Dragon Power
"Dee-dee-dee…. Gonna gloat, gonna gloat, gonna gloat over my en-em-ies," Jack Spicer hummed as Mayun led him deep into the cavernous dungeons underneath his evil fortress. The dungeons were mostly empty apart from a few skeletons that had come with the place but Jack was looking forward to throwing anyone who so much as looked at him funny into one of the cells.
"Where are they?" He asked when he reached the end of the cellblock.
"I am unsure." Mayun said hesitantly. He wagged his tail as he trotted down the long length of the dungeon. "They do not appear to be in the cells."
"Oh, come on!" Jack said in annoyance. "How am I supposed to gloat over my enemies if I can't even see them? Did you think about that?"
"I am deeply sorry, Your Majesty." Mayun replied. "I will search the whole length of the dungeons for them."
"Don't bother," said Kimiko's voice out of the air.
"AIEEEE!" Jack shrieked, leaping backwards. He landed in a heap on the ground, only to be hoisted up into the air by the ankles. Clay materialized in front of him, holding him up in one hand and clutching the Shroud of Shadows in the other. His three fellow Xiaolin monks had bagged Mayun and were walking back towards them with the shape shifting demon in their grip.
Jack struggled to pull himself free but he couldn't. "Help! Somebody help!"
"Easy there, pardner." Clay said. "We need to tell ya something about your new allies."
"Allies?" Jack snorted. "They're not allies. They're my servants. They'll do whatever I say!"
"Is that what they told you?" Raimundo said.
"You are dealing with forces much more powerful than you are used to dealing with." Omi explained. "They serve you now only because it serves their ends to do so. The moment you cease to be useful, they shall not hesitate to destroy you!"
"It'll be messy, too," Raimundo added. "Echidna and Typhon, they'll pull out your organs through your eye sockets and--,"
"Enough!" Kimiko interrupted. "Seriously, Jack, you're in serious danger. Your only chance is to help us stop them."
"Why would I do that?" Jack said. "I don't believe your stupid stories. Those guys work for me and they've been nothing but loyal. They've given me weapons that are much more powerful than your Shen Gong Wu and they'll… oh." Jack's eyes lit up with realization. "Oh, now I feel dumb! Why am I standing here talking to you when I could be defeating you?"
He stretched out his hand and before the Xiaolin warriors could react to stop him he shouted, "SWORD OF TARTARUS! STOP THEM!"
The dark sword came whooshing through the air towards Clay's head. He ducked, but his cowboy hat wasn't so lucky. It was pinned to the far side of the wall along with the blade. The sword reversed directions in an instant, racing back towards them with murderous intent.
"Fist of Tebigong!" Omi lashed out at the sword with the metal gauntlet snug around his hand. He made contact… only to hear the dreadful scraping sound of the sword cutting through the Shen Gong Wu.
The two halves of the Fist of Tebigong fell to the ground and lay motionless.
"Oh…" Omi's eyes widened.
"Dang, that thing can destroy Shen Gong Wu!" Raimundo cried.
"Let's go!" Clay shouted, grabbing Omi by the head as he ran by. They were soon followed by Kimiko and Raimundo, who didn't even spare time to gather up the pieces of the broken Shen Gong Wu.
"There's no chance!" Jack called as they ran. "The Sword of Tartarus will get you no matter what you do." Once they were out of sight, Jack pressed a button on his wristwatch. "Jack-bots, come get me out of the dungeons. It's creepy in here."
A tarantula skittered past, followed closely by a giant two-headed ant.
"It's really creepy in here."
Dojo, Hannibal Bean, and the King of Storms were busy doing research in the Meditation Hall. Well, 'research' would be an exaggeration. The King of Storms was hovering over a scroll, making humming noises incessantly. Dojo was flipping frantically through several books at once without actually reading any of them. And Hannibal Bean was passed out on the floor near the fireplace after poring over the voluminous 101 Very Boring Magical Secrets by Monk Stupor.
"Got anything?" Dojo asked the King of Storms.
"Hmm?" The King replied.
Dojo groaned. "Are you even reading?"
"Reading what?" The King demanded.
"We're supposed to be researching Echidna and Typhon! Do you want the Earth to be destroyed!? Huh!? HUH!?" Dojo shrieked.
"Well, forgive me for not knowing the purpose of this exercise." The King said. "I have been missing the power of sight ever since I lost my physical body. Researching these scrolls is impossible."
Dojo blinked slowly. "What do you mean 'lost your physical body'?"
"Mayun's betrayal destroyed my corporeal body," The King explained. "But my soul of course remains. Only by killing him will I ever have the chance to pass on into a next world."
"Interesting…" Dojo said. "Do you think that there might be a way to bring back your real body?"
This actually seemed to give the King of Storms pause. "There… there must be a way. But it would require frightfully powerful magic. I doubt that you have access to any powerful magicians."
Dojo slyly glanced over at the sleeping Hannibal Bean. The reformed legume opened his eyes slowly and stared back at him.
"What?" said Bean.
Jack clambered into the throne chamber at the head of a company of Jack-bots.
'Now is the time,' began the voice of the pool. 'To bring to full life your greatest and most loyal servant.'
"Don't we need that Diyu Prism thing?" Jack asked.
'I have retrieved it.' The voice said. The water rippled steadily and a plain glass cube rose to the surface. 'And the Golden Tiger Claws as well.'
"How?" Jack demanded.
'By magic. With each passing minute, I grow steadily stronger. You must resurrect me now so that I can lead my armies into battle and conquer the world!'
"Okay, sure," Jack Spicer replied. He slipped the Golden Tiger Claws onto one hand and reached out for the Diyu Prism with the other. "Wait, how is this going to make me king of the world? I think I should lead my armies myself, so that the whole world will see my genius!"
For the longest time, the creature in the water was silent. 'Your Majesty,' it began, and for the first time those words began to sound insincere. 'Once I am reborn, I will bring the world to you. In fact, I can remake the world in your image, just as I have made this throne city for you. But before any of that can happen, I must be reborn.'
Jack nodded. "Fine then." He closed his eyes, and then said, "Golden Tiger Claws!" He slashed at the air, creating a swirling vortex above the pool. Gritting his teeth, he hurled the glass cube into it, shouting, "Diyu Prism!"
The result was a burst of light and sound. Jack crouched and winced as the noise of shrieking and wailing took over his throne room, followed by flashes of color. The throne room was awash with blues and reds and yellows and purples. Out of the slits of his eyes, Jack could see that everything around him seemed to be warping as ripples emanated from the portal that he created. Oh boy, what have I done?
"What have you done?" Omi's raspy voice came from somewhere above him.
"I AM REBORN," said a horribly deep voice in response.
"Oh… oh… oh…" groaned Raimundo.
Out of the portal stepped a solitary figure, at least 15 feet tall. It stood upright like a man but in every other respect it was like a great overgrown lizard, covered with vibrantly-colored red and purple scales. It had two long whipping tails. It also had two heads.
Each head had big white eyes that looked like glowing balls of fire. Long, poisonous fangs extended from its mouths.
"I am Echidna," said one of the heads, a little quieter than before. "I am the Queen of the Dragons, the consort of Typhon, the Empress of the Shadows, the Queen of the Underworld… but above all, I am… the end of humanity."
Jack and the Xiaolin monks just stared at her. "Oh… okay." Jack said in a high-pitched voice. "Well, I'll just be going now…" He took off via heli-pack, heading for the smashed glass ceiling of his throne room. He maybe made it an inch or two off the ground before Echidna's tail lashed out and wrapped itself around his ankle. In a heartbeat, Jack was wrapped tightly in her coils.
"Now, now, Your Majesty, you cannot leave yet." Echidna said in a soft voice. "This is your shining hour. If it wasn't for you, none of this would be possible. You deserve a reward fitting for an archvillain of your magnitude."
"Archvillain?" Jack gasped. "Me? Well, thanks, but I wouldn't say 'arch'villain. 'Emperor of the Shadows' is good enough for me."
"No, Your Majesty." Echidna said. "You won't have to hide in the shadows anymore. I will make you King of Earth."
"King of Earth?" Jack said. "King of Earth? I love it! Not the name, but the power." Then a thought struck him. "Um… if I'm King of Earth, then… what are you?"
"I have much bigger plans that just the Earth, King Jack." Echidna said. "You will rule Earth while I rule the universe."
It was then that the Xiaolin warriors finally broke free of their shock.
"Not if we stop you first!" Kimiko declared.
"I almost forgot about you!" Echidna exclaimed. "How ever did you escape the Sword of Tartarus? It was supposed to continue until it had drank its fill of your blood."
Kimiko held up a pickle jar. Trapped inside was the Sword of Tartarus, shrunk down to the size of a grain of rice. Omi was holding the Changing Chopsticks.
Echidna seemed delighted. "Excellent work! I never would have thought of shrinking it! But really, you should have allowed it to destroy you. The Sword would have at least given you a quick and relatively painless death. I, on the other hand, will not."
"Xiaolin dragons, attack!" Raimundo screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Wudai Crater – EARTH!" Clay roared, hitting the ground hard with his knee. A fissure split across the smoky-glass tiles of the throne room. Echidna waited until it was inches away before casually stepping aside and waving a claw airily.
"Elemental attacks?" She asked disbelievingly. "Very well. I'll play along." She took a deep breath, then roared, "EARTH!"
The shockwave blew apart the tiles that Clay was standing on. The whole room was showered in bits of glass and when the smoke cleared the Xiaolin dragon of the Earth was slumped against the wall, motionless.
"Who is next?" Echidna asked.
"Oh man, this is so cool!" Jack giggled.
"She can use our elemental attacks!" Kimiko said frantically to the others.
"You noticed?" Echidna said mockingly. "Years of devouring Xiaolin dragons who stray too far from the beaten path have given me quite the arsenal. For example…" She opened her jaws wide. "FIRE!"
Flames seemed to issue out of the air around her, setting the walls and the ceiling ablaze. The three Xiaolin monks dodged falling beams and fireballs as they tried to get a good lock on the dragon queen beside the pool.
"This is not working!" Omi cried.
"Yeah, we'd better go." Raimundo said. "I'll grab Clay, the rest of you blast a way out of here."
"We already have one." Kimiko said, pointing at the smashed ceiling.
Raimundo nodded and took off. He hefted Clay over his shoulder, staggering for a bit under his fellow monk's weight. "If we make it back to the Temple, I'm calling Jenny Craig! Oof!" He saw Omi propelling himself up with a torrent of water and Kimiko flying away using the Longi Kite. "Yeah, did anyone even bother to wait up for the Shoku Warrior? No? Didn't think so!" He stretched out one arm and summoned a maelstrom that sent him and Clay spinning through the air after them.
Echidna could not be seen amid the roaring flames and collapsed wreckage of the destroyed throne room but Jack was visible making a beeline away from his former palace. Raimundo thought about going after him for a moment but decided against it. The first priority was getting to the temple; there, they could make plans to stop the evil dragon.