Dojo and T-Bot land upon the spacious ledge of one of many mountains bordering the massive lake.
Kimiko dismounts her ride first, bringing Master Fung along via the Third Arm Sash's firm grip around his waist. She lands deftly upon the cold, rocky ground, frowning at it whilst Jack exits his vehicle and RJ lands next to him.
Leaving T-Bot behind, the evil duo walk over to a slab of frosted rock and look over it to take in the massive body of water. They're given pause by the crackling whoosh of fire, though, and turn to see Kimiko torching a portion of the frozen ground with a plume of fire from an outstretched hand.
Ten seconds of this and she cuts off her element, waiting for the mildly burnt portion of rocky ground to lose its steamy quality before laying the temple master down upon it.
Dully, the evil duo blink before looking back ahead and deploying means of magnification.
Kimiko's soon doing the same, albeit a good few feet from them and with the Falcon's Eye.
"Clay…"
From atop her shoulder, Dojo's shrunken form asks, "Is he okay?" He leans his head against hers, desperate for a look and getting it before he goes nuts.
Neither redhead shares the concern. They merely keep searching.
"Y'know," RJ says, "Chase could at least be a little more subtle. What does he take us for, Losers?"
"More like Morons," Jack mutters.
Unbeknownst to him, Kimiko and Dojo glare.
"Anyways." Lowering his binoculars and turning around, Jack faces T-Bot. "Send out a bird."
The vehicle re-juts one of its wings; and a hawkish missile fires, moving fast for, then high within the lake's airspace as Jack displays its video-feed on his watch.
The evil genius leans toward RJ; which is also keeping track of the missile, but still searching the lake with elongated optics. "I hate this already," Jack whispers. "Where is he, right in the middle?"
RJ mouths, "It's what I'd do."
Jack's glare sours. "Typical."
Harshly, RJ whispers, "He's probably drowned at the bottom."
Ugh. "Why does everything with this hick always have to take forever?"
Theoretically, he can detect the birth of a new especially slow loser–
But what kind of testing grounds are these? There's enough magical interference going around to cover up ten Wuya resurrections!
"Oh wait…" Jack's eyes narrow at his watch. "I think I see the loser…"
"There's only one hat like that in our lives." It's a grim truth, but RJ's brow still knits. "How's he kept it on, though?"
"Do I look like a hick?"
"I actually don't, thank you, but that, right there, puts the 'eck' in 'redneck'."
There's a sudden cough.
The evil duo take a glance at Loserville.
Kimiko and Dojo are scowling. There's even steam rising from the girl. "Change. the subject," she growls through grit teeth, "before I do it for you."
Jack and RJ take one wide step away from those two.
"Texas-born," Jack dismisses. "What do the sensors say?"
"Well, there's definitely some serious mojo down there." RJ shrugs a shoulder. "Otherwise, we should be fine."
"Really?" Jack gets visual representation of a screen to pop out from his watch and eyes the data. There's a flow of some mystical sort: a recurring gentle pulse that's tugging down toward the lake's deepest point, where there lie one big heat signature.
'Huh. Well, that explains why there's no fish floating around...'
Dojo, meanwhile, whispers in Kimiko's ear, "Is it just me or is everything a game to this kid?"
Eyeing the only two details on the screen projection that actually matter – estimated length and width of the creature – Kimiko murmurs, "Trust me, I wish it was just you."
'You and the rest of the world...'
And, of course, Jack's now smiling.
"Yeah." He plops a hand on RJ's shoulder. "The thing's probably asleep."
Neither Dojo nor Kimiko can help staring…
"Asleep?" RJ deadpans. "That's what we're going with? This is our record of events? Cause and effect?" Optics retracting, Robo-Jack turns away from Jack. "Fine." RJ pushes off Jack's hand, sticks its nose in the air, and walks off on its own.
"Fine, be that way! Watch when things get bad!"
Such things strike across the sky for his drone: Two streams of crackling red lightning that make their skin, metal, and scales crawl.
The drone explodes into a burning heap headed for the lake.
They all four watch it go under.
"Typical," Jack and RJ deadpan.
The group's attention goes to those responsible, everyone (and thing) re-using their means of magnification with Dojo once again waiting impatiently for a turn to look through the Falcon's Eye.
"Well," Jack says, "this is new at least..."
Bulky red demonic beings – horned, humanoid brutes – stand at little more than nine feet, RJ surmises, and carry tridents crackling with lightning at their tips. Others are emerging from the mountain-tops to watch the dust settle, too, as others look for any further intrusions.
...But they're not taking flight yet. The wings folded along the monsters' backs remain there.
Lowering his binoculars, Jack leans toward RJ and whispers, "When we die, you stay away from me."
Robo-Jack snorts, optics retracting. "I'd incinerate you on the spot." The pride is a nice tou–
"How are we saving Clay, now?" Kimiko hisses, Dojo now looking terrified on her shoulder as he gets a look at their enemies with the Falcon's Eye.
And when asked something so smoothly, the first thing to click through the gears is what flies from Jack's mouth:
"We'll swim."
…Dojo barely manages to not drop the Wu he's holding.
Kimiko, however, is not surprised. Per se.
'He really thinks–'
"Jack, it is not asleep."
Shaking his head, Dojo finally comes out of his own stupor: "How can you even know?"
There was no clear picture on that feed his watch showed. Just a distinguished outline – sensor feedback.
Yet Jack responds primly: "We will deal with that if and when it happens."
The plan is said and soon to be in motion. Nothing better's come their evil way, and he has a re-breather – not to mention goggles.
So what's the problem!?
"Robo-Jack's not complaining!"
Is it not obvious!?
"Robo-Jack's not alive!"
This is their best shot!
"And I am complaining!"
…
TRAITOR!
Kimiko has had it. She turns on her heel so fast Dojo barely avoids whiplash. She stalks her way to the bags of Wu, thrashes around for the Gills of Hamachi, nods absently when Dojo wisely suggests he stay behind with Master Fung, and then walks a flaming war-path down the mountainside.
Whether those two 'Utter jackasses!' are following, Kimiko can't even begin to care. They can jump off the mountain for all she cares – heli-packs not included. In fact, she really hopes they do, because then there will be, 'Two less migraines to deal with.'
It takes until she's about half-way down the mountain for her to simmer down. Then another five minutes to grudgingly admit this is actually – somehow – their safest option. And it's to save Clay. Doing so means danger in any approach. Might as well be stealthy as possible.
But not in such a betting fashion!
She doesn't like gambling – never mind with her life! It's making her skin crawl, and they're not even in the water yet, with that giant unknown.
'How the hell is he so calm about it?' Well behind her, he's still yammering on with his robotic clone. She can only hope that machine really is intelligent and telling him exactly what they're in for.
They're smiling, though, so it can't be…
Something dark floats into her peripheral vision. It's further along the mountain-side, making not a sound as it moves down-mountain from above the tree-line, and one clear view through a gap in the tree branches reveals it to be Jack's bird vehicle.
The thing pays her no mind.
Buzzing nears Kimiko, however, and she grumbles.
They've caught up.
'Great…'
What she hates more, though – and really doesn't expect – is their rapid approach.
And there goes his mouth. Un-be-lievable.
"Come help us place the missiles."
They buzz away through the dying forestry as the bird bot closes in on them. It takes Kimiko a loathsome moment to register everything of his grumbled sentence, but after sighing exasperatedly at the sky, she follows after them, jumping from branch to branch.
"If and when, Kimiko," Jack calls over the sound of a drill.
She hears something eject, then emerges through wilting shrubbery to see Jack and RJ catching a narrow orange missile.
"Surprise number one," Robo-Jack designates as they place it down in a hole.
"You're up, Kimiko," Jack informs her as they fly off to a different location.
The duo snicker the entire way, and his vehicle ejects another missile from the rear of a re-jutted wing.
Kimiko and Robo-Jack catch it. She's a bit surprised at the weight, but lifts it well.
Robo-Jack fortunately keeps its shark-grin aimed at the missile as Jack drills the hole with a tool from inside his trench coat. Then she and the bot lower the missile into place, and RJ needlessly dusts its hands off.
Again, they move, and at their next stop, she and Jack catch the next missile T-Bot ejects.
"If and when–"
RJ drills.
"–those demon things see us–"
Monk and evil genius approach.
"–they'll have other problems."
Kimiko merely nods as she and Jack lower the missile into place.
"And that's that," Jack says.
They continue on for the lake, the evil duo smiling as Kimiko trails behind and T-Bot once again silently drifts along the tree-tops.
It's a particularly evil day in Jack's opinion. His goggles stay off so his eyes can simply adjust to the minor increase in darkness presented by thicker forestry. The view is wonderful to his perfect vision, even if he has to sometimes block his face with his arms as he walks through wilted trees and bushes.
He wonders if Kimiko will be able see well underwater with that Wu of hers. Jack knows that he won't, even with his goggles, but what about her? And if she can't, either, will she still be able to light things up?
'Or are magical flames not water-retardant either?'
"Jack, I demand details."
RJ will wait no longer. Its destruction is eminent.
And for what? Literally one loser?
Sighing, Jack rolls his eyes and takes flight, knowing RJ will follow.
It does.
"Well?"
Distance. They need distance.
"Are we there yet?"
"No." Jack's explanation is no less flippant: "We swim, stay quiet, get the loser, and then go on our evil way." Four simple steps that only require one hand's fingers to indicate.
Simplicity itself.
RJ blinks owlishly. "Ineffable."
So that's how it is: Eaten alive, one at a time.
This has been privacy well-spent, Robo-Jack assesses. The loser couldn't possibly understand that risks must be taken – that there's only so much they can do, only so much attention they can thwart, and so far a distance to do it.
Between flooded skies or one big entity, water is the go-to.
It's a deep lake. There's lots of room. Maybe the thing won't notice them. Aquatic life also often stays still when asleep, and who is to say that the thing is stalking for prey – that the monk standing at the lake's center is bait? Who, exactly, is to say the beast won't at least taste good if slain?
'The loser best help for her cut.' RJ processes.
And deal with the threat of getting eaten.
The thing could very well go for any of them first – especially her, since she'd be adding another loser to its collection.
…
'Now if only even half of this actually mattered…'
RJ sighs, once again agitated.
Jack raises a brow.
The urge to clobber the actual is intense. But no. No.
The evil genius looks away.
'Two hours!' Robo-Jack wishes to shout. It lifts tense metal fingers as if to strangle or at least tear its maker limb from limb. Yet the move perishes in a mere second, and their calm walk is again mutual.
Move forward.
'Ignore this terrible situation...' Make as if nothing is going on. There's nothing in the water – nothing but water itself, and a lot of it at that.
'Yeah...'
They could snipe the shackles off of Clay. There's always possible secondary damage, and the process could very well feed the… thing…
'Drats.'
That's off the table for sure.
Jack himself hasn't much more of an idea other than exactly what he said. All he's got is a guarded look for the water when they're standing in the shallows and he's leaning down to tie his boots tighter, because wet clothes and everything is one thing, but soaked, soggy socks are an entirely other matter.
Kimiko places the Gills of Hamachi around her neck.
Jack's rebreather goes in his mouth.
They three walk under, Kimiko murmuring her Wu's name and shape-shifting into a green humanoid fish-girl as Jack drops his goggles over his eyes and presses a button on them until they're on night-vision mode.
RJ merely requires a shark-ish grin. Jack, however, finds the situation to be another in which he can't entirely share this feature. The night vision display given by his goggles is unsettling – limited in its optical range. He can only see about ten feet in front of himself, if that.
Still, this will at least mean another loser down the drain. Two whole losers in nearly one day in fact. Though Jack supposes this is the easy part, which is a bewildering truth, but there's nothing to do until that other Yo-Yo reveals…
Something to think on.
'Later, though.'
They're still in less than ten feet of water, and he and RJ stick to the lake's sandy bottom as they swim. Kimiko is doing the same, albeit with a distant closeness.
A good idea. Dispersal will better hide them.
They three maintain for a few minutes longer, and once in deeper water, Kimiko swims off into the abyss. The evil duo, meanwhile, initiate their heli-packs, rotor-blades spinning slowly behind their feet for a silent, straightforward cruise.
Everything below is a green monochrome to Jack's night-vision-aided eyes. It's probably best to not look at, but Jack's eyes want to and are.
The bottom is a seemingly unending void. Not unknown per se, but seeing RJ's sonar feedback on his watch is not the same as actually seeing it.
Their speed should be nondescript, though: too slow for this thing to detect.
The only real problem is, 'This is taking forever…'
The urge to shove forward is tempting. And why not just go for it?
No. Too risky. If Robo-Jack doesn't snap his circuitry and kill him, Kimiko might. And if he's not slain by her, the thing in the water could.
Those odds are bad (even with a fail-safe). Incredibly bad. Proof that, yes, things can get insanely worse – yet altogether seem always to end in the ballpark of getting eaten alive.
RJ, however, is more agitated than fearful.
'Actually, this is all the Xiaolin Losers' fault–'
By way of some unknown phenomenon, the bot can actually feel, hear, and taste its notification of movement from the thing down below.
'Oh, that's real nice…'
RJ glowers through the unseen before signaling to Jack there's movement from the creature.
Jack, afterward, doesn't see Kimiko anywhere, so he tilts his head for a look at his watch's somewhat fuzzy detection of the Gills of Hamachi.
'No change in course…'
Maybe she knows and is remaining calm. She told him the thing wasn't asleep in the first place.
Nothing to worry about.
RJ grabs hold of him and takes off for Kimiko's location.
'Cruuuuuuud!' sings the bot's AI.
Jack knows it's bad when RJ switches off its heli-pack and engages the rocket engines in its feet, and he deactivates his heli-pack for a smoother flow.
Then RJ's heli-pack shifts into a rocket-pack, instead, and fires its own burning red exhaust…
Thankfully, though, Robo-Jack soon halts and thrusts its other arm forth, the limb's anaconda reach grabbing the monk by her shoulder and yanking her at once. She has little time to react to this; and little more to stare, wide-eyed, at an enormous salamander-like… beast of a thing… charging past her previous location.
The tale alone is bigger than them. Its gaping mouth was wide open, too, ready to engulf her – and by RJ's estimation, is easily capable of swallowing all three of them whole, so the big sharp teeth are kinda superfluous…
RJ allows only a couple seconds of footage (and the two teenagers' horrified staring) before rocketing for, then through the water's surface, Kimiko coughing and sputtering, "Gills of Hamachi!"
As she reverts back to a normal human being, Jack lifts his goggles from his eyes and pockets his re-breather, after which Robo-Jack reaches a theoretically safe altitude and lets go of Jack and Kimiko.
Activating his heli-pack, the evil genius grabs her hand before she can fall, which replaces Kimiko's surprise for the whole ordeal with immediate displeasure.
The robot darts back down for the lake. Making Kimiko so glad she kept a certain pair of shoes on her person.
Jack tilts his head, smiling as she puts them on.
'Leaving already, huh?'
"Harsh."
Kimiko raises a narrow pair of baby blues at him, and in the next second, has both pulled her hand out of his and returned to putting on the Jetbootsu.
And with a call of the Wu's name, she blasts off after Robo-Jack.
"Bad luck out there!" Jack shouts, cackling afterward. As he does so, a two-bar hinge with a big fan at the end of it sprouts from the side of his heli-pack, the fan then blowing and flapping his lips and hair as it dries him off in some twenty seconds before retracting back inside.
There's a sudden beep from his watch – an alarm for which Jack groans as it continues to go off. "Can't an evil genius ever just watch his plan unfold?"
The miffed evil genius' hands go into his trench coat pockets.
The air around him distorts, if briefly, forming a hazy, hollow sphere that sparks out of existence.
One, two, three strikes of lightning slip across an electric force-field shielding Jack and burst into snaking separations on its other spherical end.
None follow.
He brings his watch up.
"Fire those missiles, please."
Robo-Jack, meanwhile, runs a hand along the lake's surface as its rockets burn red-hot. The beast is following, deep underwater, but the Dragon of Embers sped by a bit ago, seeming to have no interest in this incredibly horrifying specimen.
Boring, but the Loser of Fire can have her fellow loser. No one else is caring – not even the monster, and RJ can't say it blames the thing. People are sick, and that boy standing at the center of this lake isn't just also a hick, but is even a Xiaolin Loser.
Why fret over that? Robo-Jack is far worthier – proven by the monster jolting closer to the water's surface.
RJ performs a dissimilar maneuver. In that it shoots away from the water's surface like a speeding bullet.
'Uh-uh. No. Bad monster.'
This robot is not getting eaten. Not yet at least…
The monster maintains following… rises just a little closer…
Whatever it is, the gray-brown monster is ugly. There's warts all over it, scars, and it doesn't even have eyes, so how the hell does its gaping mouth come so close to snatching RJ out of the sky?
Fortunately, while the beast can throw itself quite a ways out of the water, it cannot twist itself around so well. Its girth does not allow for it.
Robo-Jack has no such issues. This robot is quite quick – on or off its feet – and merely took a sharp turn.
After which Robo-Jack has proceeded to re-scan this evil specimen.
'Thirty-six point… eight feet…'
The splash it makes goes more than twenty feet…
Distant explosions have RJ smiling, though, and keep Jack's hovering watch a peaceful one. The two of them would really like to enjoy the music for a little longer than two seconds, but the monster darts away from Robo-Jack, and the two of them have to raise a brow and wonder what the heck that's about.
The creepy swimmer is going straight for…
"The hick!" Jack shouts into his watch.
RJ slumps. "Well that was short-lived…"
Still, the robot blasts off after the monster. It goes faster and faster, soon tearing through the air as it and the beast catch up with one surprised, then very displeased Kimiko. Quickly, she rotates to face the creature storming along the water's surface, collecting her element between two open hands.
And as her white-hot pyre expands and crackles louder and louder, the fingers on one of RJ's hands straighten, lengthen to match, and collect to form a sort of rotary weapon.
The robot takes aim. Revs up its weapon and rapid-fires a steady stream of concentrated plasma-shots.
The beast growls as the relatively small projectiles char its flesh upon contact and incinerate their way in. There's no change to the monster's pace; however, a large patch of thinner skin on its back starts to convulse. It's almost wave-like, the motion, yet other areas of this skin are tightening and crinkling around what appear to be growing holes–
Utterly disgusted, Kimiko cocks back one giant-fire-ball-wielding hand as far as she can, then throws her weight into hurtling it forth.
"Cool…" murmur the evil duo – RJ in person, Jack at his watch's video feed. They're keen on watching Kimiko's attack hit the monster dead on in its side, charring and shov–
The beast ROARS, tail whipping it ahead even faster. Kimiko's roiling mass of fire slips down and along the monster's body, burning off chunks of what look like rotted fish, and then soars underwater…
The many now-wide holes in the monster's back begin to glow, then shine a deep red, spheres of mystical energy poking out like a series of pimples before popping free and darting for their maker's unwelcome followers.
Kimiko's disgust goes wide-eyed. Robo-Jack blinks.
The two of them break off from one another, bobbing and weaving through the air as they avoid one soaring projectile after another that explodes upon passage. It's a shaky, long-lived escape, and the creature only gets further ahead of them as they're forced to continue evading incineration. Kimiko is visibly unhappy about this, the Wu on her feet burning as hot as her fiery glare when they're at last able to maintain a steady course ahead.
RJ's content to remain a few yards behind her. Until she growls her element's name, anyways.
Then the robot's watching with a dull smile as the ablaze monk more firmly takes second place for herself. She gains, gains, and gains on the monster, seeming to care not for the its sudden dive… and is doubtlessly ignorant of its underwater speed-up…
Nonetheless, Fire is still catching up to it. Though once she's about done so, the beast suddenly jolts up underwater, twists onto its side; and performs one upward swipe of its tail that sends an incredible blue pulse of magic surging through the water. The liquid shines for nearly two-hundred feet across… before bursting for the heavens as a massive wave that the girl immediately plunges into.
Thus extinguishing her flames, the girl tumbling out the other end of the tidal wave like a steamed rock skipping over water…
RJ rockets past her.
The robot hums at her steadily shrinking form.
From afar, Jack lowers his binoculars and frowns, all behind him still blanketed in his missiles' destruction. "Well that's disappointing… but I guess magical fire is still just fire." T-Bot adds a few more missiles to that blanket from its hidden position, preventing clearance.
And a few smokes on either end; why not.
"Still, at least it's not going for her."
Which the genius and RJ figure to mean one thing.
Robo-Jack stares at the monster, now, searing blue-white heat suddenly blaring from its rockets' previously-red exhaust as Clay comes into peripheral view…
…
… and when RJ has caught up to it, the robot quirks a brow down at the monster.
"You really want that hick, huh?" A pause. RJ's optics narrow. "Alright, fine – you were getting boring anyways."
It's also a little too early for the hick to die. That happening now would mean Chase in charge for the foreseeable future and beyond.
Hell no. Death and abrupt termination: That is the future that that holds for them.
The robot's optics slowly elongate, focusing anew upon this now gigantic problem.
"Yeugh – and you're ugly."
For Dojo, focusing on his card game was already hard enough to begin with. Dojo didn't need giant explosions that still coat the East; he didn't need the ones of a magical make that blew up over the lake not much after; and he really hasn't liked seeing Jack hovering over the lake, watching it all happen. Over-seeing everything with a closer eye.
Recently, Jack's bird-bot showed up, and it's now keeping a sightless look on the sky –probably also somehow with a better eye than Dojo.
Nonetheless, Master Fung is doing relatively fine. None of Chase's minions have stumbled upon them, and Dojo's uneasy game of Solitaire is mid-way–
The robot's beak suddenly homes in on the lake.
Dojo's hardly even completed the act of giving his startled attention when the robot's left wing juts from its chassis and fires a speedy black-red missile. The weapon's thrust, however, blows Dojo's cards straight over Master Fung's lay on the ground and out of sight, the temple dragon's game now fated to never finish...
The fireworks behind Jack are only going to last so long, so right now is probably the best time to test out one of the better missiles.
Now Jack just has to take a deep breath; create a cone with his hands, bring it around his mouth; and shout, "Yo!" His voice carries well to the girl seeming like she's actually about to try and catch up to the competition, and she turns. "Look!" He points for the missile now blaring for her direction. "Robo-Jack has it; you gotta move!"
Looking through his binoculars better shows her glare. The look says he better hope RJ's got it.
Which Jack doesn't. He knows Robo-Jack's got it.
RJ's searing rocketry is, meanwhile, subdued little by the robot entering a giant wave of its target's creation. The bot zips through with a smile as sharp and serrated as the feral frown worn by the eyeless beast storming through the lake.
The monster doesn't let RJ distract it any longer, though. Apparently RJ is not bad enough for its attention. Also-apparent is the damn thing's remarkable regeneration, for there's little to no damage on it anymore. The burns are all gone, not a scar to be seen.
Unsettling.
Nonetheless, RJ's relaying is complete, and the bot turns its lengthened optics behind, performing a swipe of the clearing black and white clouds that lie far behind Jack. Clouds that are steadily glowing red…
T-Bot detects… a new wave of demons… still quite a ways East, but nonetheless incoming.
Countless red bolts of lightning strike from the cloud-coverage. Thankfully, though, all of these blind-shots prove more scary than harmful to anyone, and RJ can retract its optics as it re-focuses on the monster below itself.
The robot gives a smile and two-fingered salute. "Adios."
Robo-Jack's rocket engines roar, exhausting pure-white flames–
The monster takes a swift snap at the bot, but Robo-Jack's swifter dart aside sees the monster dropping to the lake empty-mouthed – still roaring, but now in anguish as RJ's maximum velocity closes the robot's distance to Clay in a mere minute.
One well-placed shot below the wooden platform has the shocked hick free of it. He's still chained, but RJ's happier to grab ahold of one of two chains attached to quite the pair of manacles – hello water-filling lungs – than any part of a Xiaolin Loser and ascends just so.
The robot sends a shark-ish grin behind itself, beyond the garbled yelling of the hick; though its smile does pull wider when the loser finally notices the missile encroaching on them. Clay's remarkably still for that realization. In fact, he's so focused on the missile that he doesn't notice them slowing and descending just a bit too much for just a bit too long–
And there's that familiar gaping mouth of teeth erupting from the water.
Clay's overwhelming panic makes dodging the monster a little harder on RJ than it need be, which is remarkably rude, but what RJ wanted to happen, has happened, and the robot rockets off, once again leaving the monster a giant failure and fully breached: An easy target for the missile to then slam into.
The explosion that goes off behind them is catastrophic. It certainly shakes things up a notch. RJ has up and down confused in many cases and more than thrice almost flies straight underwater.
Nonetheless, RJ heads for Jack and the other loser. It maintains speed, maintains its cold A.I. until the loser looks ahead for where they're going and once again tries shouting through his gag on twelve or twenty occasions that lead to RJ telling this Xiaolin Loser to shut its Texan trap. "And stop moving so much!"
So there's a lot more lightning flying all over the place, now. They're still all blind-shots. The clouds are still in those monsters' way, and great as their aim may be, they can't hit what they can't see.
The Texan's fear goes from his fellow loser to the growing explosion's approach. It seems he's realized they two are in a worse predicament than those they're approaching.
So, getting to brass tax: "Hey, how's your hat still on!?" The message must have been relayed. Or, at least, it shouldn't take the glaring cowboy so long to put together.
Robo-Jack chuckles, flashing a serrated grin at the gagged cowboy as the explosion behind continues to close in on them.
'Take a good look at your future.'
Three. Two. One…
…Two, three, four seconds off Jack's estimation…
Expansion ceases… and amid the explosion's maintenance, RJ deactivates its nigh-melting rockets and almost lands in the steaming water before switching to its heli-pack.
Power-Saver mode is officially active, but basic functions are still solid. Like comms: "Fire the next one?" RJ asks Jack through his watch.
Who was just in the process of having death threats spouted at him, which seem to be the sole reason Kimiko hasn't left his side yet.
'So ungrateful...'
He shakes his head.
"Not yet. You got the loser?"
"Yeah, I got the hick- hat and all."
Though miffed, Kimiko sighs with relief.
"Still gotta cut 'em loose, though."
"I don't s'ppose you're gonna do that sooner than later?" Clay speaks up.
RJ raises a brow down at the cowboy. Seems the hick finally got that rag outta his mouth. "I don't s'ppose you'll not sink like a rock and waste my time? That ring a bell, cowboy?"
Clay sighs. "Nice to see you, too, Robo-Jack. May I ask of what apparent concern it is of yours?"
Shooting the cowboy free of all chains/manacles but the one RJ's holding is now easy-peasy, and RJ does so via three low-power shots that startle the hick for their suddenness.
"Oh, just enjoying Chase being in charge." The robot waves off the petty matter. "You know how it is. In fact, I bet you were there."
Clay goes glum – a bit grim, even – all of a sudden. "...Same ole, same ole?"
Suddenly bored, RJ asks, "Do hicks get kicks outta askin' stupid questions?" A pause. "Really, you gotta tell me."
He doesn't. And he doesn't. The dear silence wished for amid striking lightning at last presents itsel–
T-Bot's beak cuts to the South… … …
"What? What's with you, now?" Dojo asks.
The dragon dreads what the answer might be as much as Jack and RJ scream for the data they're receiving from T-Bot.
"Dojo, get over here!" Jack's voice BOOMS from T-Bot's beak.
T-bot then runs. Its wings jut free, engines liven, and Jack's vehicle blasts off for its creator.
Looking between it, Master Fung, and the Wu, the animal pulls at his hair, ultimately tying two hasty knots, sizing up, gulping both bags, and taking off with Master Fung held like a precious charm to his chest.
Turns out, the demons are better spread out than anyone thought. One good wave sprouting from the Southern mountains is all it took to have them where they all are now.
And Jack may be biased in this, but he's pretty sure he and Kimiko are being more bombarded by lighting than RJ and the hick.
There's not even any rain… Just thunder, lightning, and a lot of (screaming) evasive maneuvers. However, the electrified death surrounding his and Kimiko's zig-zagging rush all say one thing loud and hauntingly clear:
Jail is not an option.
No life. Not even in general.
Into the ground (water).
No questions asked.
"Fire the other one!" Jack shouts into his watch.
Fine. Onward to bigger and badder experiments.
In the distance, T-Bot turns for the firing of its one remaining black-red missile, before once again soaring alongside Dojo.
Which promptly earns the animal and vehicle their own share of flying electric bolts that Dojo sarcastically thanks Jack for.
Jack ignores T-Bot's registry of that bad noise, though. Things are fair, now. And besides, when the missile hits, and they're all relatively in the clear and upon/within their respective rides, there's ample time to fly away in the opposite shaking direc–
Barely dodging the rain of lighting falling from that way, the halted fliers turn and soar in the one safe direction left.
Dojo is more following T-Bot than anything. He knows nothing but the ability to fly – keep his monks and Master Fung alive – and follow the bobbing and weaving bird-bot that lead him to his kids. Every second they're under fire is a hellish eternity, especially when that last missile's explosion ends and lightning's falling from all sides but ahead. He's then all the less conscious of his now-two-handed clutching of Fung to his chest.
Spicer's vehicle suddenly fires five light gray missiles behind itself that quickly spread out, trailing a thick white smoke far behind. They are shot down quickly, but their ends bring an explosion of smoke, rather than pure heat.
After which the bird-bot uses the extra coverage – if minor – to maintain a second of stability. A second of stability that T-Bot uses to drop a smiling fat red missile.
The hefty thing has a slow vertical spin to its fall, flipping once, twice, then blasting off for what lie behind. Sticking to the smoke as it goes…
Its exit of the smoke-screen is swift, the thing tearing through in seconds.
The few bolts that then go for it are off-mark; however, the missile is quickly given the proper attention–
"Close your eyes!" RJ's voice BOOMS from T-Bot.
Many more demons take aim at the missile.
Simultaneously, T-Bot detects that they're to be given pause. Yet, as the last direction of clear airspace is blotted out by a cloud of demons, T-Bot takes an immediate dive.
Lightning from all directions follow them toward the water.
The missile–its flight stutters–sparks fly–
White noise precedes a blinding detonation. The ever-growing scorch shines across all for miles, blotting out the shadows. And yet, despite this encroaching doom and its strengthening shock waves, the evil duo smirk with closed eyes as they each place a hand upon their own electric device.
"Shard of Lightning!"
Jolts of electricity stream along and across the Wu, powering it with an over-flow of energy that RJ is more than happy to siphon a bit of juice off of as time slows, slows, and slows, all around T-bot soon at a blinding stand-still.
RJ and T-Bot take over things since only they can still see and get to work fastening a very long chain around Dojo. Doing this quickly isn't too hard, but pulling the losers out of harms way… is definitely going to be a pain.
Two minutes is all that's allotted by the Wu, and twenty-seven seconds are spent on the chain, breaking off Clay's one-remaining manacle, and getting the two dragon-riding losers gripped in T-Bot's talons. Fortunately, Dojo apparently ate the Shen Gong Wu (once again…), and he's even holding Sleeping Loser near and dear to his chest, so no work to be done with those two things.
Unfortunately, though, Dojo is heavy. They didn't measure him – no time – but he's definitely in the ballpark of a whale.
And thus, RJ is very unhappy to have to help T-Bot move that monstrosity. Mid-air. Even with a bit of juice from the Wu, RJ's still not so great on power. To take too much from the Wu would have likely drained their given time, too, and the losers' permanent screams cease to be amusing the moment RJ starts helping T-Bot move them.
And once everyone is safe and hidden on the ground, under trees fortunately still sporting leaves, emergency recharge comes knocking…
The Wu runs out of juice. Time resumes. The monks' continued screaming cuts off once they take note of their new surroundings, and Dojo wastes little time to unintentionally barf out the Wu, which Kimiko turns away from, lest she do something similar.
What little energy RJ still has is used to watch from its lay on the ground as the explosion goes into over-drive, shoving at everything around them.
It's a shame they can't stay, Jack thinks. The Molar-2000 is approaching, though, and is almost upon them. His watch and the increased shaking of the ground say so.
Just as Jack directed.
The drill pierces up and out of the ground, calling all eyes upon the Molar-2000 as its tracks traverse through the foliage for them. The vehicle takes out several trees before stopping and opening its hatch.
"Help me get Robo-Jack inside!"
Jack hurries to pick the bot up by its underarm. Looking to the monks and their dragon, though, he sees no movement. Just staring.
For some reason, they're all unhappy. All of them. Unhappy. Kimiko digs in one of the soiled Wu-bags like to do so isn't just gross, but the greatest of shames to her and tosses the Eye of Dashi, it landing in the dirt near Jack.
"Figure it out – and hurry up."
Jack indeed does. He drops RJ, grabs the Wu between two fingers, and says it's name before Kimiko can even get the Shard of Lighting left right beside her re-bagged.
The evil genius places the glowing artifact on RJ's palm.
RJ grins. Its optics cease flickering, running clean and steady as the bot wraps its digits around the Eye of Dashi and sits up.
"Great," Dojo mutters, "it's back. Can we go now?"
And the moment RJ opens its big mouth, Kimiko says, "Throw it back."
Jack sighs–
"Now, Spicer."
"Fine – geez!" Jack complains.
Expression dull, RJ tosses back the Eye of Dashi.
The Wu rolls to a stop some few feet away from Kimiko.
Nonplussed, she says, "We're done."
The words sound wonderful to her ears.
Apparently it doesn't sound too shabby to them, either, because when RJ stands beside Jack, both of them are smiling, if dully.
"If you say so," Jack shrugs. His and RJ's heli-packs activate. "Later, losers!"
Maybe she should find it weird how readily Jack has accepted this sudden turn of events, but Kimiko's too happy to finally be rid of him – for any length of time – and merely moves along to grab the Eye of Dashi, then search one of two nasty bag of Wu.
Clay, though, is a measure… unsure of whether he's happy or not to see the evil duo leaving in the Molar-2000. He's definitely out of many loops, but is content to wait until after the genius's vehicle is tunneling underground.
"I'm guessin' he didn't ask for the Shard?"
Kimiko snorts, still delicately digging in a bag for the Tunnel Armadillo. "You 'guess'? Who are we – ew – talking about again, Clay?" Finding it, she activates the Tunnel Armadillo. It sizes up; Dojo tosses in the bags of Wu, then sizes down and drops upon Kimiko's shoulder as she helps Clay move Master Fung to within the vehicular Wu. "Better to be rid of him before he tries something else."
Kimiko is not about to wait for yet another strike.
Clay quirks a mellow smile as they settle their unconscious Temple Master into a seat and strap in his seat-belt. "Can't argue with ya there."
Dojo merely nods from his lay upon Master Fung's lap, Clay taking the next seat in the row, and Kimiko the next.
The Tunnel Armadillo leaps into the air, then, and falls face-first to the ground before its digging begins. It wasn't exactly a pleasant experience, but Kimiko had time to register that an impact was coming – so brace yourself, girl – and it is thus nothing like being in the Molar-2000 with Jack at the wheel.
"We need to focus on us right now," Kimiko says.
Dojo agrees: "How was Rai last you saw him?"
The dragon is on Clay's lap, now, gripping on his battered monk robes.
"The same as we'd last seen one another… though I haven't the slightest where he might be." He looks to Kimiko, though, brow knitting. "How'd ya'll figure out where I was?" The question seems to kick on his forehead.
"Crystal Glasses." Dojo slumps and returns to Master Fung's lap, bringing one of Clay's big dirty hands along. "Kimiko and you-know-who got 'em back from Katnappe and the other Heylin goons." Dojo would wave them off if he felt them worth it right now.
Kimiko quirks a smile down at the dragon. Clay does, too. "The glasses take a while to focus in all this," she grumbles, motioning with a hand for the unseen sky, "but I managed." Smiling again, she shrugs a shoulder.
"Well I'm mighty thankful. I thought we were all… well…" The talons on his finger grip.
"We're not." Kimiko would rather not think on that. That is no longer the case. They are free, now. They can fight. They can fix this. "And we aren't going to be, either. Spicer's going to do something, and whatever it is, Chase will have to deal with."
The Texan rolls her train of thought along in his head. 'Makes sense...'
"So while they kill each other, we can get Rai back." Kimiko finishes.
'But…'
"Kimiko," Clay says, "how'd you get free?"
She's a little irked by his question, but she answers anyways. "Jack – where are you going with this?"
"And you, Dojo?" The cowboy looks to the temple dragon, who's entire expression flat-lines.
"Jack..." Dojo answers.
"And Master–?"
"Jack – we get it, Clay," Kimiko cuts in.
The cowboy raises a placating hand in Kimiko's direction and nods. He gives her a look, then Dojo. "Jack's saved every one of us here – one after the other, from what I'm gatherin' – and ya'll think he's just gonna leave us be?"
Kimiko raises a brow. "You think he'll follow us?"
"Not much else for him to do," Clay shrugs. "Unless he didn't get the Ying Yo-Yo when he broke you out."
"He didn't," Kimiko confirms.
"Hmm… Well, I reckon that's something he might find more important than us…"
Kimiko shakes her head. "No… He said– heh, well, not that we can actually trust what he says – but according to him, that's not a direction he's willing to move in alone."
Clay frowns. "And just how 'alone' is he?"
Kimiko snorts. "As far as actual people go, he's pathetic as always." She squints down at her lap, though. "But his robots… not so much."
"More like not at all," Dojo deadpans. "Most of them have been off in the sky doing who knows what, and look what he still managed to do."
Clay's brow knits. Kimiko explains. "Before we left to get you, there were others. Many others. Twenty of what I'm guessing are his new Jack-Bots and five others he calls Guard-Bots."
The Texan frowns. "I'm bettin' I'm really not gonna like that last one…"
Grimly, Kimiko says, "No. You're not." A pause. "They're smaller than Cyclops, but come up to about his shoulder. It only took two of them to keep him busy, and unlike Cyclops, these guys don't forget to shoot." One accidental time flashes through her brain. A big metal arm, raised for the sky, then swinging down and blasting the ground to smithereens. "Though I wouldn't say they're too far off Cyclops in the mental department…"
She moves on. "I haven't seen everything they can do yet, but… When we fought Katnappe and the others, none of their Wu worked on them. The Sword of the Storm only slowed one down, and the Fist of Tebigong did nothing, Clay; it hit dead-on and did nothing."
Dojo's mirroring her worry when Clay looks to him. "And we don't even know if he has more – or where he's staying now."
Clay's eyes narrow at his lap. 'So the snake's been busy...'
No surprise there. They all figured Spicer would. Even Omi, much as he likes to entertain Spicer just up and giving up on evil, knew that the genius' hands wouldn't idle. Their first year of dealing with Spicer saw them facing a new robot menace almost every Wu-hunt. They never knew what to expect back then – certainly not that Spicer's threat would dwindle over the following year, but respite is respite, and by then, boy was it ever a respite with all the other troublesome folk that came looking for Wu.
Sometimes Clay wonders if they all would have ever lasted this long if Spicer hadn't hit a rut along the way…
"The only bright side," Dojo says, "is that he seems done with the other Heylin." The dragon snorts. "I mean, all I did was call them his old pals, and the kid practically yelled in my face to never say that again."
'That's… new.'
"The rude brat…" Dojo mutters.
"He also calls Chase a loser," Kimiko adds.
That gets Clay's brow raising.
"Yeah. Now he's apparently 'Loser Young' to him. As if Chase is still with the temple or something."
Clay lets out a long breath. "Okay, so he's ridin' solo now." Apparently, the genius has figured it easier to literally build his evil dream team. Not too surprising, but, "That's somethin' at least."
Kimiko snorts. "Yeah, until he starts losing again and gets desperate. Then he'll be right back with his 'Heylin Morons.'"
Again, Clay finds himself quirking a brow.
The girl smiles wryly. "Oh, that's right: now he's got a nickname for them, too." Once again, she can't help shaking her head or rolling her eyes up into her skull, both of which she feels she's been doing too much of lately and are another two reasons she'd really like to switch topics. "He's the genius, and we're all just a bunch of losers and morons. Typical Spicer logic."
The Texan, however, does not feel a shred of humor, dry or otherwise. "And from what we saw back there, I'd say he's mighty intent on proving it to us all one day."
Silence. Somber silence as they lean back to rest their heads on either the cool metal of their magical ride or, in Dojo's case, Master Fung's stomach.
"Problems," Dojo pipes up, shaking his head, "nothin' but problems."
"Yep…" Clay nods. "When it rains, it pours."
Dully, Kimiko says, "Cats and robots…"
If nothing else, she's happy to have the topic fizzle out with every passing second.
And Clay asks the next thing on his mind.
"So where are we goin' now?"
Eyes closing, Kimiko sighs.
"The Jungle of Neither Here Nor There..."