The Gateway

The security around Chase's lair was looser than Rai had expected. Apparently, Chase Young didn't think that the monks could get out of their cells. There was only one guard in the cell hallway, a Roman hoplite carrying a spear.

"Hey!" Raimundo said as he and Hannibal stepped out of the cell.

The guard turned around, spotted them, and raised a spear as if to throw it. Before he could draw his arm back, Rai charged forward and slammed into the guard with his shoulder, knocking him into a wall and sending him into swift unconsciousness.

"Let's leave. I ain't plannin' on fightin' every demon hombre in this place." Hannibal said.

"I have to see my friends first." Rai said firmly.

"Fine, have it your way." Hannibal said.

The hoplite had had a map on him, and there was a small prison section marked on the floor just below that one. Without another word, Raimundo and Hannibal Bean descended down a narrow staircase and wound up in a small, closet-like corner of the building.

"Mmm! Mmm!"

"There's someone in here." Raimundo whispered. He edged cautiously across the narrow corridor and almost tripped over something solid that was on the ground.

"Mmm!"

Raimundo looked down and saw that the object was a cage. It contained Dojo.

"Dojo, are you alright?" Raimundo asked. He grabbed the cage and smashed it against the wall, then pulled Dojo free from the wreckage.

"Wow." Dojo gasped. "That was... "

"Are you alright?" Raimundo asked.

"Yeah." Dojo said. His skin was paler now, and his eyes were wide and veined. "It's just... hey, what is HE doing here?"

He pointed to Hannibal Bean, who was standing in the background with his arms crossed.

"He's... he's helping us right now." Raimundo explained quickly. "Did you see what happened to the others?"

"The warriors took them and put them in these stone tombs underneath us. They said that they were going to come back as soon as they found a tomb big enough to hold me even after I transformed. And Tiamat, they put him in a cage like that one, and... oh, I'll get that Chase Young if it's the last thing I do!"

Dojo was breathing heavily now.

"Come on! We're going after him." Rai said. Dojo finally calmed down and jumped onto Raimundo's back.

"Now, we ought to go. Chase's men are gonna return soon." Hannibal said. The Ying-Ying Bird flew off, and Raimundo and Dojo ran off after them.

They had barely gotten back to the staircase when they heard the thunderous footsteps of a horde of evil warriors chasing after. There was no time to look for the others; Raimundo could only hope that he and Dojo would be able to get back the stolen Shen Gong Wu and use them to release them before it was too late.

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"Messy, ain't he?" Bean remarked as they stepped out of the building and into the open air. Raimundo looked up to where the legume was pointing and saw that Chase had left a huge trail of floating debris in his wake, the remains of the island that he had destroyed to increase his own might. Judging by where the trail of island remnants vanished, Chase was somewhere just beyond the edge of the monastery... or at least, beyond the edge of where the monastery once stood.

"We have to keep going!" Raimundo said. He could hear Chase's forces behind them.

Dojo dropped to the ground and grew to his full size. "Now, it's your turn to ride!" He exclaimed.

"There they are!" Three soldiers ran out of the lair, drawing their swords. "After them!"

Dojo and the Ying-Ying Bird flew higher than the soldiers could reach, and by the time all of their reinforcements had arrived, both were nothing more than two tiny specks in the sky.

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Raimundo and Dojo flew beside Hannibal Bean and his bird in silence for a while. Then, Dojo flew Rai aside to talk to him without Bean hearing.

"Hey, Rai, I think there's something funny about those two Shen Gong Wu." Dojo whispered.

"Ya think?" Raimundo muttered.

"No, no, seriously! Just before the first one activated, I got a Summoning from the Ring of Fire Island. I thought it was a coincidence at first, but when the second activated on the island, I started suspecting that there might be a connection. Maybe they draw their power from the dragons!" Dojo said.

Raimundo thought this over for a moment. "You might be right. When we rescue Master Fung and the others, they can help us figure that out. But until then, we have to concentrate on getting them both away from Chase Young and..." He shot a glance at Bean, who was still flying alongside them. "Him."

"Him who?" Dojo asked, puzzled.

"Hannibal Bean!" Raimundo grunted. The evil legume didn't react at all.

"Aaaah." Dojo said, nodding sagely. "Eh, we can take him."

More like, I can take him. Rai thought.

Chase Young had left even more of a mess near the Chasm of Everywhere. In the sky, an inky-black cloud of pollution expanded, infecting the clouds and making the thunderstorm overhead worse. The foliage near the chasm had been completely destroyed, leaving a barren wasteland that seemed to stretch on for miles. But the parts that caught everyone's eye the most were the skeletons that were lying across the landscape, their eyes gleaming and their bones rattling with unnatural life.

Dojo gulped.

"What were you saying about, 'We can take him' again?" Raimundo asked.

Dojo and the Ying-Ying Bird dropped down and crouched behind a wide rock formation. They could see Chase Young standing in front of the skeleton horde, but he could not see them.

"Within an hour, you will be at your full powers." Chase announced. "I will join you with my own host, and together we will conquer every continent on the face of the earth! You will be loyal soldiers, relentless and almighty!"

The skeletons let out a raspy noise that sounded like a grotesque parody of a dragon's roar.

"Poor deluded man." Hannibal said.

"Shh!" Dojo and Raimundo hissed.

"He thinks those dragons will be loyal to him." Hannibal continued, his voice getting loud enough to be heard over the gasping of the skeleton creatures. "He doesn't even know that they will serve only their true masters, the great worms of the Dream World."

"Do-you-want-him-to-hear-us?" Raimundo said between gritted teeth. Dojo tried to curl his tail around Bean's mouth but he merely leapt aside and continued his loud dialogue.

"Oh, sure, they'll go along with him for a l'il while, but as soon as the true masters come back, they'll turn -- yeah, they will -- and devour him whole. He won't stand a chance!"

"Who goes there?" Chase demanded.

Before they could flee, Chase raised a hand. Stone chains whipped out of nowhere and wrapped themselves around Raimundo's arms and legs. "Aw, no!" Raimundo cried, but it was to no avail. Chase dragged him through the air and forced him to float beside him.

"You escaped!" Chase said, grinning. "How ever did you do it?"

"None of your business!" Raimundo retorted.

Chase shook his head. "Ah, but it is, my friend. My business... and that of my scary friends here!"

Raimundo quickly glimpsed the skeleton dragons and shuddered. Being this close to them was even worse than espying them from afar.

"You want to save your friend, right?" Hannibal said, finally using a sensible whisper.

Dojo nodded.

"If you can get those two Shen Gong Wu away from him, his powers will diminish... and those skeletons will vanish, too." Hannibal explained.

Dojo desperately wanted to make up for his defeat earlier, as well as to take revenge on Chase for all that he had done. But he had skeletons now, and if there was one rule that Dojo always lived by it was to always stay away from guys who hung out with the living dead. Nothing good could come of it.

"Oh, alright!" Dojo grumbled. Gotta take one for the team. He stretched to his full size -- a feat that was become harder and harder as time went on -- and soared out from behind the rock.

"Back again, I see!" Chase shouted.

"Chase Young!" Dojo boomed, trying to sound as ferocious as his Uncle Tiamat did. "Give up now!"

"No." Chase said. He leapt towards Dojo as if attempting to jump down the dragon's throat. Dojo reared back and inhaled sharply, creating a whirlwind that seemed to suck Chase into it like a vacuum. Chase managed to flip out of the way but the Shen Gong Wu he had strapped to his body came loose and went flying.

"Don't worry!" Dojo yelled. "I got 'em!"

He stretched out his hands... only to grab nothing but air.

"Hannibal Bean!" Raimundo shouted. Bean cackled loudly as he held up the Lunarcanum and the Terrarcanum.

"That's right. The Shen Gong Wu belong to me now!" Bean said.

"I should have known that you would be behind this." Chase Young remarked. "Surrender to me now, and perhaps I'll let you leave in one piece."

"You ain't callin' the shots anymore." Bean pointed out.

Dojo was watching the two Heylin warriors face off. Hannibal Bean was holding all of the power now. As soon as he dealt with Chase Young, he would finish off him and Raimundo, and possibly even go after the other monks back at the lair. And, as usual, there was nothing he could do about it. After all, he was just the comedy relief dragon...

Maybe I AM comedy relief, Dojo thought angrily to himself. Maybe I can't do anything cool or amazing, but if there's something I CAN do, it's to screw up something. And now's my chance.

He took a deep breath and focused. Years' worth of Texas Tinhorn Salsa Sauce started to well up in his stomach, burning his throat and making his eyes water. This was a wicked case of indigestion, but it was worth it if he could stop the Heylin side.

"Hey... guys!" Dojo said, his eyes bulging as he threw back his head.

"What are you... " Chase began.

"Bwaaaaaarrgh!" Dojo roared, sounding less dangerous and more queasy. A jet of fire, orange from all of the hot sauce, spewed from his mouth at the two evil warriors. Chase stumbled backwards, surprised, while Bean held up his two Shen Gong Wu to protect himself.

Dojo continued the flame breath for as long as he could. He ignored the way his throat burned and the way his eyes watered. Finally, all that came out was smoke and fog; he was done.

"Dude, get a breath mint!" Raimundo commented.

"Look!" Dojo pointed at Hannibal Bean, or more specifically, what he was holding.

Two cracks had appeared in the Lunarcanum and the Terrarcanum, stretching from the top to the bottom. Before Dojo's eyes, they began to glow bright yellow, as if some hidden energy within was suddenly being released.

"Aw, you broke it!" Hannibal Bean said. He didn't seem too disappointed. "Thanks."

"You shouldn't be thanking me! I broke your stupid secret weapon!" Dojo retorted.

"No, you didn't, you fool!" Chase Young said. For the first time, he looked scared. "Those two Shen Gong Wu are a portal to another world, where evil beings exist. Creatures far more evil and dangerous than even Hannibal and myself! When the Shen Gong Wu is whole, they are forever trapped, but once it has been broken..."

"End of the world." Raimundo whispered.

"Exactly." Bean said. "Once again, I thank you, Dojo. You're a credit to yer species."

"What are we gonna do?" Dojo asked.

"We shall do nothing." Chase Young said. "I have what I came for. I will wait till those creatures escape and destroy you all, then vanquish them in turn with my new Heylin Army. For now, however, I'm going to leave."

He began steadily rising off of the ground, followed by his horde of skeletons. By the time they were in the sky, they were already accelerating so fast that no one on the ground could see them.

"Coward!" Raimundo shouted.

"We have to do something!" Dojo said.

"You ain't doing nothing." Bean said. The twin portals were shaking now, as they steadily began tearing their way free of the rigid confines of the Shen Gong Wu.

Dojo ignored him. He didn't want to be the hero, but there was no one else who could help him. He closed his eyes and shot forward like a bullet. Bean saw him coming but the vegetable's reflexes were too slow; Dojo slammed into him and arced his neck upwards, allowing him to plunge his head through the portal and enter the mysterious world beyond.