The underground journey to the Valley of Somewhere is quiet. There's not even much to consider, either, other than his upcoming talk with the monks. Their meeting will surely have them raising red flags that he, himself, has already considered, so it's bound to be a good ole time.

Nonetheless, he and RJ arrive under the Valley of Somewhere in about thirty minutes and have tunneled far enough into the place within another twenty.

The Molar-2000 pauses underground. RJ exits the back of it, optics glowing green in the darkness of the vehicle's tunnel. It looks up. It jumps, flips over, and fires plasma at the ground from its right palm that shoves itself toward the ceiling, where transforming feet impact as a spinning drill.

It takes about ten minutes for Robo-Jack to surface, and when it does, the robot shoots forth from the ground, drill turning back into legs before it lands in a dark and rugged land. It looks through the foliage of a decaying jungle, scanning all about itself and eventually seeing a distant river to the East running through the foggy valley.

A forested mountain on its end of the river is selected.

The Molar-2000 drills toward the surface, its destination being the base of that mountain.

During which the evil genius still sitting inside of it radios the Guard-Bot that's still with the monks… … …

"Dojo, you there?" Jack asks into his green-glowing watch.

"We're here, Jack," Dojo replies. "Are you ready for us now?"

"Yep. You ready for the coordinates?"

"Go ahead," Kimiko more or less drones. He assumes she's with her phone out.

He gives the numbers, after which Dojo says, "Thank you."

"See ya."

The feed's cut.

Fingers drum on his thigh. He thinks again on the up and coming plan, it racing by time and time again, always going evilly as he'd like it to… but…

There's no use thinking on it.

He will present it, hope for at least one useful comment, and then they'll be off.

He has nothing eviler. Nothing better. Nothing else so inhibiting to the warlord's conquering of the world.

The Molar-2000 surfaces at the base of their selected mountain. The hatch opens and Jack jumps out, landing wrapped in the Shroud of Shadows and saying its name.

His vehicle goes back underground, intent on getting started on the carving of a cave into the mountain.

As it does so, the invisible evil genius reaches into his trench coat.

He produces three balled-up gray-black bugs in an opening palm: Mechanical wasps that uncurl themselves, standing at three inches in length. The lot of them rearrange themselves on his palm, antennae twitching about. They turn to face ahead of Jack, towards Chase's domain, and buzz their wings before take-off, quickly passing through the forest canopy and camouflaging with the clouds above.

The evil genius looks to his watch, then, seeing an hour to be the estimated travel time for the wasp meant to go furthest to reach its destination and thus complete what will be a linked connection to Lense-Bot's signal – An hour after which the monks and his other robots are estimated to arrive.

It's a long while. A silent while, filled with numbers in his head and an eventual glower playing out over his invisible face as he leans against a tree.

Still, night-vision is pleasant on the eyes. He'd build a fire and cook something, but caffeine is a good enough driver. He takes two caffeine pills. Drinks some water. Gives the plan one last run.

And blisters to the same conclu-

In time. In time, he is sitting inside the mountain, red flares on every end of the wide, spaciously carved cave. Sitting next to him is RJ, the Molar-2000 parked behind them with its head-lights blaring at the rocky wall to their left.

The ground trembles. Shakes.

The evil duo stand.

The Tunnel Armadillo fires out of the ground, landing hard on its feet and running a short ways, before drifting to a stop.

After the Armadillo come his robots from its giant hole in the ground. First, the Guards' compact, flying rectangular forms, each of them with two blaring rockets on their bottom and back portions, followed by the Jack-Bots.

The monks exit the Tunnel Armadillo, Sleeping Loser held by Clay over his shoulder. Dojo looks around as he goes, sizing up in a testy manner whilst Kimiko re-bags the Armadillo. The lot of them come to a stop before Jack and his standing/hovering automatons.

Altogether, they are a respectable force, perhaps, and Dojo is of great size and power, but by RJ's estimation – and all other automatons' – they all pale in comparison to the warlord.

"Yeah, hi, Dojo," Jack waves, ignoring the others as he then points for the ground with his pointer, in rapid succession. "I need to speak with you."

Dojo frowns. "I thought we agreed on no more games, Spicer."

Jack stares… and then crosses his arms, expression turning neutral. "Alright. Fine."

Why not. If Dojo thinks his losers are up for the topic, then fine.

He can have it his way.

But first:

The evil genius presses a button on his watch. Out from its screen comes a large, green projection of Chase's lair. Multiple pings reside in it, one darkest and thus strongest of all.

Beside the warlord's dark-red ping is a smaller, more reddish one.

Jack assumes that to be Omi, not only because the Losers looks at it with such somber frowns, but because it's the second strongest of all pings. Jungle-cats and a few stronger minions dot the place, too, blurry and at times even distorting, but every now and then, all pings achieve perfect clarity.

"As you can see, our chances aren't so ba-"

"Those are horrible odds, Jack," Surf's Up immediately corrects.

The evil genius blinks, stares at his projection for a bit, and then sighs before giving his eyes to the Brazilian kid. "Okay, seriously: Could ya just chill? I'm more tha-"

"Sure, Jack," Surfer Boy snarks, "I'll just follow your example."

Jack can only offer another blink.

'Well that was useful…'

Back to the projection of Chase's base and all the evil things it's got inside.

"Fine. The odds are bad," Jack admits, ignoring with ease Raimundo's more sour expression. "Which is why your Temple Master and excess Wu will remain here. Or do you object, there, too?"

"No," the lot of them chorus.

"Uh-huh," Jack mutters. "Alright, here's the plan – feel free to pitch in after I tell it." He looks to the projection emitting from his watch. "So far, Chase has shown no way to counter underground travel, so it's our best way to enter: You have the Armadillo, I have the Molar-2000."

The projection shows two arrows traveling towards Chase's lair from deep underneath it. "We five go one way; RJ and the rest follow the Molar and go theirs." RJ's arrow goes for the mid-section of Chase's lair, where Chase and Omi now reside, whilst theirs makes through the underground for the Western side.

"That being said, we will not be attacking them while they're together." He presses a couple buttons on his watch to have its feed replay a fast loop of what Lense-Bot has detected in its time within Chase's lair. "Which will be made possible by the fact that Chase and what I can only assume to be Omi aren't always together." As stated, Chase and Omi's blips separate every now and then, the latter going to the Western end of Chase's lair. "Meaning once we're underneath Chase's lair, we'll have to wait for them to separate before we make our move."

"And just how long will that take?" Raimundo asks.

"Don't know, don't care," Jack replies. "Our odds are bad enough without us storming in blindly."

"And what if they don't separate?" Clay this time. "Are we just gonna stay piddlin' around 'til they decide to give us our chance?"

"Pretty much."

"Uh, last I checked," Kimiko pipes up, "you said our chances are getting worse as time goes by."

"And they'll be as bad as they can get if we fight those two together," Jack deadpans.

"Well aren't you the master of evil," Raimundo replies, in much the same tone.

The evil genius smiles. "Why, yes I am. How else would you guys be standing here?"

Raimundo and his fellow monks glower.

"Anyways," Jack says, "now for the best part: Our fail-safe."

Looking up at the dragon shows Dojo is appropriately grim.

"What do you mean, 'fail-safe?'" Raimundo asks. "We're getting Omi back, and that's that."

"Does that happen before or after Chase kills you and cements his spot at the top?"

Raimundo grits his teeth, takes one step, and is held back by his shoulder by Clay.

Now Jack is impressed, but for all the wrong reasons. "You do realize that if any of you three dies, Chase wins, right? So whether you like it or not, if push comes to shove, you three need to be ready to escape in the Tunnel Armadillo."

"That is not happening," Kimiko declares.

Raimundo scowls, pulling his shoulder out of Clay's grasp. "You've lost your mind if you think we would ever leave Do-"

"Stop."

Dojo's word brings silent shock from two of his monks, the other merely sullen.

"No-"

"Raimundo." The kid grits his jaw, turning away from the goth, but Dojo must say this. "If either of you kids were to fall, we'd lose all hope of overthrowing Chase Young, and I know you know that can't happen." He puts a large talon on the Brazilian's shoulder, doing the same to the girl not handling this any better. "I know it's not easy, but you all need to listen to what Spicer is saying." He gathers his kids together, fingers entwining behind them and drawing them closer. "Please?"

The kid's hugging his front all nod against his scaly lower abdomen.

The dragon smiles sadly, holding his children close.

He gives the other kid a glance, though, and sees Jack and RJ with their ears covered by their goggles and a game of Checkers going on between themselves.

Dojo frowns. He can see the kid is not as calm as he'd like the others to think. His hands are not calm, but shaking every time he reaches for a red piece. It's probably why he's crossing his arms every time it's not his turn.

The dragon narrows his eyes. He takes a deep breath, letting his stomach bulge one size larger before blowing a harsh gust over the evil duo, sending the board-game and its pieces flying away from them as Jack falls onto his side. The robot, of course, remains sat where it is, watching their game go further and further away.

Dojo runs out of breath.

Growling, Jack places his goggles back over his forehead, ignoring RJ's declaration of victory as he gets up to glare at Dojo. "What was that for!?"

The dragon looks to the fists at Spicer's sides, seeing them to be trembling.

"Do you always bottle everything up?"

The question visibly catches Spicer off-guard. His eyes widen, but for just a moment, before he glares at the dragon. "What do you care?"

The words are bitter. Disturbingly so, for one so young.

"You're willing to die for us and you don't think I care…?"

An ugly laugh leaves the goth, an even uglier look being given to the left wall.

Nothing follows. No shrug. No smart reply. Nothing.

"Jack-"

"I DON'T CARE!" the goth explodes, surprising Dojo and his kids. The teen takes a moment to breathe, his jaw grit and his eyes shut tight. "I don't care," he then repeats, though much softer. Resigned. "So just… let me know when you're ready."

Jack turns and walks for the Molar-2000.

"I do," Dojo murmurs, just loud enough for the kid to hear.

Just to receive a dull, "Hoorah."

His vehicle's hatch tilts backward via two prongs on either side of it, and the genius uses his heli-pack to fly inside.

The hatch closes.

"Why do you care about him, Dojo?" The dragon looks down at Raimundo, brows drawn together and a frown on his face. He's relieved, though, to see not anger or disgust on the boy wiping his eyes and nose, but genuine curiosity. "He's only doing this because he has to…"

"Because that's not true."

"Huh?" The boy blinks up at him, his fellow monks looking just as confused.

"Pretty sure he just said the opposite, Dojo," Clay points out, his voice a bit nasally.

Kimiko merely glowers off to the side.

"His reasons are selfish," Dojo says, "but if he really didn't care, he wouldn't be trying so hard to prove it to us. And while I can't know the specifics… I do know a troubled kid when I see one."

Kimiko snorts, spitting mucus from her mouth. "He probably did it to himself. Kami knows he's always digging himself deeper."

Dojo's frown deepens. "Maybe. Maybe not. We don't know."

The girl's nose crinkles.

"I don't expect you to be friends with him, especially after what he caused to happen to your father." The reminder visibly irks the girl. "But I do expect you to not assume you know things you couldn't possibly. Or would you like to end up something like him? Because that's where that mentality leads."

Shame coats Kimiko's expression, her eyes dropping to the floor as she shakes her head.

"Some people think it's easier to not care, but that's not actually true. Just look at Spicer. Sure, he smiles and laughs a lot, and he likes to throw witty insults at everyone around himself, but I would bet you any money that he's not as happy as he would like us all to believe. No one that's that alone is. So if he tries to rile you up, don't let him. He probably won't even know how to respond." The dragon blinks. "Actually, I'd say he proved that when he shouted and then stormed off to go hide inside that vehicle of his."

A somber silence reigns over his kids, though when one does speak, it's Clay: "Do… Do you think Omi was right?"

'I'm starting to…'

But what Dojo says is, "I don't know. I just… have a feeling. That's all." He quirks a somewhat wry smile. "But who knows, right? Maybe he really is the evilest of them all," he jokes.

The smiles he gets don't reach his kids' eyes, but at least they look better off than before.

"Thank you, Dojo," they chorus.

But there, he's sure they're genuine.

"You're welcome."

And he readily gives into the urge to hug them once more.

"I don't know what's going to happen," he admits, "but I'd like to enjoy a little time with you guys before we go."

He loosens his hug, the kids doing the same. They look much better. Exactly how he wants to remember them. To remember him, should things not go so well…

"How about a game of Tiaoqi?"

Their faces all light up.

His heart clenches.

"Best of three?"

He doesn't have the heart to say no. Not right now.

Never right now.

The board game comes out of a pocket on the side of his serpentine body, all set up and ready to go when he lies it down on the rocky ground for them all to play. He sizes down. He chooses green, finding no surprise when the others choose a color to match their elements. And if none of them look at the missing color to their game, the Temple Dragon makes no mention of it.


A/N: Alrighty. Four more chapters. In less than four years. Feels weird o-0

Thoughts?