"Approaching destination," speaks a monotone voice.
Groggily, Jack opens his eyes and frowns for the given information. A lazy hand slips from his lap to the lever beside his seat and pulls it to straighten the back-rest. Sand is then wiped from his eyes as the vehicle slows and his other arm raises for a stretch.
All engines idle.
Jack slumps in his seat.
He's content to watch the clouds' violent drift along the sky, for it makes for quite the evil sight; but his situation fails to change any, so his eyes eventually trail down.
Smoke and molten ash litter the air. Distant volcanoes are endlessly spewing the stuff, and closer down from them lie dying forestry that's shoved every which way as gust after gust takes more and more of the trees' malnourished remnants to ride the wind.
'Well, at least the place has livened up a bit,' Jack concedes grudgingly.
Sickly expanses of hills, more strong winds, and a small yawn go by before Jack finally wakes up at the sight of the drying river that once flowed so healthily along the land. He crosses his arms and, leaning forward, snorts when his evil gaze settles on the distinctly man-made area it now trickles by.
'Incredible…'
Some ways ahead of his assembly lie the temple in ruins. Holes of varying sizes and shapes litter its buildings. Patches of dying flames glow here and there, helping to enlighten what the dimmer ones can't; and there's even a giant gap in the temple's surrounding wall, of which Jack assumes to have been the entrance for the losers to do their thing.
"Xiaolin Losers." Jack shakes his head. "They never break tradition."
Huffing, he falls back against his seat. "Probably got promoted…"
The look of the temple says it was one hell of a party – and speaking of which, Jack leans forward again and looks to a specific spot near the center of the temple, where he readily recognizes a specific tarnished building's tall cylindrical make.
The Shen Gong Wu Vault.
Jack switches off his aircraft's auto-pilot function and grabs the control-wheel.
All engines liven.
"To the temple!" Jack's voice BOOMS from T-Bot's beak.
There's a remarkable joy to be found in the words, and he merrily engages his craft's afterburners.
The muffled roar is further invigorating, but all too soon, they have to cut back on their speed and circle the temple in a wide, downward spiral until at proper velocity. They then make a U-turn, steadily approach ground-level… and all engines disengage.
Stone walkway and dirt give way underneath Transformer-Bot's talons, the robotic vehicle slowing whilst its cockpit rumbles and Jack eyes the up-coming Temple Vault.
T-Bot jerks to a stop not far from the building's front.
The machine rights itself, then kneels to the ground and opens its hatch.
Jack unbuckles his seat belt and jumps out.
T-Bot's hatch re-closes and it stands tall.
The evil genius takes a deep breath of the persistent smokey wind rustling his trench coat.
"Ah, the smell of evil," Jack says.
The state of the temple is even better up close – rejuvenating, almost.
But he's here to do a job, so Jack walks before his assembled robots with T-Bot in tow.
"Alright, boys, let's see what we can find in this dump!"
He stops to regard a Jack-Bot.
Its jagged optics immediately shift to him, and the genius thrusts his pointer finger at his creation.
"Jack-Bots!"
Their domed tops all bob in recognition.
Jack's risen arm swipes toward a random part of Loser Grounds.
"Search the temple!"
Each Jack-Bot raises a half-globe hand to salute Jack before their thrusters burn hotter, debris being thrown about as they scatter. Robo-Jack moves to stand beside its creator, then, hands clasped behind itself. The robot's half-lidded optics scan back and forth, taking in the state of the temple, which long ago gave rise to its slight smirk.
Next, Jack points at the five Guard-Bots awaiting orders. "You guys come with me." He folds the digit and juts a thumb at himself.
The evil duo turn and walk for the Temple Vault with T-Bot and the Guard's heavy steps following.
The building entrance has one door half-remaining. There's also a nice chunk missing from the roof that digs down the building-side, and they smile up at the sight of it.
T-Bot and the Guards move to stand on either side of the building as Robo-Jack pushes open the partial door and enters alongside Jack. Among the fallen stone rubble lies particles of wood – shattered pieces that spread out from the entrance. The duo pause to enjoy the sight, then look to the center of the circular room.
To their mild surprise, the vault is already open: The revolving stair-way is lowered and leading down to a blue-tinted underground.
"H'wow," Jack laughs, both he and RJ walking for the vault, "the losers must have really gotten pasted."
"I always knew they had it in them," sings Robo-Jack's confidence.
They descend the steps until at the first drawer in line.
Jack grabs the handle and pulls it open.
His eyes widen. Then, smirking, Jack reaches in, and out comes the Shroud of Shadows.
He turns for Robo-Jack, which is already opening the next drawer but stops to regard Jack with prompt excitement. "Well," Jack says, "I guess now we know who didn't take over the world."
Chuckling, they reach into their trench coats and produce a sack each.
Wu is bagged amid their amusement.
"So it's Chase, then," Robo-Jack guesses as it peers into a drawer.
It shoves the thing back into the wall.
Jack snorts. "Who else would leave this much Wu lying around?" He waves the just-acquired Eye of Dashi to cement his point.
"Just wanna be sure on who to thank." Grin serene, Robo-Jack plucks yet another Wu out of storage.
The thing's bagging sees the sack slung over-shoulder, RJ then running down the winding stairwell until at the bottom, from which the bot checks drawer after drawer as Jack does so from the stairwell's opposite end.
Their sacks fill bit by bit, growing alongside their echoing snickers' evolution into darker, louder laughter. It takes only a few minutes for them to reach one another, and both are with a decently filled sack of Shen Gong Wu as they pluck two last artifacts out of their storage drawers and bag them too.
The evil duo then turn toward one another, mirroring each other's wide smile.
Snidely, they say, "True strength comes from withiiiiin." They shake their heads with skyward pupils and lulled out tongues.
Bellows of laughter follow from them as they make their way back up the revolving stair-case. They both drape their respective sack of Wu over-shoulder and exit the building snickering.
"Hey," Jack elbows RJ gently, "you picked up the Reversing Mirror, right?"
Robo-Jack's optics widen, which gives pause to both their good mood and their walk.
"Serpent's Tail?" There's hope in RJ's query, but when Jack's head slowly shakes back and forth, it's shred to pieces.
RJ drops its bag, lower jaw following suit.
"Okay," Jack says shakily, "let's not jump to conclus–"
"Jump to conclusions!?" RJ grabs Jack's collar and pulls him forth. "ROCK! GOLEMS!" As if that's not enough, the robot then yells, "Huge rock golems!" Robo-Jack raises its free hand high, palm flat and facing the ground as its arm extends in a futile attempt to show just how huge that one rock golem had been.
"Yeah, well I don't see any!" Jack slaps away RJ's hand.
The robot stumbles back for a moment, longer arm swaying, then snapping straight and retracting to normal length.
After which Robo-Jack's reply is at-the-ready:
"That's because she's probably–!"
"Sir," interrupt dual monotone voices.
The redheads whip their angry attention upon the Jack-Bots.
"What?!"
Their faces go blank.
They blink.
The two Jack-Bots are each clutching at one top end of a large block of ice, and trapped within it is none other than Dojo, frozen to forever wear a screaming expression of utter fright.
The evil duo blink once more at the dragon's wide eyes and wavy tongue, then burst with laughter. RJ points and throws its head back whilst Jack drops his bag to clutch at his side and partially double over.
It takes quite the evil moment for Jack to get his cackles under control, though once he's stood upright and getting another look at Dojo, that control goes right out the window, and he cackles even louder than before.
Nonetheless, he still manages to beckon the Jack-Bots over and is back in relative control by the time they reach him. Unlike Robo-Jack, which continues to cackle as Jack places a fist on his hip and points to the ground with his other hand.
The Jack-Bots' fingers release their find. The block of ice only falls a few inches, but the ground still trembles when it lands, and the Jack-Bots each take to a side of it.
Jack steps right up to the thing. "Hey, Dojo," knocking a fist on the ice, "sense any Shen Gong Wu in there!?"
The evil genius snickers.
His smile suddenly broadens, though, and he turns half-lidded eyes on RJ.
The robot mirrors his expression.
As RJ backpedals, Jack leans on the block of ice and smirks at Dojo's face of fright. The Jack-Bots on either side of the frozen delight each brandish their blaster and place a half-globe hand upon their hip.
Robo-Jack, meanwhile, is off about ten yards from them and is looking through a finger-box with one of its eyes. The robot's fingers are constantly moving, though, as RJ attempts to get the perfect angle, and after a couple minutes of this, Jack's patience begins to wane…
He's just about to yell at RJ when a sudden smile splits across its face.
A brief, bright light flashes from RJ's optic, followed closely by a sounding snap.
Breaking his pose, Jack wipes at his eyes and bends down to reach blindly with his other hand until he's managed to grab both bags of Wu. They're hefted over-shoulder, and the evil duo walk toward one another.
"We're getting that developed when we get back," Jack declares. He lowers his hand from his eyes, opening them to see Robo-Jack smirking.
"Totally," RJ says.
Each points a finger gun as they walk past one another.
Robo-Jack then shakes its head and tisk-tisks at the frozen dragon. The robot reaches the block of ice and leans forward, pressing its smiling face to the cold surface and gazing dead-on into Dojo's terrified eyes.
'A picture for a thousand words and seen to believe,' RJ's AI processes.
The robot chuckles.
It leans away from the frozen surface and crosses its arms.
Jack, meanwhile, stops at an adequate distance from the frozen dragon and drops the bags of Wu. He, too, crosses his arms, then turns to face the block of ice as Robo-Jack backs away from it.
"Jack-Bots, blast em outta there," the evil duo order.
The two Jack-Bots turn to face their respective sides of the block of ice and, engines purring, they shoot backward until twenty feet from it.
Each raises its blaster, then, an electric charge humming to life as the coils within their weaponry emit a blue glow out the muzzle.
Plasmatic orbs the size of watermelons blast free and soar for the block of ice. They crash into it and explode, rocking the ground as their pyre bloats at once in all directions, then dies down into rising black smoke and raining particles of ice.
Smiling wickedly, Jack raises a protective arm in front of his face as pieces of ice thud against him.
And then a shrill shriek splits through the air like a tornado siren.
Jack's unable to cover his ears fast enough and thus cringes whilst RJ disables its auditory functions not in time. The noise, however, seems to be going straight through Jack's hands and pressing them harder against his ears only does so much.
Then it's quiet, leaving a low, yet distinct echo of the dragon's scream in Jack's still-covered ears – as if the noise is bouncing around inside his head. He assumes the dragon finally ran out of breath, though, and dampens the pressure of his hands on his ears.
The silence persists.
Lowering his arms, Jack straightens his posture and glowers.
The clouds have cooled to a light-gray and are with an outer layer of spreading mist.
The evil duo approach.
The cloudy mist clears, revealing a violently shaking Dojo. His wide eyes look all around as RJ nears him.
Dojo's orbs widen incrementally. The animal's taken notice of the numerous Jack-Bots roaming the temple grounds; and his blank, shivering worry scatters here and there, watching them fly around.
Robo-Jack reaches Dojo and stands beside him.
Dojo stiffens under its cast shadow.
The dragon turns slowly.
Robo-Jack's smile stretches wider and wider as more of the animal's terrified expression reveals to itself, Dojo's full attention prompting the revelation of every razor-sharp tooth in RJ's smiling mouth.
Pupils tiny, Dojo sputters amid his shaking and points a talon at the chuckling villain.
"J-J-Jack S-Spicer?"
"In the flesh," Jack declares, stopping beside RJ.
Blinking rapidly, Dojo looks back and forth between the two of them. His mouth falls open, then snaps shut.
Heavy footfalls sound and shake the ground from behind the grinning evil duo.
Dojo's eyes roll up.
His lower jaw plummets.
The look persists as and even after the five Guard-Bots and T-Bot pause behind Jack and RJ…
Normally, this would be nice – go running and screaming as they take aim, ya little gecko! – but, 'This ain't that kinda visit!'
Suddenly glaring, Jack swipes Dojo off the ground and lifts him right up to eye-level. "How did you losers manage to mess up this baaad!" Dojo squints as the scales of his face flap.
One down, Jack thinks, and five more to go for that hit his face took in the wake of this crap's literally moving start – old fart included.
Feeling satisfied, though, Jack smirks for the dragon's disgruntled expression. The constant rolling of Dojo's eyes within their sockets is not at all disagreeable, but the animal soon closes them and brings a hand to each side of his head.
"Sir."
Another Jack-Bot.
Turning, Jack sees it holding Master Fungus by the rear neck-line of his blue and white robes. The man is unconscious, though: Dangling lifelessly, like a piece of aged meat.
"Perfect timing," Jack proclaims. He walks as if he isn't holding someone, Dojo's sputtering struggle barely registering, and stops before the also-held Temple Master.
Giving the man a quick once-over shows no signs of a fight. His hands, face, and even clothes are all without a single blemish.
Jack squints.
"Hey! Wake up, you old geezer!"
Fungus remains out cold. Jack growls and is about to yell again when Dojo suddenly speaks.
"You release him this instant, young man!"
Jack quirks a brow. Looking down shows Dojo pointing a clawed digit at his face.
The redhead's eyebrows descend.
The finger Dojo's pointing with retracts. Progressively, those narrow reptilian eyes of his widen, Dojo then wearing a sheepish smile on his face.
Jack juts the dragon back up to eye-level. Dojo immediately leans away, fearfully meeting Jack's narrow red eyes.
"And who's gonna stop me?"
Dojo's trembling talons attempt to get purchase under Jack's grip around his body, but prove futile.
"You?" Robo-Jack jests.
The robot chuckles, optics still on Master Fungus.
It walks up to him and smiles up at the old geezer.
"Hah, right." Jack regains Dojo's attention only to shove a finger into the loser pet's snout. Dojo cringes and pulls his head back, but Jack's finger follows and pushes harder. The boy smirks as Dojo's limbs begin to flail, then swipes his offending finger to the right.
"Now be a good pet lizard," Jack requests of the dragon's swaying snout, "and tell Uncle Jack how you losers managed to screw up this time."
Dojo, meanwhile, grabs his snout to stop its movement. A nasal inhale follows.
Jack glares witheringly.
"W-Why do y-you wanna know?" Rubbing his snout, the contemptuous dragon sneaks a glance at the old fart.
Jack's face changes little. He merely waits for Dojo to lower those arms of his and then grabs them against the dragon's body with his other hand. Doing so startles Dojo, and the genius smiles.
He releases his other hand's grip and takes a few steps back from the man that seems to be of such great interest to Dojo.
Then, using thumb and index finger, Jack grabs the dragon's head.
Dojo gulps.
"Jack," the evil genius calls out.
He turns Dojo's head to the right and takes three steps to the left, allowing the animal a clear one-eyed stare at RJ and Master Fungus.
"Hmm…" Robo-Jack brings a hand to its chin, moves its other arm to rest across its stomach, and starts walking around Master Fungus as its optics rake up and down him.
Jack's metallic double barely gets through one revolution of the man before Dojo's saucer-wide eyes gain a wild desperation to their black depths.
Once is all Robo-Jack needs, however, and it again pauses in front of Master Fungus. The arm across its front drops. The hand rubbing its chin does so only half-way, though, and clenches into a fist before the robot.
RJ opens and closes its fist. "I wonder how long before he wakes up…"
Grinning wide and showing all its teeth, Robo-Jack barely rears back its fist before Dojo shouts, "Wait!" The dragon's trying desperately to free his arms from Jack's grip, but the effort is to no avail.
Still, Dojo doesn't let this stop him and keeps trying even as he jerks what he can of his wild gaze back onto Jack. "I'll tell you anything you want! Just don't hurt Master Fung!"
One end of Jack's smile quirks.
'Still got it.'
Letting go of Dojo's head, Jack waves for his double to chill out; and Robo-Jack turns away from Fung with its hands raised in a placating fashion.
The robot's grin, though, is everlasting.
And, seeing no reason to keep holding him, Jack lets go of Dojo.
The dragon yelps before landing in a harmless heap. His eyes blink a few times, then close half-way as he stares ahead of himself for a dull moment. He then picks the front of his serpentine body up off the ground and wipes himself off, muttering complaints that Jack can't make out.
After which Dojo looks up at Jack.
His ears lower. Hands clasp together, wringing.
"Uhm… so… what do you wanna know?"
"Where are those losers? The whole place is deserted." Jack's hand shoots out to his side, referencing the temple's state.
Dojo's eyes dart to Fungus. This time, though, Jack interrupts by clearing his throat. The dragon's body tenses, him nervously re-meeting Jack's now narrow eyes.
The genius brings two fingers to the bridge of his nose. He takes a deep breath and releases it with a ragged sigh.
The fingers on his nose then jut toward Dojo in the form of an angled finger-gun.
"Look: Just answer the question and I'll release the old fart."
He almost said "might". Almost.
Jack's arms cross as suspicion laces Dojo's expression.
The reptile squints. "And how do I know you're not lying?"
A fair question.
"Jack!"
"Okay, okay!" Dojo begs, waving for mercy. His eyes dart for the temple master. Robo-Jack, though, simply stands in wait, hands in its trench coat pockets as its amused optics stare back at one particularly terrified pair of ebony eyes that soon return to Jack.
The evil genius quirks a brow.
"C-Chase Young must have them!" Then, hesitantly, "Or at least I think..."
"He the one who did all this?" Jack wheels two digits in the air.
"Uh… no."
Jack frowns. "No?"
Dojo looks at Master Fungus. Yet again.
Agitated, Jack sighs and tells the Jack-Bot, "Let em go."
"Be gentle!" The dragon's hands clasp together.
Stiffly, Jack lifts his gaze back to his robot.
"Gently," he grounds out.
A pointed glance at Dojo is all it takes to have the animal swerve his head in Master Fungus' direction.
The evil genius rolls his eyes as the Jack-Bot slowly lowers Fungus into a lay on the ground.
"So," Jack walks past Dojo, "what other morons showed?" His eyes are on two sacks of Wu.
"Wel– Hey! That's our Shen Gong Wu!"
"Oh yeah?" The teen laughs. "Well I'm not leaving these behind with just you and Sleeping Loser over there to guard." Shaking his head, Jack snorts. "Stupid losers…" He looks to the sky with a sudden glare and throws a hand out to the side. "Even Wuya could steal them from your sorry butts!"
The evil genius reaches the bags of Wu. He picks them up and hefts one over his shoulder, turning to then smirk at Dojo's angry, yet helpless form.
"Unless you think you can stop me."
Each Guard-Bot lifts its right arm, their large blasters taking aim for the dragon.
Dojo's anger swiftly drains into fear. His eyes seem ready to pop out for all of two seconds before he's slithering off for Master Fungus.
Robo-Jack snickers whilst it walks back to Jack. It's barely gotten through its third step by the time Dojo's darting past itself, and RJ barks out a laugh as its head swivels all the way around to watch Dojo go.
The dragon slithers atop Master Fung's chest. He curls his body into a winding lay, looking every which way whilst the Jack-Bots then hover over the surrounding temple buildings to give their own hostile regards.
Dojo's thin irises cut back to Jack.
The dragon's eyes narrow.
He begins to grow, grow, and grow…
Jack's brow rises with his eyes. His evil grin falters just so as Dojo now casts his shadow upon him and an indifferent RJ.
The angry fully-grown dragon puffs a plume of smoke from his nostrils.
And yet, despite the faster beat in his chest, Jack's smirk returns.
He drops the bags of Wu and approaches.
Dojo's larger form has never been one Jack's held dislike for. It's actually his preferred one, but once those big angry slits narrow at him, he knows it's time to stop while he's ahead.
Still: "Dojo! It's been forever!" The boy genius tilts his head, crossing his arms and expressing intrigue. "Hey, is your hair longer?"
The dragon doesn't answer. He simply remains as perplexed as he's been since Jack began speaking again.
Well that kinda sucks… Sure, they're on different sides, and Jack's of course made attempts on Dojo's life – and proudly, might he add, with in fact an evil resume always at the ready to show-case his many, many (endless) evil accolades – but they've had civil conversation before. Though perhaps more-so in the earlier days, before Jack accumulated so much notoriety.
"Well, maybe a little," the ancient animal of legend muses. He runs a giant hand's talons through the strands on one side of his head. However, he blinks fast for a moment, and then eyes the goth pointedly. "Wait a second– we're not friends. You're the furthest thing from a friend." He leans down toward Jack, once again looking all parts threatening.
"All true," Jack proudly affirms. "However," he points straight at Dojo's large snout, "you losers screwed up, and it's affecting me, so here we are." That, too, he uses his hands to illustrate.
Dojo pulls back, incredulous. "You're…" His expression dulls. "It's really that simple for you, isn't it?"
Still standing next to the bags of Wu, Robo-Jack speaks to give meaning to Jack's now blank stare: "No, Dojo, it's actually simpler than you think: We're here for the sights. In fact, after we finish touring here, we're gonna say hi to Chase. Show him the 'trinkets' we found, share a bowl of dragon soup – y'know, as he throws us in the dungeon!"
Dojo's unmoved. His eyes never left Jack. "Uh-huh. And why should I trust your word?"
Great. Another fair question.
Jack groans, slouching. "Look, if I give you the Wu, will that be good enough?" He rolls his eyes away from Dojo, fed up with how much the loser is slowing things down.
"That would be something…"
"Of course it would," Jack mutters.
He snaps his fingers.
RJ tosses one bag at a time, both landing on one of Dojo's scaly green palms.
The dragon eyes them for a moment, then rolls his wary eyes up to meet Jack's sour expression.
"… And this is all of it?"
"Oh whatever." Jack waves him off and turns around to walk away. "Tag along and be useful or don't, Dojo."
'I don't need you anyways.'
One way or another, he'll–
"You'll help me save them, Spicer?"
There was just the slightest tremble in Dojo's voice, but Jack's given pause all the same.
"You'll help me save my monks?"
The evil genius sighs heavily, head tilting back and eyes rolling up into his skull; and when he turns back around, he's not particularly impressed by the dragon's hard stare.
Does Dojo really think he can't see the desperate hope in those reptilian eyes of his?
'Good grief.'
He starts to walk toward Dojo and Fung, RJ beside him, but growls and looks away from Dojo when that giant lower lip of his quivers.
"How else am I gonna stop Chase? And if Wuya's back, then I'll need all the help I can get." Not to mention a gas mask.
Dojo seems more agreeable, now – considerate, if nothing else. There's definitely heavy thinking going on behind Dojo's reptilian eyes as Jack and RJ each stop before him and reach out with a hand.
"Wu, please," they chorus.
With great displeasure, Dojo lowers his giant hand, and the evil duo each grab a bag of Wu from Dojo's palm.
"Thaaank you," they again chorus.
They then turn on their heels and walk away. "Now hurry up," they demand, only Jack saying, "I'd like to be out of here before any of those morons comes by for a quick Wu."
As he and RJ walk, Jack enjoys his soon in-tow robots' symphony of grinding gears, heavy footfalls, and purring engines. The ruckus brings a slight smirk to his face, but when he looks to his left, down at the ground, there's no dragon there.
His expression dims.
Turning, he sees Dojo following behind the Jack-Bots with Master Fung in his hands.
That is not where Dojo ought to be.
The evil duo stop. Directly behind Jack and RJ, the row of five Guard-Bots and T-Bot do so, too, followed closely by the Jack-Bots to the rear of them.
Dojo's thus given pause, too.
Tapping his foot impatiently, Jack lets out an annoyed "ahem" to get Dojo's attention and motions to the empty space at his left. "Are we working together or not?"
The dragon makes a sour sort of face, then groans after a moment of contemplation. "Oh, alright. But you could do without the attitude."
"Whatever you say, Dojo," Jack says. "Just hand over the old man so we can get going."
The genius snaps his fingers.
A Guard-Bot turns around, lumbers past the other robots and over to Dojo; and reaches out with its one big, bulky hand.
Reluctantly, Dojo hands over the temple master. "Be careful with him… He's old."
"O-kay, hurry up, Dojo." Jack snaps his fingers a few more times, RJ snickering beside him. "I don't need to see this." It's not something meant for evil eyes. It's why he's averted his, even raising a hand to block those hard-to-resist urges to glance at a newly sighted atrocity.
Dojo makes a face, but nonetheless sizes down and slithers past Jack's robots to occupy the empty space beside Jack.
His neutral frown up at the genius meets with a sudden wicked smile.
Partners with a mystical dragon beats an old, ghostly, ugly, smelly, nagging hag any day of the millennium. Though whether the dragon will prove to be more useful remains to be seen.
Dojo's frown goes somewhat flat, the dragon giving Jack a rather deadpan expression. So, rolling his eyes, Jack instead smiles ahead, and they all walk.
"So, again, what other i-di-ots showed?" Better to ask now before the monks' pet starts to take glances at Master Fungus.
"One quick question first," Dojo more or less asks. Jack gives a glowering glance to the dragon, but remains quiet as they pass through the temple's large garden area. "What did you mean by Wuya being back?" Dojo's question is followed by Jack and the rest of them pausing a short ways from the temple wall.
'Oh yeah...' Jack recalls.
All Guard-Bots but the one holding Master Fung step over the trio, Dojo watching with wide eyes as they do so. Ten of the twenty Jack-Bots behind the trio follow the Guards, which lumber toward the wall and soon crash through it, rubble falling to the ground and bouncing off them as they pass unhindered.
Dojo's eyes sadden at the sight.
'Eh, what's one more hole,' Jack dismisses.
It could be worse. The ten Jack-Bots that flew over the temple wall could have instead blasted through.
Him and RJ walking again prompts his robots behind to again follow, and Jack speaks as Dojo takes a moment to catch up: "The Reversing Mirror and Serpent's Tail were missing from the vault."
"WHAT!?" Dojo shouts.
The evil duo cringe and lean away whilst walking through the hole in the temple wall with Dojo. Their expressions then turn prim, and they each move to wag a scolding finger at Dojo.
"Inside voices, please."
"B-But her rock golems," Dojo sputters. "Big, huge rock golems." Dojo raises his hands and spaces them out as far as he can.
Exasperated, now, Jack sighs. "Already had this conversation, Dojo." He can practically feel Robo-Jack's smug look, but he's not giving RJ the satisfaction of him looking.
"Okay..." Dojo murmurs. Thankfully, the dragon seems ready to let the topic go, but he then looks at the bag in Jack's hand, and the evil genius just knows another question is coming. "Wh–"
"Can we get to my question some time today?" Jack interrupts with a sour look.
"Right…" Dojo shrinks back a measure. Jack's eyes go ahead. "Well, first there was Katnappe," Jack shudders, "Vlad," he glares, "Cyclops," an upturn of his pale nose, "Tubbimurra," red eyes roll, "and Wuya." That last one gets a full-body shudder from Jack, Dojo now having five risen fingers with his other pointer over a pinkie in counting.
"Pretty much all your Heylin budd–" Dojo attempts to say nonchalantly whilst waving a dismissive hand.
"I am not friends with those disgusting morons!" both redheads all but scream at Dojo for the dragon's oh-so untrue words.
Jack can deal with all the other annoying crap going on right now – maybe could have even remained calm had just those first four morons been mentioned – but it will be a freezing day in hell that he ever takes that last insinuation.
"Not friends – got it," Dojo amends. He puts on a placating smile and moves away from the angry evil genius and his robotic twin.
Until he bumps into the Guard-Bot holding Master Fungus.
Sheepishly, Dojo smiles up at its cold regard for him – never mind T-Bot, and the ten Jack-Bots behind – and moves back to his original spot.
He calms down after a moment, though Jack and RJ are still glaring ahead.
"Sooo… does this mean you're…"
Dojo lets the question hang in the air.
Jack gives him a disgusted side-glace. "No. And don't ever ask that again, got it?"
Dojo nods rapidly.
"Anyways," Robo-Jack says, "they attacked, and then what?"
Jack's look turns expectant.
Dojo, however, is suddenly sad.
His head lowers.
"Omi… and Chase saved us."
"Okay, PAUSE!" Jack declares.
He, Dojo, and all his bots still with them do so in a large field of sickly grass. The forest they're going for is still a ways from them, and he's just received the green-light on his watch from his bots that are already in it, but right now, he's more focused on what Dojo has just said.
Jack leans down, ear-first. "What now?"
Robo-Jack looks over Jack's shoulder to the dragon, brow quirked almost to its hairline.
"Yeah…" Dojo's surprise for Jack's outburst lessens with every of his perplexed blinks.
The dragon looks away, toward the ground again, and continues. "They saved us, and we got Master Fung back, but… we lost Omi…" Blinking a few times, Dojo wipes away tears, sniffing.
An angry expression replaces his sadness, though, and his hands clench into fists at his front. "It was that Chase Young! He tricked Omi into using the Ying Yo-Yo so he would lose his good half and join his side!"
Dojo's angry words earn blank, wide-eyed stares from evil the duo…
"The what!?"
The Ying-Yang World!? That's where Hann–!
"It's a parallel universe," Dojo replies dully. "To get there, you need either the Ying Yo-Yo or the Yang Yo-Yo to open the portal. But both are needed to leave without losing your good chi." He lifts a clawed hand with two risen fingers.
Turning to the old man being held by a Guard-Bot, Dojo's frown deepens. "Unfortunately, when Omi went to save Master Fung, he didn't bring back Fung's lost chi."
His sad gaze lingers on the elder man's unconscious form, then slowly lowers back to the ground. "And he lost his own in the process…"
'What a stupid Shen Gong Wu,' Jack thinks. Why in the world would any loser ever need to go there for?
'Whatever.' Don't reason with it. Just accept that Dashi really was the grandest Loser of them all and move along.
"Alright," Jack acknowledges with a nod, "So I take it Chase has those two Wu?"
"One of them," Dojo says.
The redhead immediately frowns.
"And the other…?" Jack lifts a hand and rolls it by the wrist for an answer.
"I, uhh…"
'Oh boy, here it comes…' Jack can already feel his work being cut out for himself.
"...kinda forgot where I put it." Dojo smiles wide and sheepish, rows of sharp teeth showing whilst he looses a short chuckle.
Jack face-palms as Robo-Jack groans beside him. The genius holds the pose for few seconds, then rips his hand off his face and yells, "How the heck am I supposed to work with that!? Tell me it at least revealed!"
Hesitantly, Dojo shakes his head.
Jack raises an open palm, completely fed up, and turns to continue toward the forest with bots, then dragon in tow.
'That's just great. Not only is the world down the drain, Chase ruling it, and Wuya possibly back – Chrome Dome's evil, too, with no hope of return!'
"That's just great!" Jack shouts, free hand shooting for the sky.
"And you've no idea where it might be?" comes Robo-Jacks disbelieving query for the dragon.
Jack himself can hardly believe it. Yeah, they're Xiaolin Losers, but this is pushing it.
"Well," Dojo considers, "it might be in the Ying-Yang World."
He has the nerve to say that like it's some sort of beginning to a solution.
"Wonderful. So why didn't you losers just go there and check?"
They reach the forest then, Jack walking up to a tree and leaning on its trunk. Dojo stands before him with Robo-Jack taking the boy genius' right. The other bots that were with them walk deeper within the forest's coverage, going for the rest of their numbers.
"Chase showed up before we could do anything! He–" A pained look crosses Dojo's face, him seeming to have difficulty with his next words. "He… He made Omi fight us…"
"All of you?" asks an impressed set of Jack's voice.
The dragon nods miserably.
Robo-Jack immediately bursts into hysterics. The robot drops its bag of Wu, doubles over, and falls onto its back as Jack's impressed whistle goes unheard.
Dojo glares at RJ.
"Okay," Jack chuckles, "so Loser vs Losers."
A thought hits, however, and he grins wide, turning the look down on RJ. "Hey! How many losers does it take to end the world?"
Robo-Jack pauses mid-cackle and leans up, jutting one risen finger toward its maker.
"Just one!"
Following the correct answer, RJ again cackles. It falls back unto the ground and rolls side-to-side as Jack doubles over from his own cruel laughter.
Dojo's unappreciative glare is largely ignored.
The angry dragon is waved off, though, when Jack finally calms enough to wipe the tears from his eyes. "Ah, chill out, lizard breath. We'll have your losers back in no time."
"Oh yeah?" Dojo challenges. "Then why are we just standing around?" Dojo motions unhappily to all the bots taking shelter in the forest.
"We're waiting," RJ answers through ceasing chuckles whilst it gets up off the ground.
The temple dragon makes a face.
"What for?"
The ground suddenly trembles, then outright shakes.
Eyes wide, Dojo looks about the area. Jack and RJ, however, smirk at the quaking ground as they await his other vehicle's emergence.