The following Characters are owned by Ken Penders(King Gong, Dark Legion, and Lien-Da(referenced)), Ian Flynn(Relic Pika, Jacques D'coolette, Belle D'coolette(Also Tracey Yardley for the siblings), Shinobi Clan), Michael Gallagher(Barby Koala) and Frank Storm(Monkey "Ken" Khan, Lau Khan, Li Yuen). Also I think the four clans are owned by all of these people one way or another. If I'm wrong on any of them, please correct me.

Chapter 4: Journey to the East... literally

Ken awoke from his slumber on the couch as the light from the rising sun shone into his face through the large front window. And the sound of dragging. And panting. Curious, Ken sat up out of the couch and peeked over, spotting Relic in her normal attire, sweating with an exhausted expression as she tugged at a large square case in an effort to bring it down a large case of stairs. Based on the looks of it, it also weighed more than she did. 'Wait, how did she get it down that far without being crushed by it'? He wondered. Ken decided to put off any further curiosities for now as he jumped over the back of the couch and hurried to help her, lifting the case and placing it at the bottom of the stairs as Relic collapsed onto the steps and fought to catch her breath.

The monkey looked back at her in concern. "You okay"?

"Yeah.", Relic squeaked. "Just... give me a minute".

A couple hours after Relic had managed to recover from her predicament, and Ken definitely not getting random things thrown at him for teasing her tiny lungs, the two young mobians had managed to make it to the airport just in time to board the flight Relic had managed to purchase the day prior. According to their tickets, their estimated time of arrival was 14 hours. Luckily Relic had managed to book the flight with Delta and brought a set of headphones for the two to watch a movie while their phones were rendered useless. Not that they would have any reason to be on them right now. Both had agreed earlier that it would be good to keep both pairs of parents out of their business on this one, not wanting to put them in the same danger that they themselves were in.

At the moment, the movie they were watching, much to Relic's urging, had been a documentary on the past history of the Dragon Kingdom. Of course the history of the dynasty of Khan was covered, the first of them having been believed to be none other than Sun Wukong, the figure in the myths having been a greatly exaggeration of the real deal. However, details on his story were still rather interesting. Sun Wukong had, according to the documentary and a lack of tantrums from Relic, had been the first to conquer the land from the Iron Dominion after acquiring help from the legendary army of dragons, and with a legendary weapon of unknown origin: The Yuanzi Bianfu. In English, it translated to: Atom Bat. According to the documentary, a relic of incredible power, giving the wielder the ability to manipulate the weather and create a cloud that could be used for transportation.

Figuring he might as well take the extra time they had to make conversation, Ken paused the documentary and looked over at Relic with a raised eyebrow, asking: "How much of this stuff is true?"

Relic munched on a seaweed flavored chip. "According to uncovered manuscripts and whatever interviews we could get from locals and past relatives twenty years back, all of it."

Ken frowned. "Really? The idea of a magic bo staff with the power to control is a little far fetched, don't you think?"

Relic smirked. "And super sonic hedgehogs aren't?"

Ken slumped in defeat for a moment, unable to argue further with that. In the past decade, Mobius had also split into multiple pieces and a squirrel in a suit of flying armor had emerged to help clean up the streets. In comparison to probably hundreds of other things that had happened, suddenly the existence of this weapon didn't seem that far fetched.

Ken looked at Relic again. "What about the dragons? What's their story and why haven't we seen them recently?"

Relic slumped and gazed outside the window. "They were forced to leave for the sake of their own survival. One of the later kings made dragon hunting into a sport and their queen, the Bride of Roaring Skies, took the atom bat away to keep him from hunting them further. Or worse, abusing the power of the weapon."

"Any idea where they might be now?", The monkey asked with a head tilt.

Relic shrugged. "Everyone has their theories but no one knows for sure. Rumor has it that members of the other four clans of Brides once knew."

"Okay, and what are the Brides?", Ken asked.

"Clan leaders and masters of the four individual branches. Their title is a symbol of their dedication to their tribe, that they would fight and protect it as if they were married to them." Relic shifted uncomfortably. "They may or may not also mate with their members to produce offspring for the next Bride."

Ken raised an eyebrow, his expression growing uncomfortable. "Wouldn't that lead to a lot of in-breeding-?"

"I'd rather not continue this conversation.", Relic quickly stated, her expression just as uncomfortable.

Ken quickly faced the screen again, his expression slightly regretful. "Right, sorry."

The two sat in an uncomfortable silence for a moment as Relic resumed the movie. Ken turned slightly to his friend, smiling slightly at her almost hypnotic interest in the documentary. He would probably never tell her in person, but it was something he found kind of adorable. Not attractive, mind you, just adorable. Although the slight glimmer in her eyes and the way the sunlight glimmered on her fur-. Ken quickly turned back to the screen, somehow not earning the Pika's interest at all. 'Nope! Too weird! Too weird!' Not to mention bad timing. Ken was only here to tell Gong to keep the throne and run back home. And try not to get killed along the way. Besides out of everyone he could possibly choose to have a romance with, he couldn't really imagine having that with. Nothing against her personally, the idea was just weird in general to him.

Ken eventually looked to Relic with another smile, this one more noticeable as she turned her head back to him and returned it as he said: "Thanks for coming with me by the way. I know you're doing it for your own survival, but it definitely helps to have an ear to chat to. And an exposition dump if I'm confused." He said that last part, sticking his tongue out slightly.

Relic kept her smile as she rolled her eyes. "No problem." She turned her head to the TV again, smirking as she teased: "Dumb jock."

Ken smirked as well, turning his attention back to the TV. "Nerd".

A little over half a day of movies and sleep later, the plane finally arrived to it's destination. Ken had been surprised at the almost immediate culture shift as their surroundings were gold and jade sculptures of Chinese dragons with Chinese lettering on them that the monkey would have no way of understanding. Relic, meanwhile, was excited like a child in a candy store and had begun rambling on myths and stories while Ken was too busy looking over his shoulders. Already, people had started to notice his difference in race and whisper among themselves. Said people didn't seem to have any hostile intentions, but the sight still didn't give Ken much comfort. He had been used to hiding away from crowds and generally keeping to himself for his entire life practically. To be noticed like he was a celebrity, which was very likely as he didn't see any other monkeys in the lobbies, felt more than a little unnatural.

Having seemed to notice his discomfort, the tiny Pika tugged slightly on his arm, earning his attention. Relic gave him a look of concern. "You okay?"

Ken was quiet for a moment, eventually ducking his head and pulling his hoodie over his head as he muttered: "Noooo."

Relic scoffed slightly. "Why not? We're in one of the most structurally ingenious and beautiful countries in the world. Learn to enjoy it a little while we're not being hunted."

Ken kept his head ducked under his hood. "While that does concern me, that's not really my problem right now."

Relic took a moment to look around, noticing the masses of people looking at him. Just him. The tiny pika looked ahead, smiling slightly. "Oh right. I forgot, you're an introvert."

Ken blushed and narrowed his eyes at the Pika as he sternly whispered: "I'm not introverted! I just like being indoors around people I'm more comfortable and familiar with!"

Relic raised an eyebrow and smiled as if to ask 'seriously?'. "That's what an introvert is, dum dum!"

Ken huffed and looked ahead, not looking at his smirking and chuckling friend as his hoodie inflated slightly from the steam that exhausted itself from the flaps over his ribcage. Though now that he thought about it, she wasn't entirely wrong. Aside from tutoring with Relic, made mandatory by both the teacher and the Pika's insistence, Ken generally did keep to himself, remaining inside to spar with his parents or help them with his two siblings. A favor he felt he owed them after having taken him in despite having known generally as much about the circumstances of his abandonment as he did. Ken groaned quietly, realizing that running away for a couple days without a proper explanation was quite the way to thank them for that. They were probably worried. He made a mental note to bring flowers for his mother and exotic butters for his dad. Strictly butter. Not margarine.

But it wasn't like Ken hated hanging out with people. Heck, despite the current circumstances, he could even say he liked hanging out with Relic. The idea of socializing and getting to know people he didn't priorly know just made him... uncomfortable. For the first week he had Relic had been partnered with Relic, his way of communicating with her had been been with nods and slight smiles. Relic had actually been the one to discourage this as it had made her uncertain of whether he comprehended what she was telling him. Especially after he still hadn't been doing too well with tests. He was petrified of telling her to stop even when he genuinely couldn't understand her, based on both terminology and speed of speech by the way, but with her help and a very surprising willingness to slow down, he had managed to break the habit and maintain a normal habit of communication with the girl. So in a way, he had a lot to be thankful for from her... he still didn't like being called a dum dum though. Something Relic seemed to catch onto as she walked backwards ahead of him, noticing his pouted expression.

"Awwww!" Relic teased with large eyes and a teasing look. "Did I hurt your feelings, you big baby-?"

Relic was stopped as she backed into a deer's luggage, immediately tripping over it and landing on her side. The deer immediately turned and apologized. In Chinese. Now Ken was even more paranoid. He actually came to another country without learning the language. He already had problems talking to people! How was he supposed to talk to people who wouldn't even understand him?!

Fortunately for the both of them, Relic seemed to know the language just fine, reassuring the deer and getting up before the two smiled and chuckled. Ken's eyes actually widened a bit as his ears picked up the near perfect change in both language and accent. It wasn't even one of those lame attempts or a racist joke attempt. The Pika could've very easily convinced him she lived here if he hadn't already known her. It actually sounded kinda hot. Ken's eyes widened more, his cheeks glowing red as his hoodie inflated more from the resulting steam, luckily as the stag had begun walking away. Did he really just think that? Ken flattened his hoodie and smirked at Relic just in time before she turned back to him with a flat expression.

"You gonna help me up, or what?"

Ken kept his smirk. "First: no. You deserved that. Second: Just because you look like a baby doesn't mean I'm about to help you waddle."

Relic's expression turned flustered as she got up and stormed off ahead of him. "I don't waddle!"

Ken smirked more, grabbing Relic gently in the manner of a parent helping a baby walk. "You're definitely not walking!" He teased, earning a chuckle from her.

"Stop."

"Come on, kiddo! You can do it!"

Relic laughed. "Stop it! I'm gonna slap you!"

Gong swung a set of ruthless punches at a larger than average wooden dummy, his knuckles bloodying slightly as the wood cracked under each punch. Eventually, the dummy would break off the pillar holding it in place, collapsing to the ground before the gorilla jumped towards it. Gong landed atop the dummy, delivering a series of strikes to the wooden head, cracking it open more and more with each impact before he eventually plunged his hand through the chest, his hand breaking it open before he ripped a specially placed mass of hardened gel, made to replicate a mobian heart. Gong gazed at the fake heart, growling as he remembered doing the same to one of the prior kings followers when he attempted to oppose him. And a move he internally hoped he could use again on the boy if his corpse was brought back to him as he crushed it with a pleasured growl.

Not two seconds later, Gong heard footsteps approach him, turning as the doors to his large dojo opened, a frightened messenger stepping through and stopping just ahead of the doorway.

"F-forgive me, your majesty. I just figured you'd want to hear first."

Gong rose to his feet, giving the messenger a glare and warning him not to waste his time further. "Of what?"

"The boy, sir. He's here."

Gong's expression immediately turned surprised. 'The boy is coming here? After my attempt to kill him discreetly?' He growled, startling the messenger who jumped a little. No doubt the monkey brat was coming here to kill the gorilla. In an act of revenge for his family. Not to mention his prior attempt on his life with the Shinobi. Perhaps the boy had even desired to take the throne back and restore it to it's original lineage. The gorilla smiled a little, almost amused at the child's bravery. Though this news was certainly surprising, and regardless of his reason for coming, he wasn't worried. The boy might have had quite a range in combat skills, but Gong was raised to kill from the moment he was born. How to use his immense strength in multiple ways and to multiple lethal capacities. If the boy sought combat, he had certainly chose the wrong opponent.

To make matters better, now was the chance to prove once and for all who was truly worthy of the throne. If the boy had managed to put up a decent fight against the Shinobi, perhaps he would be just entertaining enough for the masses who would eagerly attend the coliseum upon hearing of the challenge. For a little while, anyway. Gong was still more experienced and the boys allies were slim even if he had managed an alliance with the Koala and her freedom fighters. There was no risk, but maybe there could be a small semblance of a challenge, and mountains of gold from masses seeking entertainment.

Finally, the gorilla gazed at the messenger. "Where is he?"

Ken kept his head covered under his hood as he and Relic finally stepped outside into a city too unfamiliar to him, and yet inviting. The lush green grass surrounded the roads, footpaths, buildings of gold and jade, all sitting under a near clear blue sky to create a harmonious and inviting atmosphere. The architecture of each building seemed ancient, yet modernized, though not enough to ruin the original imagery. A perfect and harmonious combination of both culture and modernization. Scattered across the buildings were various outdoor markets and food carts, selling a variety of cooked foods and an assortment of fruits and vegetables. Of each food selection, some were familiar while others weren't, some of the fruits and vegetables even being in different shapes and colors that he wouldn't have previously imagined.

Relic definitely seemed to recognize them though, practically yanking his hand to follow her to the carts and buildings in a million miles per hour ramble.

"See this?! It's called a konjak! It looks kinda dirty but it's actually supposed to really sweet! Oh and that building up there! It was built in 2142 after King Wukong married Meili-de Khan, taking her last name and building this as a monument of his love to her! And that's the field where the Raiju and Gossamer fought for a plantation! Graveyard to two hundred warriors! Admittedly not as sweet or architecturally beautiful as the prior facts, but still a very interesting story! And that's-!"

Ken smiled, amused by her ramble as he raised a hand to stop her. "Would it be safe for me to assume that there's historical significance to every building here?"

"No!" Relic responded, still in her mood of excitement. Said mood turned to a thoughtful expression as she looked around. "Wait. Um..." She smiled shyly. "I don't recognize the pot behind you?"

Ken rolled his eyes, but kept his smile during. Ken lowered himself to a knee then, his look now a concerned frown. "As much as I'm sure you're enjoying this, I really need to get in and out long enough to tell Gong I'm not interested in the throne or a royal lifestyle. Otherwise it's only a matter of time before they come after you again. Or my family."

Relic's expression immediately turned to one of slight regret and shyness. "Right! Sorry!"

Ken smiled and chuckled, ruffling her head a little. "It's fine. Just don't do it too much, okay?"

Relic's smile brightened a little. "So I can do it a little?"

"Just a little. And no stops. Unless we're eating."

"You got it!"

Relic piped up, her smile a lot brighter as she turned around and started to skip off, nearly getting hit by a bike. Fortunately for the small Pika, Ken had grabbed her by the arm and yanked her back over, causing her to fall back into an arm. Ken's eyes were wide as he gazed after the bike while Relic glared and cursed after the driver. In perfect Chinese by the way. The indistinguishable, to him at least, insults made him cringe and earned attention from some bystanders, making him worry that the driver was about to make a U turn in their direction to tech them a lesson. Fortunately for both of them, the driver kept going, probably in a hurry. Ken slumped and let out a sigh of relief while Relic huffed in frustration.

"Nuofu." Relic remarked before looking back up at the monkey, taking a bit more notice to how easily he was able to hold onto her as her cheeks heated up.

Ken didn't seem to notice, however, as he sighed and stood while helping her to her feet. "And try not to tick off the locals?" Ken asked that with a nervous expression, almost uncertain she would listen.

Much to his relief, she nodded, her expression still kinda surprised. "Y-yeah. Definitely." Was all she was able to say before rushing slightly past him. "I, ahem, think the palace is this way."

Some time later as the two continued to walk through the city, Relic commenting on a structure with interesting and oddly morbid facts from time to time, Ken felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand as his sense went off yet again, similar to when he and Relic were on the bus yesterday. Ken was quick to gaze around the surrounding area, his eyes peeled for any threats. Considering how close they probably were to Gong's Palace, he probably should've considered the possibility of trouble, though he figured Gong wouldn't have sent anyone more after him upon seeing him coming unarmed and with someone not likely to be able to fight, least not as well as him or the clans. Sure, he sent a gang of chameleon ninjas earlier to kill him, but surely there had to be some sense of logic to the gorilla, right?

Ken's hopes were immediately proven wrong as he spotted a Raiju Ninja perched on a nearby rooftop, in plain view. Meaning more were either on their way or about to attack. The latter proved to be true as a Raiju dashed towards him from the left with a sharp fan. Ken was quick to duck under the swing, grabbing the lynx by the wrist and knocking her out with a swift punch to the face. Relic turned quickly, surprised by the collapsing lynx as Ken quickly grabbed the fan and gazed briefly at his Pika friend.

"Get out of here! I'll find you later!" Ken immediately noticed another lynx charge towards him with a pair of sais, followed by another with a katana, quickly countering both with his single fan.

Relic tilted her head. "How!? You don't know your way around here!"

Ken jumped over the sai wielding lynxes shoulders and performed a spin over a katana swing from the second lynx. "I'll figure something out!" Ken used the fan to block a weapon swing from both lynxes as another charged from behind with tekko-kagis. "Unless you'd like to help fight?!" Ken noticed the charging lynx and ducked, the tekko-kagi swing scratching the katana lynx across the face before he performed a rapid front and back kick to the other two.

Relic simply stared, her expression conveying her obvious worry. No, she couldn't fight any of these Raiju. She was nowhere near big or skilled enough to handle one. Not to mention the fact that she had cowered away from the chameleons on the bus. But at the same time, how could she leave him on his own against a group of ninjas far more ruthless than the last? Sure, the guy was fast, strong, well experienced and a good fighter in his own right, but would that be enough against a large number of these people?

Taking notice of her concern, Ken did his best to look confident as he added: "I'll be fine! Go".

Noticing the lynxes quickly getting back up, Relic ran for a nearby alleyway as fast as her legs would allow, not noticing a pair of blue eyes eyeing her from a nearby ledge.

Ken turned his attention to the lynxes and acted fast, closing the fan and using the blunt metal object resulting to knock out the sai wielding lynx, then tossing it at the katana wielding lynx who smacked it away with said weapon. Ken grabbed the pair of sais, handles pointed forward as he raised an arm, using the blade to block a tekko-kagi, then using the other sai to link onto the blade before pulling it close to block the next katana swing. Ken was forced then to duck to his right to avoid another scratch before kicking the katana lynx away before she could make another swing. Ken acted faster than the other lynx, ready to attempt another scratch as he performed an uppercut with the hand before planting both weapons into the still stuck claw and slamming him to the ground over his shoulder and kicking him in the head to knock him out.

Ken barely had enough time as the katana lynx charged, ditching the weapons and barely ducking away as he was slashed twice. Once across the chest, and again across the cheek. Ken managed to roll backwards, just in time before the lynx could impale him through the neck. 'Finally some distance!' The monkey though, only to yelp as an arrow struck him in the back. Ken turned back, spotting the lynx from earlier quickly reloading the bow. Seeing the arrow coming, Ken managed to duck away, allowing the projectile to hit the katana lynx in the shoulder. Noticing the injury, Ken cringed. But only for a moment as he turned back at the sound of another arrow being fired and barely catching it in time before the tip of the blade could pierce through one of his eyes.

Thinking quick, Ken dashed away from the arrows as the katana lynx charged in his direction. Once she got close enough, Ken rolled between her legs and stood quickly to hold her close and point the arrow from earlier at her neck.

"Take me to Gong or I kill this Raiju"! He shouted, bluffing but hoping that the archer would listen.

The effort proved fruitless as the Raiju shot the hostage in the head, then trying to shoot him. Ken was shocked for a moment, quickly recovering before grabbing the katana and using it to smack away a majority of the arrows, one grazing his shoulder as he charged and jumped, using his momentum as his tail wrapped around a pillar to propel himself onto the roof. The lynx continued shooting as Khan continued to charge, eventually reaching and clashing his weapon with her bow. Ken took the chance while the Raiju moved to quickly reload the bow to kick her across the head, knocking her down face-first. Ken took a moment to sigh of relief, thinking his problems over until her noticed several more lynxes charging across the rooftop. Ken slumped and let out a sigh.

"Come ooooooon."

Meanwhile, Relic continued to rush through the streets, looking over her shoulder for any militia or ninja who might've seen her with him. Unfortunately, her tiny lungs wouldn't be able to carry for for much farther. Through pants, she asked: "God, why did I have to be born tiny?"

Eventually convinced that she was alone, Relic flattened herself behind a crate with a street gutter on the other side, doing nothing short of catching her breath as quietly as could be managed while also listening to her surroundings. On occasion, she would hear the occasional set of footsteps run past or a bike horn farther ahead. Yet she waited. Though a location like this would actually be an ideal place for someone like her to spend her last moments, the circumstances were less than ideal. Especially considering these clans of ninjas were no joke. Or at least they weren't if the past hundreds of years of recorded history were anything to go off. The recorded number of assassinations in seemingly impossible to breach situations definitely made her shiver. Even more so now than it had before.

Once she had finally caught her breath and enough time passed without a noise, Relic decided to take a risk and peeked up over the crate. Much to her relief, there wasn't a single ninja in sight. Or mobian who would've only asked questions and potentially gotten caught in Gong's cross-hairs. Though as Relic gave a prayer of thanks to the Lord of Heavens armies for these lighter circumstances, a pair of red gloved hands quickly grabbed her ankles, pulling her into the sewers with a yelp. Relic opened her mouth to scream, only for the koala who pulled her down to cover her mouth, just in time to muffle her.

"Sh! Shhhh!" Barby urged. "It's okay! I'm a friend!"

Relic followed this request with a series of muffled accusations.

Barby was silent a moment before rolling her eyes. "Okay, yeah, fair point. I did just pull you into a sewer with no explanation." The koala gazed at Relic with a pleading look then. "But believe me when I say that monkey friend of yours is very important to me. So are you gonna help me save him, or would you rather take your chances with the Raiju out there?"

Relic widened her eyes and responded in a muffled agreement.

Meanwhile, Ken continued to dodge and counter multiple strikes with the katana he had held onto from earlier, his expression annoyed. "Can someone please just take me to Gong now?! It's kinda important!"

One of the lynxes cursed at him in her native language.

Ken's expression was confused as he blocked a bo staff with the katana. "Yeah, I have no idea what that means."

Ken was quickly struck in the back of the head with a small club, earning a monkey scream in pain. Ken recovered again quickly, disarming the lynx of her bo staff mid-swing and swinging and spinning it around expertly to block a multitude of swings, starting with knocking out the lynx with the club. Ken quickly tilted the staff to block a katana swing with one side of the staff before knocking her out with the other. This move would unfortunately open the monkey up to a series of blow darts striking him in the side and back. Ken shouted slightly at the pricking sensation before flipping over some of the surrounding lynxes, using the staff to swipe their feet from under them and knock them down, creating a temporary obstacle for the ones who continued to charge. Ken backed away and looked around whenever he could spare a second, blocking and countering as best as he could with a blurred vision and loss of control. Both would eventually become too much as another lynx swiped at his head with enough force to knock him on his back.

Now with little to no sensation and his consciousness fading, Ken could only watch as another lynx approached with an axe, raising it above his head and prepping to swing before stopping as a commanding voice scolded: "Enough!" Ken couldn't see the figure, but he could make at least one guess as he saw the fear in the eyes of the Raiju who quickly backed away as the ground shook with each approaching footstep, Ken's consciousness finally fading to black as that same voice said: "The boy is mine."

Sorry for the lateness of this chapter. Life stuff kinda kept me for a bit. What did you all think of the chapter. Please feel free to leave a review to let me know or send me a PM for any questions you might have. I thank you all for reading and may the Lord Jesus Christ bless, protect, and watch over you all with happiness, good tidings, good health, and that you would all come to know and love Him as your Lord and Savior if you haven't already. In Jesus name I pray, amen. ^^