Find Your Stripes

by Wyle23

Things change all the time. What is fun and fulfilling one day may be mundane and dissatisfying the next. For Jack, evil has always been the way to go. Yet what if the fun of it were lost? What if its oh so attractive luster began to diminish? Nothing stays the same forever, but not all changes are bad. Pairing eventual/slow-burn.

12. Chapter 12

The cloaked figure wandered from village to village. Their face was masked, their back hunched, and their feet bare as they bumped into person after person, ignoring sparse offers of help and many muttered indignities–

"Dirty little wench..."

…The given pause was momentary. There one second, gone the next. She merely loosened her fists and moved on.

A single touch was all she needed of the vermin. A single touch to mark every man, woman, and child – any and all that were in her path.

None were any the wiser. Not the soldiers, not the merchants, not the traveling royalty, not the peasants – not even the few Xiaolin monks she bumped into.

One by one, she marked them all, keeping tally over the course of days, weeks, months – until at last she had all that she needed. Until one night she came to a stop within a land of tree stumps. A land taken from until nothing remained, the soil itself dry and barren, never to return to what was.

The witch stood straight. She removed her mask and pulled back her hood, revealing sharp green eyes; and lush, long red hair.

Her eyes glowed. Her hands, then, as a matching energy alighted along the ground behind her and wound around her to form a perfect circle. The air stilled, whilst the clouds above cowered and fled, only to be pulled right back, bit by bit…

With a wicked grin, the witch brought her pointer finger's sharp nail to her other hand's palm and began carving the likeness of her mask's swirled eyes in her flesh. As she did so and bled, her mystical energy darkened, browned, gained a redness to its tint, and by the time her other hand was carved, her green energy had shifted to a pure dark red.

The energy around her and coating her hands burned higher and brighter, popping and cracking as her wretched blood continued to infuse with it. The full moon not only took on her insignia, but darkened to a blood-red, seeming to radiate an energy of its own.

Her smirking face bore green electric wisps for eyes. " Now for the gardening supplies."

She raised her arms toward the sky. The dark energy surged from her hands, collecting high above her into a concentrated ball of black-red energy that pulsed and bloated until a few sizes larger than her head.

The witch's fingers curled. The feed was cut. Wuya still had much power in her hands, though, and pushed the ball of violent red-black energy a few feet higher into the air, where it paused and pulsed, pulsed, pulsed…

Her eyes closed. She lowered her bloody hands and formed fists.

The ball of energy split apart, forming two of itself.

Her forehead knitted.

The witch concentrated.

Four. Then eight, sixteen, thirty-two.

On and on, the violent orbs multiplied.

Five-hundred and twelve. One-thousand, then two, four, eight – sixteen-thousand three-hundred eighty-four.

Jaw clenched, the witch's fists dig her nails into her carved palms. The pain is nothing compared to the control she gains, to the vicious fury burning in and over her eyes when she next opens them.

Only so many of the dark spheres need split into more this time, and after they do so, they're one over fifty-thousand strong.

The sky grumbles as if impatient. Wuya smirks at it through the cracks of her floating mystical might, and when she speaks, her voice echoes unnaturally.

"Aww, did they take this from you?" The energetic wisps of green that were her eyes flashed with the sky. "Well then, we'll just have to make sure they can never take it again."

A dark little chuckle left her.

Hannibal thought himself so accomplished with his bringing of an end to the Han Dynasty. For every of their sudden clashes as of late, he'd spouted nothing but boastful words, citing all manner of his twisted manipulation. How he had so easily brought about a line of child emperors; then had incited some sort of pathetic religious zealotry so that every regional warlord would need be called upon if the even sorrier government was to have had any hope for "survival".

The casualties from that, alone, had been in the millions, according to the plant. Yet all that followed proved even bloodier, and even now persisted in the now-shattered dynasties

What Hannibal had set into motion had so far led to a forty-year civil war, and during all four of those damned decades, she had to listen to Hannibal speak of his "grandest scheme yet".

And now, by Hannibal's last insufferable estimation, the internal warfare would go on for at least another forty years before any semblance of peace was found for Wuya.

Meaning it wasn't unlikely she'd have forty more years of listening to Hannibal. yapping on and on whilst she tried in vain to kill him. The pleasure she usually took in his likewise failure in ending her existence hadn't been a thing for far too long, now... It won't be long before she's slipped. Made the wrong move first.

However, this, here, won't last mere decades . It would not go on for centuries or millenniums – it would simply be.

The witch smirked.

'Play with your little toys, Hannibal; we'll see who leaves their mark on the world.'

She lifted her hands. Sent her dark power sky-rocketing from her palms as she cackled at the night sky.

The balls of energy glistened. They shined, then, and compressed into wide disks that seemed to tear at the sky. Human after human then fell out of each, every one of them with a chain of energy wrapped around their necks that jangle until jerking to a collected set of choking throats and gasping mouths.

The humans all thrash and kick. Some even try to get purchase on one another. Most reach for their energetic noose, however, and thus most lose a limb or two. As the seconds of strangulation tick by, hand after hand, then arm after arm, is burnt to ash. The witch bathes in the screaming. The gargled struggles, the blood-spitting openings…

The sight wa s to die for. And the sound. The sound of fifty thousand bellowing past their choking necks, kicking at each other and flailing their bodies as if worms. It all fill ed her with malicious glee.

Her wicked smirk , however, did not rak e upon the many before her, but remai ned on one terror-ridden man dangling before her. The one extra that has been lowered to kick and reach with his feet for the just-not-close-enough ground.

The rude man seemed to recognize her the moment his terrified eyes had settled upon on her. His stronger struggle whilst he had then been lowered to dangle right before her had been amusing, too, but his new, more erratic struggle was far preferable.

"Oh, and by the way." Bringing her fingers together, the witch took a step toward him, then shoved her hand straight into his upper right chest. The man screamed best he could, but her energy blasts blood right up and out of his mouth instead. "It's witch."

Her fingers clawed deep inside his body, curling, then, and clenched around his pumping organ before tearing it out.

That done, Wuya released him from his noose. "See? Simple," she tells the spasming human. "And just think: This way, you'll last a little longer."

She bent down. Smiled and dug with her free hand as the wide-eyed man gurgled so loudly, breath after breath a mere failed scream attempt. Like a fish out of water, he looked.

"Oh don't make that face," Wuya chuckled, "You weren't using this anyways."

She dropped the man's heart into her small dug hole, then pushed with both hands upon the parted dirt to re-fill it.

She patted the area. Smiled at the man. Saw his body just won't respond to him how he was used to, and then lifted her eyes to the others.

Fifty thousand sets of chocked screams. Fifty thousand sets of writhing limbs and terrified, reddening eyes.

Wuya lifted her hands again, palms up.

Her dark energy re-bloomed, rising like fire.

Her captives' nooses began to wind down their bodies, soon constricting their legs together.

The energy then tightened around them. It tightened and tightened, forcing each and every person to open their mouths wide and scream until nothing remained in their lungs.

Cracking joints, breaking bones; eyes that pop right out, not always simultaneously; blood oozing through so many pores.

More and more of their physical being leaves them. More blood to flow up the chain of energy, into and through the violent red-black orbs. Their was so much blood, though, that some escaped for the sky, where it thickened the clouds.

The orbs grew darker and darker… redder and redder…

The peoples' remnants go still.

Yet still their bodies were squeezed harder and harder, their skin, organs, and bones all evaporating until all that was left was their spirits.

And even then, they were all fifty-thousand held in place, only now as an ethereal-blue: phantoms of how they had once been. Their mouths remained open, their heads reared back, and still they screamed. Still, they choked.

Wuya curled her fingers. Created fists that further tightened the human spirits' bondage.

Lightning streaked across the bloodied clouds.

Thunder boomed.

The blood of thousands fell, every drop a corruption upon the land.

Opening her hands, Wuya smashed her palms together, fingers entwining.

The twitching orbs of red-black Heylin magic from which the spirits dangled began shooting toward one another. They collided above Wuya, bringing along all the peoples' souls, their screams only growing as they were forced into one ever-growing collection of hollering blood-magic. The complete force spun rapidly, violently, sent lightning careening across the sky that heralded crimson showers and roaring thunders.

Wuya growled and ground her palms together, getting all fifty-thousand of these peons together into a tighter clump. She forms a hasty, darker outer layer of magic around her wicked spell. This muffled the screams, but so did Wuya compressing the souls into a tighter, less stable collection

And the moment she had them all silently screeching, she shoved her palms down for the ground, sending the force of energy and souls soaring straight in the same direction, to where the still-dying rude man's heart lie.

Wuya smiled wickedly as her spell made impact. She was pushed back at once as the force plunged into the Earth, disrupting the ground like mere water. Her hands burned red, however, static emitting from them and slipping up her tattered sleeves. The witch spread her arms out, slowing her retreat to a halt, then focusing on expanding the miniature crater her unholy force was creating.

The energy shone bright as a star. Shook the ground, pulsing and shining a bright red across every piece of her blank canvas. Across every inch of the land. Even the man gurgling his last moments away.

The force was blinding. Yet Wuya only laughed louder, raising the glow brighter still. Her force quaked for miles. Shone bright and true upon the entirety of the lost land.

The screams are drowned out. Outlasted by the Witch's cackles as she fists her hands tighter and suddenly blots out the light.

All is pitch black.

All is still.

…

The ground shook. Did so one last time before red blots came into being and grew into all manner of plant-life upon the sea of black mysticism. Wuya's sharp eyes roiled with red; as did every petal of grass, re-growing stump, and leaf-gaining branch.

Colors bled back into existence.

Next lightning struck, it revealed blood-stained bark, leaves, and blades of grass. The rocks, too, lied tinted red, though more slightly than the plant-life.

The on-pour intensified, stronger gusts violently rustling every branch and leaf.

The witch released her fists. All quaking ceased. Her energy settled…

The violent shower of blood-red rain was all that was to be heard as every trees' branch grew spots of blue. Thousands upon thousands of them, the witch could see. All glowing the place up more and more as they grew no bigger than the size of blue ethereal apples before bursting into all manner of bugs, small rodents, little birds, and perhaps even a minnow or five hundred for the recovering rivers. All tiny critters to wallow in their broken non-existences in a regrown land.

She walked within it. Through and, eventually, off it, towards perhaps stumbling upon Hannibal with now her own evil tale.

One that certainly wouldn't take so long to explain… and may offer a lull in the plant-man's movements… that she could, with, at last end him once and for all…

And yet, some centuries later, when she next returns, she is but a shadow of then…

As Omi leads the way through the Tiger Claw's portal with Raimundo, Chase, and Wuya behind him, the latter can't help a slight smile. The land has lost only about half of its red tint. The place is more green than before, and the rocks themselves are back to their natural color, but it all remains cursed as the day she regrew it. The cursed spirits still roam in their broken forms, all cawing and screeching and croaking so helplessly.

Perhaps even more so, now, since the sky is clouded over and the world is at its end.

She's happy to see, though, that the largest of the redwood trees is still well-coated. Trunk, leaves and all – with but the tiniest outline of green.

The dry fissure it created from sprouting thousands of years ago has healed somewhat. However, it's still a good ways down and wide. Far reaching, and snaking all over.

The redwood tree stands above all. Bloodied, still, and not where Chase is headed, exactly. The warlord motions for Omi to pause and walks ahead of the boy and their last-remaining weakling.

He leaves Wuya to reminisce. And the South American to look about himself at her handiwork. The boy is apparently still taken by the spirits roaming around. The "wild-life".

Raimundo has not even seen the crack in the Earth yet.

"Since you apparently found the witch so appealing, I thought to go with something a little more… fitting for you." The Warlord stands before Raimundo, the fissure slicing across the land behind himself.

The quieted Dragon of wind glares at Chase Young, seeming to not even realize Omi placing a pair of manacles onto his forearms to replace the rope...

The Warlord smirks. His forehead glows.

Chase flickers out of being and reappears behind Raimundo, kicking the boy in his back and sending him careening forward. Raimundo goes straight into the fissure. Falls, falls, and falls as Chase Young walks his way to the edge, hearing a dull impact well before he gets there.

Wuya, too, looks over the edge. Hopes to see the boy splattered to the ground, beyond dead, with guts all over the place; but no, he's just lying there, on the rock ground, grimacing.

Pathetic.

Chase blinks down at the boy. "Well done, Raimundo," the warlord calls down to him, "you've at last earned your rank."

The boy can't seem to get out a reply. His pain seems to be too much for his unworthy mouth to get going. All Raimundo can manage, really, is an intense glare over his shoulder.

The man takes his leave. Has Omi freeze over a great portion of the fissure, then opens a portal with the Golden Tiger claws.

Chase, Wuya, and Omi walk through the portal for the warlord's citadel.

---

One by one, every electric current striking through the hellish heavens above from the surrounding mountain-tops dies out and descends the land back into an ever-darkening quiet.

Chase Young remains such on the lake's sandy shore. Behind him, Omi continues to fight Wuya; whilst in front, the demon warriors' electric eyes flash, heralding lightning from the sky that strikes upon each of them: Two sparking energies that rapidly recede with the warriors surging straight up them for the thundering sky above.

There, the warriors' now-energetic masses settle and glow within the dark clouds, before slicing across the sky, headed for the heads they owe.

---

Jack's automatons have settled into position within the Jungle of Neither Here Nor There. RJ's sat upon a small, mossy boulder, watching a long line of phantom ants march by on the jungle floor; while the Guard-Bots stand several yards behind itself, in a row, with their upper halves largely obscured by a thicker portion of the jungle canopy; and the Jack-Bots perform perimeter watch via their more widespread positionings.

T-Bot, meanwhile, remains eighteen kilometers above, drifting along a sea of dark clouds as it pulses down its radar.

So, with nothing else to do than watch the spiritual bug-life below, the sat metallic redhead establishes a comm-link with Jack's watch…

…

…

'…Okay, now what?' RJ relays in-mind.

Deep underground, Jack sits back in the Molar-2000 and puts his hands behind his head.

"Enjoy the loser show."

He motions for the monitor before himself, upon which is displayed T-Bot's detection of a twelve by twelve kilometer area of the jungle: A land registering as a hazy vermillion monochrome wherein there lie two relatively small light-blue blips (Kimiko and Clay), a green one (Dojo), and two sets of many overlapping yellow ones (the Shen Gong Wu).

The Xiaolin Losers and their Wu picked up quite a bit of speed within the last ten minutes or so and have since then been high-tailing it Northwest.

'Uneventful…' RJ processes. It, too, sees T-Bot's detection of the jungle, but on a small pop-up window residing on the lower right end of its optical feed.

Humming thoughtfully, Jack kicks his booted feet over the Molar-2000's dashboard. "Well, they have been going in the same direction for a while now."

Placing two collected fingers upon the display before himself, Jack spreads his digits apart and zooms the map in on the monks. He then taps three times on an area ahead of the Xiaolin Losers, in the direction they're headed, and creates a small gray circle with white arrows pointing outward from its top and bottom that he slides further apart until the circle's radius covers little more than a kilometer's worth of land.

"T-Bot," Jack says, "perform a focused scan of this area."

So far, Surf's Up has eluded T-Bot, meaning he's not on the surface of the jungle. If he's underground, this scan will make little difference, but perhaps the loser is just in a deep hole of some sort, somewhere…

…

…

… And there Waves is, represented as a white blip that's trapped in what looks like one of many maroon-shaded fissures stretching across the otherwise vermillion jungle floor. To carve such features into the land would have taken an awesome impact, but considering who's likely responsible, there's not a shred of awe to be had by this evil genius.

'...Ya think Chase just dumped him here?' RJ asks.

Otherwise, Windy is apparently guard-less.

"Well, Omi always did make him out to be the worst of them," Jack muses over the inter-comm.

Robo-Jack blinks. 'Does that make him better or actually worse?'

Jack shrugs within the Molar-2000. "Iunno."

RJ makes a face. 'Dubious…'

"Maybe Chase just left him to die like Clay, except on land this time."

'Starvation in solitude… again…' Dully, the robot blinks. 'What, is Chase really that hung up on the dragon situation?'

Jack smiles.

'That's not an option,' RJ deadpans, 'and you know it.'

"And if we find any?" Jack challenges.

'We take what's ours!'

The actual has RJ's undivided attention.

"Right-o!" Jack yells. "Between that or some magic yo-yo, he'll choose his precious cuisine."

Maybe. Stealing it will be harder, Jack figures, so destruction will have to come first.

Send a message.

Then, if possible, grab some of the leftovers and run.

The only problem is that the one-remaining Lense-Bot in Chase's lair has so far found nothing of the soup. It's also true that the thing has hardly moved since RJ's escape alongside Xiaolin Loser, but…

Jack will go for both options, in that order. Make a threat at the right time – use Dojo, get out, steal Dojo back in the process.

Rinse and repeat.

The monks already provide a good distraction. A good force to tail.

Break 'em out, let them have a go, and work with what's (left) on the table.

Easy-peasy.

T-Bot signals – Relaying –

All automatons turn for incoming mysti–

Dual streams of erratic energy streak through the clouds. Their passage overhead is as immediate as their alighting of the entire jungle, yet, in that singular second, RJ's optics see clearly the dual lightnings, before watching them strike down upon a distant area of jungle.

All fades back into darkness…

T-Bot's head quirks… … as does RJ's… …

Sensors show nothing…

Nothing but spreading flames giving rise to thick clouds of smoke to the Southeast…

"Okay," Jack mutters, "that's weird."

Even for he-

Sensors blaring, RJ turns for the source, gets a lock-on via T-Bot, and immediately rockets up a tree to grab at the plant's pinnacle. From there, the robot looks West with magnifying optics, where it registers a tear in the fabric of space.

The evil duo narrow their eyes/optics.

'The Golden Tiger Claws…' they think/process.

"That's not good…" Jack murmurs.

RJ's audio-receptors perk at the sound of crows.

Many crows.

A flock of nine fly out from the yellow-and-white-flashing tear in reality, all cawing as they move across the tree-tops.

Slumping in the Molar-2000, Jack's expression dulls. "He's sending crows after us...?"

This has to be a joke... Otherwise Jack is… a measure insulted. '…Raimundo is a Xiaolin Loser Apprentice… right…?' Surfer Boy had a blue sash last time, didn't he? Or was that Jack's imagination?

Maybe.

May-be. Because there those two losers are – Kimiko and Clay – on T-Bot's radar with that third loser blip added to their ranks. And boy is Wind a pathetic blip: A vaguely bluish white blip that hardly even registers. A shimmering flea on T-Bot's radar.

What was guarding Raimundo is anyone's guess–

RJ looks away from them – back to where some crows are still crows and others have apparently gone jungle-cat-mode.

Those mystical signatures are color-coded a strong orange, and before RJ's extraordinary vision are shown to be of a feline make within the sea of vermillion jungle.

They are a quick group of five and moving fast for the losers.

The remaining crows, however, suddenly fan out over the tree-tops, moving more quietly as they go… flapping not a wing… yet are no less easy for Jack's automatons to keep track of…

RJ works its way down the pinnacle of its tree, hiding within a lush branch of slimy leaves.

Red optics glow within the robot's leafy coverage… keeping track of the rat with wings that's drawing closer and closer…

Concentrated optical-beams singe the bird in seconds. Hardly a noise escapes the animal's wide-open beak before it's red-shining body is incinerated to ashes for the wind to take.

The other crows seem not to notice…

Not before, during, or after Robo-Jack pulls its head back into its leafy hiding spot.

More importantly, T-Bot's readings show the cats are now closing in on the losers. The monks seem to know of this, however, and are all converging on Dojo with Sleeping Loser and the sure-to-still-be soiled bags of Wu.

Dojo takes off on time, too. RJ sees him clear the tree-tops from afar, the cats so close, but not close enough.

Six seconds into this achievement, however, two bolts of lightning strike from the sky for the dragon's head.

Dojo barely ducks below the bolts, wearing a rather crazed look of horror on his face as he promptly soars back down for the ground.

And Jack's gotta say, the Xiaolin Loser of Wind was looking pretty breezed out before the sudden drop came, but he is now wide awake and screaming his lungs out like the rest of his fellow losers.

And where's Dojo suddenly headed, now?

The evil genius sighs. "Dojo, you really gotta stop coming to me like this."

The screaming dragon draws closer to RJ, though not quite as rapidly as his impending crash.

"Begging me and…" Jack motions for the screen with his hand, "this."

Blam goes the dragon, throwing all monks and Wu off–

RJ has had enough of the loser show.

The robot's optics narrow, instead looking back and forth between two places of the jungle lightning has so far struck in.

One with purpose… and one without…

'Strange...'

"Have T-Bot listen for anything weird," Jack decides

RJ relays the order.

"And…" the evil genius sighs, "we should probably get ready to intervene..."

Eyes flaring, Robo-Jack processes the possibilities.

It smiles. Sees the losers' blips moving again. "Eh, who knows, they're the chosen ones right?"

Before its focused optics, eight cats now close in on the monks. They're split into two orange groups of four, all leaping and lunging through a vermillion jungle with every step.

Clearly at home.

---

Sometimes, when the going gets tough, you have to run. Mala Mala Jeong, for example, was a time for hightailing it. Raimundo messed up, then, but he is definitely not about to make the same mistake again here.

He knew so the moment Clay felt eight jungle cats coming for them, fast, and Master Fung was brought along for the run.

So, as they all hightail it best they can through the overgrown foliage, Raimundo finds himself not altogether able to mask his fear when he finds a chance to ask, "How far is it!?" He can feel his tiredness creeping back up on him, however, and the adrenaline is only fading more with every slick leaf, branch, and vine that slaps into his face.

"Not far!" Clay calls back, "we should be just about there!"

Clay somehow managed to see where the Wu fell amid Dojo's messy descent. He scooped Master Fung up and led the charge. But before anyone can finally grab the bags of Wu, lightning strikes upon the artifacts and sends them careening through the air and foliage.

The sky itself hates them…

Chase really is in charge…

'He'd take control of the sun if he could.'

Probably why he blotted it out with the all the clouds.

"W-What do we do now!?" Dojo shouts as the monks keep running together.

"Try to sense a Wu!" Raimundo shouts back.

Anything to even the playing field.

Right now would be nice for Spicer to show his ugly face. The Brazilian doesn't miss Jack by any stretch of the imagination – with or without all the robots – but when Dojo says he can't focus because of the lightning…

That tilts things a bit.

But Raimundo is not about to call the jerk's name. He will die before that. He will sooner stop within a small clearing and turn around with Clay and Kimiko; Dojo hiding within the latter monk's battle robes, terrified; and stand tired as he's ever been with Fung between them–

Four jungle cats leap at them, two at a time and from all sides.

"Earth!" Clay stomps his foot on the ground, shooting a wall up from it that one cat leaps straight into. Kimiko hurls one, then two smoldering fireballs, each bringing their respective target to an immediate halt–

Before Wind gets himself killed, Robo-Jack steps out from behind a nearby tree and reaches forth with a glowing palm. A glowing palm that blasts with such ferocity the robot is forced backward by the man-sized projectile it sends slamming into the leaping jungle cat's left side. The attack soars him past Earth's erected wall, searing through the foliage as it goes. The animal-warrior writhes in pain, attempting to transform, but it is of no use: He and all else in the projectile's path – trees, armor, flesh, a barely-formed shield and its owner's agonized screams – are fully disintegrated.

The only oddity registered is what appears to be the man's soul arising from the plasma-collection: An ethereal being of blue-white that vines from all around swiftly shoot out for and wrap around before pulling in all directions.

The ethereal being's held stock-still, shrinking until nothing remains of itself.

Tree-trunks and branches quickly regenerate, followed by leaves and the formation of a multitude of ethereal blue beads that grow to about the size of apples before bursting into the formation of bugs and other petty organisms.

Ants, roaches, frogs, grasshoppers – all and more rain down unto the jungle floor.

Odd, but, turning left, RJ sees the nearest to itself of Kimiko's opponents to be paused with but a steaming shield. The warrior is large and, garbed in his lorica squamata, of obvious Roman origin. The back-and-forth turning of his imperial helmet shows he is still considering his options, though, allowing RJ a cursory glace ahead of itself, past the gathered monks, where Kimiko's other opponent is knelt behind a cooling shield of his own.

That one is a viking. He's in lamellar armor, bloodthirsty eyes glaring at the girl through the gaps of a Gjermundbu helmet on his bearded head. The way he grips his axe tight tells of a clear desire to cleave the girl in two.

RJ's right hand shifts into the form of a rotary weapon, the robot walking in a wide arch to its left and thus earning the Roman's immediate regard. Clay, meanwhile, slams a fist into the wall of Earth he arose in front of himself and sends it sailing across the land, where it mows a path through rocks and trees that RJ hopes prove lethal to the jungle cat going on the joy-ride.

RJ runs and guns down the Roman, snickering for his raising of his shield to block the shots. A look down shows exposed feet, however, and RJ aims for them instead, hitting with only a few shots before the Roman is again knelt down behind his shield, him turning as RJ runs until it has his back facing the monks.

A battle-cry roars throughout the jungle. RJ looks leftward of the Roman to see the further away viking has broken out into a manic sprint for the monks, his shield forward and his axe raised high. Kimiko is ready for this, despite her anxious expression, though her forward-facing palms do alight faster when RJ's switching of targets does nothing to hinder the man's charge.

Wind steps aside Fire, to her right, brow sweaty and his element violently whirling around his lower right arm. His shoving the limb forth sends a powerful gust of wind barreling forth, forcing the viking to stop and brace himself, lest he be taken to the ground.

It's enough time. Kimiko's searing fingers curl, an even hotter set of palms each facing the Viking and Roman warrior.

Her hands explode with fire, shooting thick streams of it.

The Roman looks over his shoulder, whilst the viking looks past his shield, both hurling their weapons at the girl before jumping out of the way of her hissing attack.

Their weapons cleave through her streams of fire, searing to a molten glow by the time the monks are leaping out of the crisscross of their paths. Instead, the weapons thunk into solid bark, sparking flames straight up their respective tree that sets ablaze to the jungle canopy.

There's little time to appreciate the better lighting. The warriors charge the moment they're back on their feet. Hasty fire-balls impact the viking's shield with no effect, RJ's rapid-firing plasma-shots doing the same upon the Roman's. The only difference is that the Roman's shield appears to be absorbing the energy of RJ's attack. That, and he's picking up quite a bit of speed before letting loose his own battle cry.

Robo-Jack ceases fire, rockets in its feet blasting it up into a hover below the burning canopy, where it watches with a smirk as the Roman charges by underneath itself.

Shifting tectonics draw RJ's attention to the monks. Earth has arisen another wall, and though the viking steps aside the monk's punching forth of it, his avoidance is met with a sizable fireball from Fire.

RJ's optics return to the Roman, who's reaching toward his thrown sword with his free hand. The robot quirks a brow, smirking even as the weapon pulls free of the tree it was embedded in and zips through the air, back into the hand of its owner.

The glow of his shield shifts, dimming as he uses his body as a conduit for transferring it to his sword.

RJ snorts. The time it takes the Roman to poise his arm back is used to take another look at the monks.

They appear to be waiting to see if the viking is done for or not, though, so RJ looks back to the Ro-

The man slashes forth quite the cutting force, but Robo-Jack is faster than it, darting down and out of the path his curved projectile carves through the trees.

Movement below – RJ blinks, looking down right as it's grabbed around the throat by a chain and yanked.

The robot's travel is jolted to a halt by a solid grip about its throat. Such is an easy act to return, though, which RJ proves to the fully-garbed ninja by slamming its palm to his throat before getting its own firm grip going.

The robot's lifted into the air, the ninja throwing his weight forth, then down, and slamming RJ into the ground.

Robo-Jack's grip tightens, fingers clenching into black cloth and the flesh underneath.

The ninja gags, glare grimacing before cold optics.

He grips the hilt of a katana, pulling it out of its sheath before spinning it around in his hand and shoving the blade straight through RJ's torso.

Robo-Jack's left optic stutters, smoke leaking through the gaps of a forming razor-sharp smile.

The robot lets go, allowing the man one clean breath of air as it presses a glowing palm down upon his lower throat. The plasma that blasts free does so persistently, like a torch, and is quick to sear through the man's light armor before doing the same to his flesh.

The immediate sizzling of his innards comes with an expected recoil from the pain, RJ quickly halting the ninja's retreat by grabbing his face with its free hand. All he's allowed to do is strain his throat and desperately jerk away, gurgled noises escaping him as blue plasma bursts out his lower back and sends charred meat spraying through the air.

The man's simply shaking in place soon enough, head held back and eyes wide with pain as his innards finish cooking.

Only when the man's attempted hollers fade, though, does the plasma torch end. And only when it's seen that his body merely twitches, and his eyes stare ahead with so little light in them, does RJ throw the warrior down and off itself to enjoy his final moments.

Or perhaps the man who's eyes are finally rolling up into his skull will have miracle magic to regenerate with, too, like the Lake Monster did.

In any case, the robot stands up, grabs the hilt of the fallen warrior's weapon, yanks the blade out of itself, and proceeds to fling it at the Roman warrior the monks are now dealing with.

He turns just in time to have the blade lodge into his large shield, but doing so allows fire-ball after fire-ball from Kimiko to smack into his exposed side, each knocking the man further off his feet. He's dropped his shield by the seventh fiery impact, though, and is thus doomed to being engulfed in an ever-growing ball of fire that Kimiko's faster fire-rate sends shooting through the jungle.

It's soon out of sight, the girl cutting off her attack to slouch over and pant as her steaming hands cool off.

Wind approaches her, looking concerned, but that's also when four more jungle cats leap out from the brush to the right of the monks, forcing Earth to drop the Temple Master and the three of them to take up defensive stances between him and the new enemies.

A running Guard attracts all eyes, though, its stamping steps shaking the ground as it grabs one, then two jungle cats in its big hand, plowing them back-first through tree-trunk after tree-trunk as it goes.

The distraction gives RJ ample time to reform its rotary weapon whilst running and gunning it, pausing when at last it's got the annoyed and fully transformed warriors wedged between itself and the monks. One is yet another fully-garbed ninja, who's forcing RJ to dodge a slew of ninja-stars, and the other is a samurai garbed in a gleaming all-metal armor that all of RJ's previously fired projectiles bounced off of.

Earth grabs the Temple Master right away, seeing as the massive samurai is moving toward he and the other monks, having no regard for the robot doing its best to shoot whilst dodging what seems to be an endless slew of ninja-stars. Earth and Wind back away from the samurai, Fire doing so away from them as she alternates between watching where the samurai will go and how distracted the ninja is.

Kimiko looks to Clay, receiving a moment's notice and a subtle nod as he and Raimundo lead the samurai further away from her.

Growling, Robo-Jack is just about to turn around for an upcoming enemy there, but after a sudden stomp of Earth's foot upon the ground, it watches the monk's invisible force fly across the ground, going underneath itself before plate tectonics herald a certain viking's screaming take-off.

A boulder being smashed through sounds from where the Guard-Bot went, RJ smirking as it this time dodges a slew of daggers from the ninja.

They're the last he will be throwing. He's no clue of Fire's stand behind him, but he does when her reared back foot swings forth and kicks him right between the legs.

The man's crumbling before Kimiko is swift and definite, and as Jack cackles in one of RJ's audio-receptors, the robot focuses aim on the last-remaining warrior. RJ is made to growl, though, as the samurai punches through an arisen rock wall and socks Earth out cold with his gauntlet-clad fist.

The samurai hardly pays the loser any regard after this and goes for Windy next, who's rather encumbered by holding the Temple Master by his underarms.

Robo-Jack's rockets come alive again, the robot soaring past Fire and, seconds later, into the samurai, only to be bounced back and forced into a haphazard roll along the jungle floor. Little else than a mild stumble is inflicted upon the samurai, though he does turn for RJ when he's again stable.

No matter. RJ stands and unleashes a persistent volley of plasma-balls from its gatling gun. However, the fire-rate steadily slows as the robot watches the samurai grab around a thick tree-trunk, before pulling up, then snapping it out and swinging-

Fire drops to the ground, RJ evading the over-sized bat via a prompt rocket-jump.

Two blasts shake the area from where the Guard-Bot is. Then three more, before two more souls are being feasted on by the cursed jungle.

The monster of a samurai drops the tree. He stands tall. A quick scan from RJ's optics shows him to be seven… point four feet tall… and walking for Robo-Jack.

The challenge is obvious. RJ recognizes it and unleashes energy weapon after energy weapon at the samurai. A samurai who's walk endures it all, armor outright deflecting some of the smaller shots.

The warrior closes in. Rears back his arm.

RJ blasts his glaring helmet with both palm–

The robot's back-handed straight through the tree the warrior dropped and slams to a stop on another massive one…

…

…

"Sword of the Storm!"

RJ shakes its head. Sees a horizontal tornado tearing through the burning jungle, howling louder and louder as it expands. Fire must have made her way back to them, though, because the tornado is suddenly alight with flames, turning it into a raging firestorm

The Guard-Bot, meanwhile, has been making its way back to them ever since killing its targets and now walks aside the blistering tornado with a charging blaster. It keeps its optics on the still-standing man within the roaring storm, getting parallel to him before it raises a blistering blaster.

The man's attempt to escape via the storm's force is a faulty one. The Guard-bot merely re-adjusts its aim and fires a heavy blob of plasma that vaporizes the samurai's armor clean off his body. Thus baring him to the storm's blistering rage that, within seconds, singes him to dust.

The burning fury dies down.

Robo-Jack blinks… restarts…

… …

'Proceed.'

The robot stands. Takes in its burning surroundings. And makes for the tuckered out loser.

Its run starts a measure sluggish, but steadily gains both stability and speed.

And when at last standing before Wind, Robo-Jack's cold optics ignore Fire's concern with Wind as it gets a read on him… …

She is knelt over Shark Bait, asking the passed out, sweaty boy what he did.

RJ would be more inclined to ask why Wind did what he did – it wasn't necessary; let the Wu do the work, not your meager chi! – but there's a bigger issue, Robo-Jack processes.

RJ and the Guard walk away, for the unconscious form of Clay.

He's close by, fortunately, and the robots reach him momentarily.

Their optics scan up and down Earth, finding him to be… … fine. He's perhaps concussed, but otherwise fine.

The robots move on for the warriors they've yet to terminate.

"Crud…" Jack mutters through the inter-comm. "Now there's three Sleeping Losers…"

RJ frowns, itself and the Guard coming to a stop before Clay's crippled opponent. It seems the wall the jungle cat is not far from did a number on his legs.

The Guard points its blaster at the wide-eyed black panther, blasting him to smithereens with one, two, three shots of plasma that collect into one big explosion for his soul to erupt from for the forest to dine on.

A jungle cat to the very end. Not like RJ's cooked opponent. He, too, is somehow crawling away. Not to mention smelly. The robot tracked the cooked ninja by smell alone, having begun charging its blasters long before achieving a visual.

RJ stops roughly fifty meters away from him. Takes aim.

The ninja never sees the plasma-bath coming. He perhaps heard RJ and the Guard-Bot's searing plasma-blasts, but he certainly hasn't time to see them coming before being incinerated on the spot.

Another to speed the jungle's recovery.

Evil reforestation.

And thus, only the one with the broken crotch is left to be exterminated.

The robots walk past Kimiko for him.

"What are you…?"

Three Jack-Bots arrive behind Kimiko, stealing her attention.

RJ nods at them.

They stare.

The robotic redhead turns toward Kimiko. "The Sleeping Losers come with us."

One of the Jack-Bots has already taken off with the old man.

"What?" not only Kimiko, but Dojo, bark.

The animal has poked his head out of her collar.

"Less baggage," RJ calls back as it and the Guard continue on for the last-remaining warrior, another two Jack-Bots arriving and taking Rai and Clay.

Once again, the Guard and RJ's blasters fire, incinerating another warrior where he lay.

Yet another soul for the cursed jungle to take and regenerate from.

Satisfied, Robo-Jack and the Guard-Bot make their way back to Kimiko, pushing past leaves and branches as best they can whilst taking care to not step on anything deemed too big a plant. Doing so is a measure tedious, especially with so much still growing back… but they nonetheless add a spring to their cautious steps.

The girl seems a measure disturbed, though, when she comes into better view. As if she would prefer not to stand next to RJ.

Odd.

But agreeable.

Doubly so is the silence that is met with when RJ and the Guard reach her and the Jack-Bots. Outside of their gently purring internals and the crackling of the jungle fire, there's nothing but dead silence.

No more of the nocturnal life. No annoying frogs. Not even the chirping of ghostly crickets.

RJ squints, giving the jungle floor a surveying glance.

'And what happened to all the ants...?'

Turning toward Kimiko shows her looking within the unnaturally silent jungle, too.

The robot waves for her attention.

She gives it with a glare.

RJ counts to three with its fingers and mouths the lightning.

The robot waggles the first digit it arose.

Slowly, Kimiko's brow knits.

Her baby blues suddenly widen, though, for which RJ quirks its head before seeing a pair of glaring electric wisps for eyes–

T-Bot–

Quickly turning, RJ sees another demon warrior reaching for his sword – this one with a wolf-head helmet, rather than a bear one.

Looking back ahead shows Kimiko is fortunately already bending her knees like RJ.

The lightning strike that goes underneath their jumps rocks the area. It's a horizontal slice, and though impossibly brief, it incinerates a clean shave across the area, leaving the Guard's defensive kneel with stuttering, then dying jagged optics. The trees, hills, grass, they're all set ablaze–

The warrior behind Kimiko grips his sword–

"DOWN!" RJ shouts.

Amid their high jumps, they each shove a hand for the sky.

Blade buzzing, the warrior slash-

From a metal palm fires plasma, as does fire burst from Kimiko's.

Lightning cuts above the girl and robot as they jut for the soil, impacting it shoulders-first.

Two explosions precede another electric explosion across the Guard's armor plates.

The Jack-Bots have gone offline.

The Guard, however, is re-stunned. Its optics have this time fully flickered out, though, and there's another black streak running across its armor. Yet the armor plates of not even its legs are yet cut through, contrary to all else the lightning made contact with as it sliced on and on across acres of jungle…

It is, however, taking the Guard a while to restart...

However-however, the enemy is before RJ and Kimiko.

The two demon warriors each slam a palm into their surprised foes' chests, sending monk and robot slamming back to back and crumbling to the floor.

Body's buzzing, the demon warriors zip forth.

Swords slash for one wide-eyed bot and girl's necks–

RJ and Kimiko leap in opposite directions. The clashing of the warriors' swords explodes and thunders, however, sending RJ and Kimiko much further than they ever intended to go. The two of them dig into, bounce, and roll along the ground.

Out of electrified smoke, the warriors walk, impeded little by the quaking ground.

Off to their opponents side, though, the Guard-Bot's optics burn bright red.

The behemoth stands tall.

Charges and aims its main blaster.

The warrior walking for Kimiko raises its sword side-ways, lightning striking from the sky to provide a thick electric shield over himself and his partner.

The Guard-Bot's roaring attack slams into the warrior's defense, seeming to eat them whole, and even more so when another two plasma-baths follow; but in the end, the warriors walk free of rising black clouds, unharmed and continuing for Kimiko.

Fireballs do nothing, either. Not even five of them, though by then, RJ is aside Kimiko with two AI chips that it tosses into its mouth.

The robot's optics flash.

"Fire won't mess with electricity," RJ says. The thing scans them, filing through the evilest of archives… …

"We need water."

Magical water, to be exact.

The robot cycles through all Wu signatures, then. Artifacts, shocked and tossed all around – filter – water – Orb of Tornami – locate – locate –

"Follow me to the Orb."

She throws another molten ball of fire and looks to RJ, brow knit as it runs in the direction of the Orb. She's clearly unsure, but nonetheless follows behind RJ, the two of them hightailing it the moment they hear sparks – growing sparks.

Fortunately, the Orb is within the jungle's uncut portion.

"How far is it!?" Kimiko shouts over a stream of lightning cutting between them.

"Why can't you just be happy!?" RJ complains, another few bolts going over their heads. "Why can't you just appreciate that we know where it is?!"

"Just," she tosses herself away from another lightning strike, "answer – for once!"

"Iunno; still got those boots!?"

Kimiko curses, barely dodging another bolt of lightning. RJ, too, for that matter… twice, thrice, again and again…

They both scramble to their feet, and restart their running spree as they get a grip on their bearings.

Flickering into being before them, the warriors stop RJ and Kimiko dead in their attempts. However, the demon warriors lift their gazes up, flicker into pure energy again and dash aside before the falling Guard-Bot's feet can plow them into the ground.

Grabbing the also-unsteady girl, RJ pulls her along, the two of them running between the Guard's legs. As they go, the bulky robot lobs a missile from each shoulder, both spinning before they rocket for a re-materializing warrior, each.

The explosions rock the area.

Kimiko and RJ run just a bit faster, the bot smiling like a shark.

Kimiko dearly wishes she could afford to melt the look off the snickering robot's face. The many slashes still sparking and flashing and crackling past them are not joy-inspiring. Neither are the Guard's many shots flying ahead of them. Or the two warriors' cold regards as they lightning through the jungle and catch up in the blink of an eye.

From their short distance, the energetic warriors' hands alight, shine brighter; whilst RJ raises an open palm with Kimiko doing the same.

The Xiaolin warrior and evil robot's fingers curl, flexing with their hands.

The warriors' electric feeds cut through the air and foliage, one striking onto a half-crescent shield of concentrated fire, and the other meeting a plasma-beam from Robo-Jack's open palm.

The Guard-Bot's hand, meanwhile, sucks into its forearm. The bulky bot pauses. Takes aim with its newly formed giant cannon as one protrusion along its forearm pulls into the barrel.

Target achieved.

The weapon throws back the Guard-Bot's whole right side. Its feet grind back through the dirt while its far larger, far brighter plasma beam rips through the air for one of the warriors.

The being closest to the Guard ceases its attack on RJ. Instead, he turns, lifts his sword and parts the enormous plasma beam in two.

Gaze still on the monk and robot, the warrior receives another strike from above. Tilts his searing, enlarged sword –

The reflected beam approaches on a steady course. RJ grips Kimiko's arm and kicks on its rockets. The beam tearing across their front shuts her big mouth right up as the robot narrowly avoids it and quite a few falling trees.

Most of which are then sent soaring all over the place by the lit trail dug into the ground proceeding to explode.

The Guard's jagged optics finish taking in the being's tactic.

The bulky robot raises its weapon, parting the clouds in two.

Sun-shine bleeds over the jungle, the lone ray stretching for miles across the dark-land.

Safe, now, RJ rockets back on track with Kimiko– right into the other demon warrior.

RJ kicks on the breaks. Kimiko grabs RJ's shoulder and uses her momentum to kick– the warrior lifts his sword– RJ grabs Kimiko by her arm and tugs–

The warrior slashes across–

The Guard-Bot slashes its beam down, incinerating the glaring warrior nearly whole. Arms and a sword are left to hit the ground before the feed dies and RJ rockets away with Fire before the eminent explosion goes off.

Roiling heat raises into the sky, sending gusts over the remaining combatants.

A thick cartridge ejects from the Guard's rectangular fore-arm. The thing lands hard in the dirt, leaving three cartridges remaining in the robot's left arm, which now re-gains its hand.

Whether the warrior is truly dead, RJ does not stay to see. Not while this bot has rocket engines still available. Especially not when the sky thunders and then constantly zaps where the warrior's arms fell.

These beings are not warriors.

They are monsters.

"Go faster!" is the first thing Kimiko has to say when the other one shows up, zapping its way through the trees. It's not too far to their right and keeping up well with Robo-Jack's rockets.

"Rich!" RJ spits.

Ten seconds, she gave the bot to recharge. Never mind two hours – this loser set an all new record.

"I'm glad we're dying!" RJ sneers, giving her a disgusted once over while the monster slashes one hell of a bolt for them.

Thank goodness the its able to send them down to the ground via a saved up plasma-blast. 'And how long this time?' Forcing them to their feet, RJ scowls at the sudden striking of lightning in their way and halts their run.

As their feet dig across the jungle floor, the robot shoves the girl away–

Kimiko all but tumbles back, red optics following the slice of a striking blade.

The blade slashing for RJ's chest, but clanging instead upon two metal hands.

Optics vibrant, RJ wraps its fingers around the warrior's blade as wrathful bouts of electricity are sent in all directions. The warrior's force is persistently shocking and kicks up at once, the being glaring into cold, scanning optics as he builds his force even stronger. His sword sparks against the metal of RJ's palms, burning them darker and darker.

The robot's drainage on the other end of his erratic aura nullifies his force none what-soever. His magic is blindingly powerful – ferocious as the lightning blade itself. Every artificial hair on RJ's head stands on end whilst its form buzzes with the energy.

Yet the robot's cold optics still stare.

Its burnt grip maintains.

The warrior's blade moves not. Its mighty, chaotic magic merely hastens the filling of RJ's core.

The robot's enlightened optics narrow, glowing brighter.

The warrior's head quirks down at RJ as the robot's overflowing core dumps its excess straight through RJ's arms and into opening palms; where two violent, unstable spheres of energy bloat underneath the warrior's blade.

The hissing collections combine, shine, and–

The energy bursts outward, in the monster's direction, going critical and at last exploding.

Robo-Jack's sent flying by the recoil.

The warrior's last-measure shield of electricity lasted for less than a second before shattering with the being's blade, and though RJ cannot move with its current unstable velocity, it can just barely make out the husk of that warrior flying out of the explosion, in the direct opposite direction, before burning leaves and branches overtake its sight.

Both of which RJ breaks through many, many, many times over.

Yet the bright blue cloud continues to bloat, before taking on a blazing white.

In time, however, the force burns down to a rising pitch black. A cloudy depth in which lightning creeps as RJ slams to a stop upon a sturdy, thick tree.

Allowing gravity to at last pull RJ straight down.

The robot's optics open dully, watching branch after branch snap on its head and shoulders.

Flipping over, the robot lands on a particularly heavy patch of branches. A patch that requires the robot shake and blast itself free of in order to finally land heavily on its feet.

RJ balances itself. Remains in place… and walks slowly for the monk amid damage re-assessment… and T-Bot detecting… nothing of worry yet.

Both monsters are very much alive, though, and RJ rockets for Kimiko best it can, listening to lightning strike from the sky, its twin growing stronger and stronger…

The further away warrior is near completion. He sounds to be finished by the time RJ reaches the monk, though, his bolt from the sky no longer present.

The robot and Kimiko turn to run–

RJ lifts an arm and open palm first, Kimiko following after.

RJ's electric shield gains an inner one of revolving flame, monk and robot bolstering their forces as the warrior's blade slams against its outer shell. The warrior's strength shoves RJ's half-sphere force-field back, but the robot digs its soles into the ground and pushes more energy into its electric defense.

The warrior's strength proves too much... RJ's shield falters. The warrior's blade slices in, bit by bit.

However, Kimiko's been collecting her element to a nigh pure-white flame over her hands and lower arms. She reaches behind herself with her aflame limbs, clenching her hands into searing fists and siphoning off of the burning foliage.

Her fire grows, seeming to almost explode up her arms.

RJ smirks as her fire-coated arms rage, burning brighter and brighter behind itself.

Her fists spark, shining when they've at last taken all the fire they can bare to hold.

The robot moves its hands away from its failing shield.

The girl lobs a hissing ball of fire at their enemy, it bursts through RJ's flickering shield upon impact, blasting outwards, right upon the warrior's blade, where its explosion is sliced about half-way through when another over-concentrated fire-ball suddenly slams into the first.

The sudden, great conflagration takes the monster by surprise, eating him whole whilst its hissing plumes of fire char their way through the trees, blotting out the shadows as they go...

The kick-back, however, shoves RJ and Kimiko right into the air and away. The robot grabs onto a tree trunk with its teeth. Kimiko merely grabs onto a thick branch with her hands and holds on for dear life.

Eventually, things settle down. They land, it gets rather dark again, the ground settles, and all is quiet.

Quiet...

The other persistent lightning strike has ended.

The other warrior is back.

RJ snatches the Sword of the Storm from Kimiko, giving her ample reason to follow when it then sprints through the jungle for the Orb of Tornami.

At first, there's only one (angry) loser to worry about. Her quiet demands for RJ to give the Wu back, however, are seconds later cut off by lightning striking for them. They hardly duck in time – or jump over the next set.

Bone-hard hands grip the leaping teen and robot's necks.

The girl gags to a halt.

Shorter than RJ, she also dangles.

The monk sounds to be trying to get a single syllable out; whilst RJ blinks, in no need for oxygen. The robot meets the demon warrior's glaring electric eyes and grabs the thing's wrist.

Failing to snap it…

Kimiko's hands do, too, on its other arm and wrist, though she wastes little time to light them up with fire. The warrior's hands grip harder on their throats, however. Tighten and go beyond merely ending the girl's breathing.

RJ's metallic throat indents…

The girl's outright struggling, now. She's pushing at the warrior's arm with one hand, using the other hand to claw at the warrior's grip with searing nails. Kicking her legs, then jerking back and forth, failing with every second to get her air-way open-

RJ knees the warrior right in the gut.

The impact does nothing…

Fire – Time – Running – Brain–! Charge – Damage –

The warrior stares at RJ's scowling optics. Tilts his head… and lifts the girl higher in the air before bending her n–

His head turns up.

RJ lets go of the warrior with one hand, it sliding open across the palm.

Standing firm, RJ grips harder the warrior's arm with its other hand and pulls down.

He has just enough time to look before RJ's free hand explodes with plasma right over his face, the loss of that body part at last making him let go of Fire's neck. Thus heralding sole-based rockets' activations as RJ grabs onto the air-gulping monk.

Narrowly, they avoid the Guard's feet slamming down, right over the warrior.

After which the bulky robot grinds its heels into the dirt. Then raises the foot and wipes it off on the side of a tree trunk.

Done with that, the hulking robot lumbers over to RJ and Fire. The out of breath human watches with wide eyes as the Guard takes a step over them.

And then sprints away.

She watches, panting and perplexed, and turns to see no RJ.

She blinks. Gulps in air, wipes her eyes and brow clean of moisture, and sees, still, no Robo-Jack.

As Lightning strikes for not just one, but both fallen warriors, she sees no robot at all next to her.

Her mystified blinks last a second before she's looking left, right, behind – and then she's yelling after RJ as it sprints past the Guard-Bot for the Wu it has no idea how close they are to.

The new pace is overdue. RJ hears Kimiko say her element's name non-too-kindly, though, and thus the robot activates its rockets again.

Fire has the correct idea. The Guard-Bot a ways behind them is clearing a nice path through the trees of this weird jungle, and they might even be closing in on the Wu – who can honestly say. RJ's only certain they need distance.

It would be nice if Dojo weren't scared of lightning, though. Maybe he could put in a cent or two on the matter. However, what RJ finds standing over the Orb of Tornami stops the robot dead in its tracks.

The warrior stares.

The girl arrives. She powers down, lands next to RJ, and sounds ready to go for the robot's neck before taking notice of Mr. Bear, too.

Their foe merely stares. Has been since RJ arrived. The monster waits, waits, stares and waits.

Behind them, his partner's regeneration continues.

Kimiko's brow knits.

The demon warrior pulls his sword free–

"Sword of the Storm!" RJ yells, spinning the artifact as Kimiko weaves fire into the Wu's horizontal tornado. The great conflagration shoves forth, sending the Orb rolling back between the warrior's legs, and soars into and past the being seconds after.

Kimiko adds more heat to their attack; whilst Robo-Jack spins the sword faster, smiling wickedly.

Though its smile soon fades somewhat.

Their roaring attack is going critical. Its losing its red hue, instead hissing to a white-hot.

RJ kills the feed and, grabbing the girl, rockets away.

White noise precedes detonation. The explosion kicks for a tremendous moment – a mind-numbing seven seconds – after which they're somehow back to flying (tumbling mid-air) through what tree branches aren't aflame.

"This sucks!" RJ complains.

"They won't die!" Kimiko yells, more nervous than angry as they land and dart through the jungle. "And you left me!" She grabs the bot by its collar as they run, only to be quickly shoved right off.

Robo-Jack's always up to complain. In fact, it stops them next to the trailing Guard-Bot's leg to do so.

Her eyes lose some of their fire, the girl seeming perplexed for the sudden change. Until RJ jabs a finger right in her face, anyways, and growls. "Ten secon–!"

"Are you serious right now!?"

The girl tries to go somewhere - anywhere - else, but RJ stops her by her shoulder.

She blinks. Is turned around.

RJ poises a fist between them, looking her right in her mystified eyes. Two utterly perplexed orbs that drop from the robot's optics to its suddenly shaking fist.

"Rock-Paper-"

"No!" She'd slap the robot's hand away if the act weren't likely to hurt her.

RJ blinks. Stares at her fiery aura for all of two seconds before turning its optics on the incoming danger blaring on its sensors. "Fine: We distract; you splash; go."

RJ and the Guard-Bot walk ahead of Fire.

Let her take too long. She will regret it. Direly. Not especially for the zapping that RJ dodges against the Guard-Bot's leg, looking like a hieroglyphic, but definitely for taking an entire forty-seven seconds to sneak up on the warrior and use the Orb of Tornami to blast him with water.

The warrior's taken to the ground, where he's kept by the Orb of Tornami's torrential flow.

The warrior's body contorts. His eyes spark out. He charges and electrifies the water pouring onto him, sending a current up the flow–

Clank, clank, clank!

Halting its run, the Guard-Bot slides across the jungle floor, chassis tearing through burning branches as its blaster charges, ready to fire by the time the hulking bot has come to a pause.

The being's eaten by plasma. An energetic mass that expands, growing with every follow-up shot, until, on the fourth, it at last explodes.

The force sends the warrior's bear helmet careening far across the wet, steamy ground...

Still, the Guard fires, fires, and fires.

Robo-Jack watches the ever-growing destruction. Takes in the slashes tearing across the Guard's front.

The hulking, steaming machine suddenly halts fire.

RJ blinks.

The Guard kneels down. Goes offline.

The metallic redhead tilts its head.

It scans its fellow automaton… … assisting it in its coming back online… and offering…

"Is it done for…?"

… guidance…

Lightning strikes for the incinerated carcass.

But the zero-second force slows to a still… showing, indeed, a soul that perhaps thought itself safe.

T-Bot – Relaying –

The jungle bleeds a red aura. Every leaf, every branch, every fallen, dead leaf – it all shifts to a dark red.

A wicked force that, as it spreads, T-Bot's sensors cannot measure…

The soul is sucked back down its electric highway. Back, for the jungle to ensnare, though not with green, but rather red vines to feed off it.

That which was destroyed soon grows back in far greater measure.

The Guard's optics re-alight. Its chest-plates still spark where slashes are cut across, but the hulking robot stands at full height and takes in its surroundings. It gets its footing, then, followed by sensors and remaining broad-range systems.

Lightning strikes. It registers.

They three look toward the last-remaining foe. Watching the final lightning strike herald the finish of his return. The area of forest bursts with flames. Explodes and thunders.

RJ snickers. Kimiko glowers.

She looks to the Guard. Gives it an unimpressed once-over.

"Eyes ahead, loser," RJ mutters. Perhaps she cannot detect the magnitude of magic they're dealing with, but RJ can. Upon switching to mystical sights, it sees every bit of the monster, both before, during, and after it zips through the jungle for them.

All within the span of a second.

Like lighting, the warrior just appears between Kimiko and Robo-Jack.

The blast RJ's able to muster is unimpressive, though its hand is pushed off-course by the warrior anyways. Kimiko's prompt go for the warrior's face with her fist is dodged. He pulls his head aside just in time.

His eyes flash.

The warrior shoves his elbow right into the girl's face, sending her right to the ground on her back. He makes to stab her, then, but is forced to retreat by a hefty kick from the Guard-Bot. The force of its attack fans the entirety of Kimiko's body as its foot passes over her.

The far-away warrior re-materializes. Grabs the hilt of its sword again, and sends a nasty buzz through and along its blade. The noise cuts throughout the aflame jungle, vibrating the Earth.

The demon warrior charges. He surges forth, striking through a prompt plasma-bath like a giant bolt of lightning. His energetic form tears clean through the Guard's thick plates, incinerating through and blowing out the robot's other side. Leaving the bulky robot to burn and crumble to its knees, it collapsing into several even pieces that, after ejecting a small chip, explode.

The warrior's signal approaches. He clears the smoke, proceeding for the robot.

Robo-Jack rockets forth, raising its hands for the warrior's raising weapon.

He flashes into a mere shock of electricity the moment RJ kills its rockets and shoves its right arm forth. The warrior zips aside, dodging a hasty plasma-blast and materializing its body aside RJ's stopped-dead chassis.

Still raised, his blade slashes down for RJ's head. The robot's upper half rotates at the waist, however, metal hands raising to catch the warrior's blade.

Again Robo-Jack steals energy. Again, Robo-Jack reveals its blasters.

This time, however, the warrior seemingly dumps energy into its blade, shattering through–

The monster's doused in water.

His electric eyes widen. No longer the angry slits of a monster, but erratic circles full of fear. Haywire shock.

His energy sparks, contorting his body. Making him twitch in seemingly every direction at once. Like a dying transformer, the being buzzes and sparks even louder, throwing bolts in all directions as Robo-Jack fires a going-critical plasma-ball.

He's shot back through the jungle. There's a bright light before the explosion comes, too, and though its blast is in the direction of its travel, the kick-back is no less strong.

Thus, Robo-Jack gets real familiar with yet another thick tree. One that Fire manages to land on, but falls off of anyways.

"Oww…"

RJ smiles.

Nothing like a full recharge.

The actual can have his caffeine.

After restarting, refreshing, and undertaking a refreshing restart, Robo-Jack is not only steaming again, but up and running.

The robot stumbles once or thrice, but nothing major is lost – nothing much. Many things are coming back online.

Like comms…

'I think we're done…' RJ assesses.

The robot stands taller. Pockets its hands in its ragged trench coat.

T-Bot senses… no movement…

RJ's optics perform a static-y swipe of the area.

The robot shakes its head. It gives another look.

Nothing…

The loser… approaches… left…

RJ regards the monk from its kneel on the ground.

Belatedly, it realizes comms are not up…

Kimiko sighs raggedly. "Lemme guess: I gotta carry you, now."

RJ shakes its head. Once, twice… holds… tests…

"Yes or no, Robo-Jack?"

… … …

Up. Running.

Optics opening and alighting, Robo-Jack stands and walks over to the perished Guard-Bot. It scans the pieces, reviewing every spec of material for anything salvageable – that may be used against them.

The robot finds nothing. Everything of the Guard is in complete ruin. Except the chip RJ at last finds.

The robot digs in the pile, uncovers the Guard's surviving AI; and swallows the chip quickly, ignoring the girl's disgust with itself.

RJ stares at the bulky robot's charred remains. Allows the actual to take it all in as well.

The warrior got through the Guard's defenses well. Too well. Three tries in the spot were all it took to blow through and leave the Guard's innards exposed.

Now all that remains is a burnt pile of heavy metals and wires.

Robo-Jack frowns.

It turns, optics searching for one remaining blip it's just taken notice of. A detection of T-Bot's that has apparently been beeping in its head for quite a while now...

RJ swipes its optics left, right, all over, until finding the crippled cat clawing its way in the dirt. Somehow having managed to survive.

The battered robot's focused optics glow.

"What are yo–"

Robo-Jack's lifting palm fires one solid projectile in response.

The searing mass hits the jungle cat right in its upper back, shoving almost out the animal's chest before, greatly expanding, at last exploding.

"And w-e're d-done," RJ says.

Kimiko stares at the unseen. In the general direction of both a heat and mystical signature surely fading as RJ moves on with its own existence.

The girl shakes her head. Gives a hard look to the ground. 'Conflict,' the robot observes dully.

When at last she raises her gaze, though, it's with hardened baby blues. "Where are the others?"

"Underground," RJ replies.

"In the Molar-2000?" Kimiko guesses with a frown.

RJ blinks.

Its expression turns glum.

"Yes."

No robotic inflection.

Jack's voice.

Kimiko blinks.

Then, sighing raggedly, she sits down with a resigned nod to catch her breath.

"So what now?" RJ asks of the two of them.

Dully, it meets Kimiko's tired gaze.

She raises a brow.

Right now, she needs a breather – cursed forest be damned – and glowers at the robot.

"Wait for these two to wake up," Jack says from RJ's mouth.

"And find the other Yo-Yo," the robot follows with.

Kimiko falls back into a lay. "Without it even revealing?" She all but laughs.

Jack again: "Well… if it comes to that, we'll be waiting for a long time. A long, long," Jack deadpans, "long time."

"Like we've got anything better to do…" RJ mutters.

Kimiko finds herself frowning again. "...You're serious?"

"Theoretically," the evil duo respond.

"Testing inconclusive-"

"-Because testing that out means scanning the world, just so you kn-."

"How long?" Kimiko asks.

RJ frowns.

"A week, at least." Jack estimates.

Staring, now, the girl wears a rather blank expression on her face…

The fact that they can even do that, at all, raises and waves so many red flags in the girl's mind. Too bad they're too far down the dumps right now for that to matter when the world is already doomed thanks to Chase Young.

"Fine," she says, "but I'm taking my friends back and getting the Wu."

"Agreed; Robo-Jack will assist," Jack responds.

"...Right."

The robot doesn't look ready to assist her by any means. More like fall apart.

"Yeah. Really." Dull optics stare down at her unimpressed baby blues. "The sooner we're outta here, the better."

The only plus is that the red aura the jungle has going has snuffed out the fire that once burned at it.

And still, foliage grows back. Merely the underbrush, but seemingly so for all across the jungle floor.

Frowning, Kimiko rubs the animal trembling on her shoulder. "Fine."

Blinking dully, Jack says, "Robo-Jack will hand you a device if," the robot raises a finger, "you give your Xiaolin word you won't tamper with it – at all."

The robot relays all of this. She can't even properly glare at it.

From her lay on the ground, Kimiko groans at the sky for help that's, once again, not coming. "I give my Xiaolin word I won't tamper with your toys."

Snorting, RJ walks over to Kimiko and hands her a small device. A simple device. Like a phone, but little more than an LED screen displaying a long list of Shen Gong Wu. The robot scrolls up and down the list with a few swipes of its index finger upon the screen, then taps on a random artifact to have the screen display an arrow with with an ever-changing distance below it.

How far the Eye of Dashi is, Kimiko hasn't the slightest clue. However, RJ ends her perplexed moment by double-tapping the screen to return to the list of Wu.

Right before pressing a side-button to shut the small device off.

"And that's all you need to know," RJ says.

The robot walks away.

She watches it sit back down. Takes a look at the regenerated jungle. The fully regenerated jungle…

The place is dark again and, now that the underbrush has regrown, is once again annoying to traverse. Vines, leaves, branches and twigs all find purchase all over her clothing and hair as she uses Jack's device to track the lost artifacts down.

What's also irking her, however, is the distance away every damn Wu is turning out to be. Not to mention that all the numbers displaying on Jack's device are flickering and changing erratically, leaving her with nothing but a direction to move in.

So, after a third lengthy trek through the jungle for one measly Wu, Kimiko goes for the Jetbootsu next.

Once she's got those, she's zipping through the jungle for them all. She even soon sees RJ doing the same, and then that the Molar-2000 has resurfaced.

Kimiko pauses mid-air. The hatch to the vehicle opens.

She can but stare at her unconscious friends as Jack jumps out of the cockpit.

The evil genius's boots hit the ground, him then walking with two new sacks for the Wu-pile of hers that RJ is adding to by the minute. He expects the girl will be busy with her friends or something, and leans down to put the first W–

"Bags stay, you go." Her distaste is vast, but she smiles when she adds, "And thank you."

Dropping the sacks, Jack straightens his stand and backs away.

All the way back to his vehicle. "Want them down, too?"

Kimiko's eyes narrow.

Jack smirks.

RJ lands beside him with the Wu that was furthest away.

The robot tosses the artifact to Kimiko.

She catches it, staring at the Shard of Lightning before returning her gaze to them.

Her brow knits…

For all of three seconds before she frowns out of quite apparent loathing for them and takes off again for the Wu.

The evil duo watch as she goes.

For about two seconds.

It's better usage of time, after all, to lean against the Molar-2000 and talk things out with one another; than watch the pathetic, angry sight the Loser of Fire has become.

Perhaps this is where the losers' power stems, the evil duo theorize.

RJ knocks its memory around. Considers it likely. The girl has proven somewhat formidable.

She will have to go first, RJ assesses.

Chase did not ship her off. The why is not a wonder anymore.

He wished her death be an ensured event. The one to be so close to her kin before expiring, maybe even hearing Omi and Chase training in the distance, their battles echoing down that endless stair-case to where she'd been left to rot.

As the girl gains a red shroud of fire, zipping by over the tree-tops, RJ and Jack's eyes watch the pile of Wu grow.

"You realize we're screwed, right?" RJ says.

"Yeah." Jack shrugs a shoulder. Almost yawns, honestly. "What about it?"

Now the robot shrugs a shoulder. "Nuthin'."

It's said far too innocently for Jack to not immediately glare at RJ.

"…What?"

His robotic clone suddenly glares back. "We need the other Yo-Yo," RJ states.

…

Anger fading, Jack shrugs. "Fine. Go scan the world. See if I care."

RJ frowns.

His robot can do so as long as it wants; they've got nothing but time to blow anyways (thanks to Kimiko), so Jack's perfectly content to wait around.

"What. is the point," RJ asks, "of us being here if we can't go for Chase because we" motioning for them both, "don't have the other one?!"

That will just lead them to another road-block.

Inside the warlord's lair!

"FINE!" Jacks stresses, "I said hav-!" Bringing up his watch, Jack yells, "T-Bot, after we leave, scan for all low-frequency magical signatures in the general area!"

RJ's glare sharpens. It leans toward Jack, optics glowing.

"Two. Hours." Twice, it jabs a finger into Jack's chest.

Also sharpening his glare, Jack leans forth, too.

"Qui-et." He jabs RJ in the chest, too, with his own pointer finger. "You need repairs."

The evil duo walk to the rear end of the Molar-2000 amid Kimiko's progress. And just to spite RJ, Jack decides he won't check T-Bot's findings. Not once. He will instead spend all his time bringing RJ back up to standard, so that it, itself, can tell the tale of its folly.

A wide panel pulls opens on the back of the vehicle, and the evil duo walk into a small space consisting of little more than a U-table, tool-boxes, and numerous outlets.

RJ lies down upon the metal repair table bolted to the floor.

As Jack preps his robot for repairs, Kimiko continues her gathering of the Wu. The jungle continues to grow back.

Repairs begin.

What Kimiko does with the simple Wu-tracker RJ gave her, Jack doesn't know or care. He keeps working on RJ. An hour and some minutes later, he gets notification from his watch that the Loser of Earth has woken up.

He ignores the girl helping her friend out of the Molar-2000.

What they say to one another, the evil genius cares not at all.

RJ's repairs continue.

Kimiko resumes gathering the Wu.

And so it goes.

The time ticks by…

However, as expected, all the racket he's making… draws attention.

For which Jack presses a button on his watch.

A Jack-Bot rushes out of the brush for Clay. The wide-eyed surprise he shows makes Jack smile, even though he'd really rather be repairing RJ than seeing this on his watch…

"Woah, there, partner!"

The Jack-Bot stops right in front of him. Looks down upon him, optics glowing red.

"Wha'd'ya want Clay?" Jack asks from the robot's… sunken head…

Blinking, Clay shrugs. "Just wanted to say thanks, I reckon." He nods his head in his robot's direction. "I know you didn't do it for us, but… Well, we'd be-"

"Yeah, Clay," Jack says, "I know."

… … …

He is not dealing with this right now. "Go get your friend. We should be leaving soon."

'I have work to do...'

Clay can narrow his eyes at his robot all he wants.

Jack is returning to repairing RJ.

"Like it 'r not, Spicer," Clay speaks, "we need to worl together on this."

…

Raggedly, Jack sighs.

"Yes, Clay, I'm aware; but right now is not the time." Clay's opening mouth is given pause by Jack's lifting finger prompting the Jack-Bot to do so, too, with him saying, "I will, however, be paying you a visit when it is. So just wait. 'Kay?"

Shrugging, then, "Or don't. Not like I care either way."

Repairs resume. Whatever stupidity the monks enact, RJ and he will be able to fix.

Maybe…

Several minutes later, the evil genius gets notification that Raimundo has been removed from the Molar-2000 by the Xiaolin Dragon of Earth.

Meanwhile, one of the four remaining Guard-Bots keeps watch on Kimiko getting the Wu. As another keeps tabs on Clay. And another on all their Wu.

Something like an hour later, they're all flying off on Dojo with their two bags of Shen Gong Wu.

The Molar-2000's hatch closes.

Gears and grinding metal sound from within the large vehicle. And, in time, the small space Jack's occupying pulls into the Mollar-2000, adding space to the room he's in, until at last the rear-end metal panel slides back into place.

Fortunately, closure allows the room to expand on all sides by about a foot more.

On the wall opposite the repair bench RJ is on, there is a large screen showing the Molar-2000's activity, which, as the thing rumbles, is unsurprisingly shown to be tunneling.

The Guards and Jack-Bots walk, instead. Following the Molar's slower speed. The way through the jungle takes more than an hour to clear at this speed, but after they're finally a click out from the Jungle of Neither Here Nor There, magical things settle down to the normal irregularity that is Chase Young's ruling of the world.

Five minutes is enough reprieve, judging by all automaton engine temps displaying on the evil genius's watch, and the lot of them blast off to keep up with the Molar-2000's hastened drilling far underground.