked doubtful about leaving Hannibal Bean alone but after the ex-villain had stayed and protected the Temple for several days all by himself he didn't feel like raising an objection. Kimiko and Omi were mollified at the compromise and Dojo seemed grateful to have such a non-dangerous assignment.
"Well, it's settled then." Raimundo said. "We leave after lunch."
Lunch consisted of three-day old pizza and something that was hopefully not toenail clippings. The monks forced it all down, went into the courtyard for some light training, and did one last patrol around the Temple. When they reached the library, they had gone to the trouble of taking down all of the reference books from the top shelves so that Dojo and the other two members of the 'Research Team' as they were being called would be able to get to it much easier.
"We'll do our best." Hannibal Bean said, sitting on top of a thick copy of Bogeymen II: The Curse of the Two Bogeymen.
"That's nice," Raimundo replied.
Leaving was the easy part. Since Dojo was staying behind, they took the cushy Silver Manta Ray instead. Jack Spicer's new city was surprisingly close to Master Guan's monastery; they had only been flying for twenty minutes when they got close enough to count the threads on Jack's obscenely large banner.
"That's definitely Jack's work alright," Kimiko remarked. "He's the only boy in the world who is enough of an egomaniac to make something like that."
Raimundo smoothed back his hair and checked his teeth in the side mirror. "Yeah, he reminds me of someone that I know." He shot a glance at Clay.
Clay clenched the steering wheels a bit tighter as he took the ship into a sharp downward spiral. There were two walls separating Jack's city from the outside world. A small group of Jack-bots zoomed to-and-fro in the gap between them, on patrol for any sign of intruders. If Clay could navigate around them and slip past the walls, the Silver Manta Ray would be able to get in without drawing any undue attention. But the Jack-bots looked really alert; this was going to be tricky.
He eased the vehicle forward, tentatively passing over the first wall and immediately diving down to avoid being spotted by the Jack-bots flying above.
"Go left." Raimundo urged. "I think I saw a gap in the walls a few metres to the left."
"Just blast the stupid things." Kimiko said. "They're only like ten of them anyway."
"Use your Tiger instincts, Clay." Omi added.
Clay tried to tune them out. He was now maneuvering the Manta Ray sideways along the length of the wall. There was a small space where the Jack-bots weren't occupying. He could fly up quickly and be over the second wall before they noticed.
"Tiger instincts…"
"The gap! Try the gap before we get caught!"
"Fine, if you don't want to take the easy way… "
"SHUSH!" Clay shouted.
Every robot head swiveled towards them. Through the tinted windows of the Manta Ray, the monks could see their eyes flashing dangerously as they flew around the flying machine.
"Intruder alert." Said one Jack-bot, and all of a sudden they all began repeating it in their dry, robotic voices.
"Intruder alert."
"Intruder alert."
"Intruder alert."
Raimundo popped open the hatch. "We're not intruders! We're… uh… pizza delivery men."
"Pizza?" A Jack-bot asked. On cue, its fellows began repeating the word 'pizza' over and over.
"Yes! Pizza delivery persons. We're here to deliver a… uh… pizza." Kimiko said.
"Show—show us the pizza." The Jack-bot said. Its fellow concurred with a series of monotonous beeping. They swarmed around the Silver Manta Ray, eager to get a glimpse of the mythical pizza.
Omi stuck out one yellow hand containing a set of wooden chopsticks. "Changing Chopsticks!" He whispered. The Jack-bots let out a dry squeal as they shrunk down to the size of grains of rice.
"That'll learn 'em." Clay said.
"D'you think they had time to get off the alarm?" Kimiko asked.
Clay took off, surmounting the second wall and entering Jack's city proper.
"Aw, jeez…" Raimundo groaned when he saw what was inside the city.
Jack-bots patrolled every corner. Small groups of black-armored knights made their way through the city streets. What was most troubling, however, was the presence of the four military barracks, and the monstrous entities that dwelled within.
"Spicer really is going all-out." Clay said.
"This dude has everything." Raimundo said with a whistle.
"Nonsense. He clearly still lacks Tiger instincts." Omi said. "And that, my friends, is something that we possess with all abundance. This plan of his shall not stand before the mighty hand of the Xiaolin." The littlest monk held up his head proudly and surveyed Jack's fortifications with a mixture of apprehension and something approaching excitement.
All four of the Xiaolin monks had their doubts, but they all knew that there was no turning back now. They were inside Jack's new citadel now. They remembered what their duty was. They had to defeat the Heylin side or give over the world to a thousand years of darkness.