Chapter Four: The Enemy

All the dragons on the Circle of Fire had slithered from their subterranean home and were gathering around the Green Rock on the center of the island. That was where the Dragon Elders, the oldest and wisest of them, gathered to hold their meetings.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Dojo said as he gathered around the Rock with the rest of his kind. "What's so important that they had to call us all here?"

Uncle Tiamat shrugged as he pulled out a bone in his throat that was growing wrong. "I don't know, but we ought to listen anyway."

Dojo fell silent. He was starting to almost feel resentful. He had never met the elders before, and his only knowledge of the Circle of Fire came from the first few hundred years of his life. He was only a baby back then. It wasn't as if he could remember too much of what had happened before he had left this island and gone over to the Xiaolin temple, where there was this adorable little yellow-skinned kid with crazy ideas about making magical power objects or something…

"Welcome, brethren!" said a deep, melodious voice.

The dragons, who were chattering to themselves, turned to face the Green Rock. On top of the stone were two elderly lizards – each about twice as large as Dojo. They both had a rainbow plume on their heads and were staring balefully at the swarm of multi-colored lizards that they ruled over from time to time.

"How's it going?" Dojo called, causing every eyeball on the island to rotate towards him reproachfully.

The Elder dragons pretended as if they hadn't heard him, and continued: "We have called you here today, to the ancestral home of our species, for one of our oldest and greatest of traditions – the Dragoncircle Ceremonies!"

"The what now?" Dojo asked.

"The Dragoncircle ceremonies are held every 2000 years," The Elder continued as his acquaintance nodded vigorously. "It consists of food, games, food, food, food, and food."

Dojo licked his lips. "Now that's my kind of ritual!" He called, earning a chuckle from the crowd and a poisonous glare from the Elders.

"But," The Elder added coldly. "We cannot hold it this year, because of a very great power that currently threatens our health, safety, and our entire existence!"

The Elder made a pass in the air with his hand, conjuring an illusion of a man with a long, pale face, piercing green eyes, and a mane of thick black hair. It did not take even a second glance for most of the dragons in the audience to shriek. A few mothers even shielded the eyes of their children before cringing away from the vanishing image themselves.

"Chase Young!" Dojo gasped.

"Don't say that name here!" hissed Uncle Tiamat. "Do you have any idea how many people The Enemy has eaten?"

Dojo quivered. He remembered his own close call with Ch—The Enemy. He had been turned over to him by Master Monk Guan and spent a very uncomfortable stay with him. If it hadn't been for his friends – and Guan – he would have been food.

"Every year," The Elder rumbled. "The Enemy invades our islands with his army--," An illusion appeared depicting a caricature of Chase Young leading a troop of his feline warriors into combat against a number of full-sized dragons. "—and kidnaps several of our own--," The illusion changed to reveal the caricature holding two bleary-eyed old wyverns in both hands and licking his lips comically. "—and makes them into soup!" The illusion changed for the final time, revealing only an upside down bowl with a child's drawing of a dead dragon – complete with Xs for eyes.

"And when we hide," The silent Elder piped up. "He finds us and takes even more of our own!"

"Heylin Eyeball." Dojo muttered.

"Now, we have to take the fight to him!" The first Elder said.

"Exactly!" Uncle Tiamat called, and the other dragons began murmuring their assent.

The Elder took a deep breath. "This is why we will be choosing two brave heroes to send to face The Enemy in mortal combat!"

Mortal combat? With Chase Young? Dojo whistled. Boy, I don't envy the poor suckers who get stuck with THAT suicide assignment.

"When will we decide?" asked a worm.

"Now!" The Elder replied. His companion pulled out a hat and dropped it onto the Green Rock. The dragons could see that the hat was filled with tiny slips of paper. "In three seconds, we shall select the two mighty ones who will vanquish the heroes!" The Elder said. "Theme music, por favor!"

The other dragon cupped a fist to his mouth and began chanting, "Boom-shaka-laka-laka-boom! Boom-shaka-laka-laka-boom!"

The Elder pulled out a piece of paper and held it up above his head. "Our first champion will be…The Loch Ness Monster!"

There was a loud howl from the Scottish Loch clan congregated the right of the Cho-Cho clan. Dojo's cousin Nessie was hoisted up into the air where she stared out regretfully. Perhaps she was having second thoughts about showing up so soon…

"And our second champion…" The Elder began. "Will be…Tiamat Kanojo Cho, of the Northern Cho-Cho clan!"

Tiamat rumbled his assent as the old, mighty-looking black dragon flexed his muscles. He was obviously an excellent choice. If any team was going to be able to vanquish a blackguard who had devoured so many dragons, it would be one that combined Nessie's illusion magic and Tiamat's raw draconic strength. At least, that's what Dojo thought…

"Let's go take him down now!" A dragon called.

"Patience!" The Elder said. "He cannot be defeated without the use of…this!" As he spoke, his partner held up a spun-glass green disc that was about the same size of his hand.

That looks vaguely familiar, Dojo thought. Then it hit him.

"The Terrarcanum!" He yelled.

"What?" Tiamat demanded.

"That thing! The Elder's disc!" Dojo said, waving his arms spastically. "It's a Shen Gong Wu--,"

"A what?" Mama asked, sidling over.

"A mystical power artifact!" Dojo explained. "That disc is called the Terrarcanum. It's a Shen Gong Wu that…well, I can't remember what it does, but it's really dangerous! You have to get that out of here before it destroys us all! AAAAAAAARRRGH!"

Dojo's manic screaming was cut off with a sharp slap from his mother.

"Thank you." He said, gasping for air.

"What do you mean?" The Elder said harshly. "This thing fell from the heavens. It is obviously a relic of the Dead Dragon from Beyond the Red Planet, which has been sent to serve as a shield for whatever brave warrior goes up against The Enemy. And so it shall be; when the stars are right, we shall send forth our two noble champions with this relic to attack The Enemy before he attacks us."

"Yeah." Tiamat said. "You're just being paranoid, little nephew." He affectionately squashed the little dragon's head down into the dirt and gave him a noogie with his diamond knuckles.

"This meeting is adjourned!" The Elder boomed.

The dragons began to leave, and Dojo's panic began to escalate towards its fever-pitch once again. What was he going to do?

"I think we're getting close." Kimiko said as she examined the instruments aboard the Silver Manta Ray. "According to the locator, Dojo is something around a hundred feet down."

"Straight down?" Clay asked.

"That's what 'down' usually means." Kimiko replied.

Clay nodded and began heading down. The Silver Manta Ray plummeted for a few feet before pulling into a mad spiral through the clouds towards the ocean below. It seemed to the two passengers that the volcano-laden island was rushing up to meet them. But their thoughts were entirely focused on the desperate hope that their friend Dojo was safe on the beastly-looking rock.

'Proximity Alert! Proximity Alert!' Chirped a mechanical whining voice.

Clay blinked when he heard that. "What in tarnation does it mean by proximity--,"

His question was answered as an enormous fireball, easily twice the size of the Silver Manta Ray, erupted out of what appeared to be thin air. Clay jerked the wheel to the left and they narrowly skirted around the flames. But more were coming, each one bursting out of the air at the approaching aircraft. The dragon of the earth went left, and then right, then pulled up, and then zoomed down. The fireballs arced across the sky and redirected themselves toward them.

This time, Kimiko took the initiative. "Wudai Fire Shield!" She cried, and with a single gesture, she was able to conjure up a wall of pulsating fire chi that reflected the fireballs away. They spun away from the aircraft and exploded, creating a gigantic shockwave that rocked the two warriors even in the safety of their ship.

"Nice job, Clay!" Kimiko said.

Clay took a deep breath. "Thank you kindly. You weren't half bad yourself, Kimiko." He said. The Silver Manta Ray was pulling away from the island. "I sure hope that Dojo ain't on that volcanic island. He definitely wouldn't have been able to dodge them fireballs."

Kimiko nodded. "If I ever catch the guy who decided to make an island that tries to kill anyone who goes near it, I'll sue him so hard--,"

"Uh, Kimiko?" Clay said.

"—he won't even be able to—what?" Kimiko looked straight ahead. On the hood of the Silver Manta Ray was a great green worm with big, glowing round eyes. He looked almost like Dojo, except that he was so obviously different that the idea that it might be the same type of creature did not even cross the two Xiaolin warriors' minds.

"Hiss," The worm said. "Hiss. You are now the prisoner of – hiss – the Western Draco clan. Hiss!"

"Well, this is turning out to be an easy mission." Kimiko grumbled as the worm began sucking on the hood of the Manta Ray. Clay sighed as he brought the ship down towards the island.

Chase Young's warriors had just finished securing the Xiaolin temple. The monks had fought valiantly, but there were only a few of them against a horde of warriors, from various time periods wielding all of the strange arcane weapons that their leader provided.

A member of the Praetorian Guard that Chase had captured back in the days of ancient Rome had been responsible for breaking into the vault. The door was hard to open, but he had gotten the ingenious idea of using dynamite to blow it to the pieces.

"Which Shen Gong Wu do we need?" One of the underlings asked.

The chief warrior opened a drawer and quickly snatched the Wu inside. Then he signaled for his underlings to follow him out of the vault.

Most of Chase's warriors returned to the temple to make sure that any of the monks did not escape. They had left them tied up inside the meditation hall and were using Chase Young's 'sleep power' spell to keep them dazed and docile. The chief warrior was the only one outside, and he was standing atop the highest point on the Xiaolin temple grounds in order to face the setting sun.

"Lunar Locket!" He rumbled, waving the Shen Gong Wu about in the air. The sun seemed to flare as it sank beneath the horizon line, only to be replaced by a full view of the ever-present moon and the thousands of stars twinkling far away in the darkest reaches of space. "Lunar Locket!" The Roman said again. This time, he was using the locket's powers to manipulate the stars themselves. Chase had given him a drawing to memorize and he had to duplicate that in the sky.

"…just…about…" He muttered, very gently coaxing the celestial bodies into the right positions. "Done!" He lowered the Lunar Locket and admired his handiwork.

"Excellent job." Whispered the hoarse voice of Chase Young. "Hold the Xiaolin temple for now. Once my plan comes to fruition, I want the pleasure of demolishing it myself."