"Whatta you mean vacation?" MK asks Monkey King, the sage busy scurrying back and forth to pack a bag full of random items. Chen watches from the side, ignoring the buzzing of his phone as a notification came through.
"Come on, bud! I promised myself when I found a successor I'd go see some friends! Take a tour of my old stomping grounds, just cut loose y'know." Monkey King says, putting on a pair of sunglasses. "Ooh! Gonna need these."

"So you're just gonna leave MK to defend the city alone? Don't you remember what happened with Macaque? And the Spider Queen?" He asks, letting his annoyance show. The Monkey King scoffed. "He won't be alone! He'll have you, remember?" Chen rolls his eyes. "That's not my point-"
"But you can't just leave!" MK interrupts. "What if some one attacks the city? What if Spider Queen comes back?!" He yells, starting to panic. Chen turns to Monkey King, gesturing to the panicking MK with a "see what I mean?" look.

Monkey King chuckles, finishing packing his things. "You guys will figure it out!" The sage says with a smile. "It's adorable how nervous you two are."

"I'm not nervous."

"Whatever you say buddy- but you don't need to be! You've both come a long way!" He says, ruffling the boys hair. "And you know, the next step of your journey you must do alone." He says dramatically. There's an awkward pause as those words sunk in. "Alone?" MK asks worriedly.

Monkey King grins. "But don't worry! I'll check in, give you some training tools, remote lessons, ah, we'll figure it out! Oh and Chen, I forgot to mention but while I'm gone I'll give you some tips on how to tap into your elemental powers!"

Chen's jaw drops. "Wait what?! What do you mean elemental-"

"ALRIGHT I GOTTA GO! MONKEY KING OUT!" Monkey King yells as he blasts away on his cloud, leaving the two boys speechless.

"WHAT THE HELL?! EVERYONE NEEDS TO STOP DROPPING INFORMATION ON ME LIKE THIS!" Chen yells, his voice scaring away the nearby birds and monkeys.
MK groans. "Fine! He can just leave! At least I know my friends won't abandon me!" He says, grabbing onto Chen. "C'mon Chen! Let's go back to the Noodle shop where our friends who won't abandon us are!" He huffs. Chen sighs, rubbing his eyes as he follows MK back to Megapolis.

As they get back to MK's tuk-tuk, Chen pulls out his phone to check his notifications. "Huh, what's this "Sleep Bug" game?"

—

"Can you believe it?! He just left us like that! No heads up or anything!" MK grumbles, driving the tuk-tuk back to the shop. He was about to grumble some more when a loud snore is heard beside him. He looks over to see that Chen was asleep, his tail draped over his stomach as he rests. MK hums. "Huh, that's weird. He mustn't have slept well last night."

He pulls up in front of the shop, leaving Chen in the tuk-tuk as he heads inside. "Can you believe Monkey King just-" he stops with a gasp, realising his friends were no where in sight. "My friends abandoned me..."

He was about to run back to his tuk-tuk in search of them when he noticed Mei sleeping on the floor. "Oh thank goodness!" A quick glance around showed that Tang and Pigsy were there too, just asleep like Mei.
"Tang! Mei! Pigsy? Wake up!" He yells, trying to wake them. It was all in vain, for they wouldn't wake up at his attempts. MK takes a step back, looking over his sleeping friends in concern. Running outside MK returns to the tuk-tuk, Chen still asleep. He shakes the young demons shoulders. "Chen! Everyone's asleep and they won't wake up! What do I do?!" He yells.
Chen let's out another snore, and MK let's go and watches as he slumps back in his seat.

The young man takes a deep breath. "Cool, cool, cool- okay. Everyone is asleep, and Monkey King is gone. It's just me and my thoughts. All alone..." MK says, his panic starting to take over as he curls up on the ground. "This is fine..."

—

"It seems like years since the big sleep hit. Months, weeks, possibly as much as half an hour. Time has become irrelevant..."

MK walks down the street pass the many sleeping people, pushing a cart that carried a sleeping Pigsy as he searches for another person who could be awake.
He reaches out, moving Pigsy's mouth as he mimics what he hoped the pig man would say. "Chin up, kid. You'll always have your Pigsy. And I'm not going anywhere, son."

The young man tears up. "Thanks dadsy- ugh! Who's calling me?!" He complains as his phone goes off in his pocket, before realising that meant someone had to be awake to call him. He scrambles to get his phone, excitedly pulling it out of his pocket. "Oh wait! Ha ha! Oh it's just some game..." he mutters, looking at the screen where a small pixelated creature was dancing. A voice introduces the game. "Sleep Bug! Download it now from the AppStore!"

MK hums in thought, looking at the app then to Pigsy. "Sleep Bug..." he mumbles, before gasping in realisation as he looks at Pigsy's phone. "What if this is somehow connected?!"
Searching the area at the remaining sleeping people, he realised all their screens showed the exact same thing. "Think, MK! Everyone's asleep, they were all playing the game, the game is called sleep bug... the game put everyone to sleep! I have to delete that game..."

As MK continues to mumble and rant to himself and figuring out what was going on, a figure watches from a nearby rooftop. They lean against the barrier, tail swishing behind them as they listen. Scoffing to themself, they flick their brunette hair away from their eyes theatrically. "Took you long enough, Monkie Kid. Some hero you are." They snicker, putting a black and gold staff away. They shape-shift into a extravagant bird in a cloud of gold dust, flying off into the sky and leaving MK behind.

MK, after figuring out that he had to head to the Cloud, uses his staff to make a hover bike, zooming towards the Cloud.

—

MK makes it to the Cloud in no time, tumbling off his hover bike onto the steps. He looks up at the large doors, humming in thought as he looks at the paintings of the Guardians of Knowledge. "No guards?" He goes to lean against the doors, not noticing the sky glitching from red to blue. "Something is definitely up-"

The young man yelps in surprise as he phases right through the door, falling onto the floor on the other side. He groans as he gets up, rubbing his sore head. "This is the worst day of my life!" He complains, looking around.
Immediately he is captivated by how large the Cloud was. He walks around in thought. "How am I gonna find the game?" He wonders to himself.

A robotic chirp catches his attention, and he turns to see the same green creature from the sleep bug game, except this time it glitched red every few seconds as it ran away. "Ah ha! Red means bad! Eh, sometimes it means good. Meh you know what? That's probably it. Le go!" He chases after the virus, trying to catch it.

The man eventually manages to corner it, pulling out his staff with a grin. "Ha! Found ya, bug! Thanks for making it easy for me! Time to bring my friends back!" He says, spinning his staff as he was about to smash it with it. That is until another voice interrupts him, catching him off guard. "Well, well, well, the one and only Monkie Kid."

MK turns around, seeing a figure standing behind him. The figure takes his head set off, moving to hide something behind his back. "You should be asleep."
The young man gasps. "Another person! Wait-" his eyes scan over the man's purple skin and robotic spider-like legs, recognising him. "One of Spider Queen's goons! Wait, why should I be asleep?"

"Uh, because my sleep bug bug game that sent the whole city to sleep?" The spider demon says, shocking MK. "THAT WAS ON PURPOSE?!"

"Of course!" Syntax says, pushing the boy away with one of his robotic legs. "Now did I need to put the whole city to sleep just to incapacitate the two guardians here? Perhaps not. But! In for a penny, in for a pound. Either way, you don't have the mental dexterity to debug my game! You're just a mother board with a decent GPU and NO central processing unit."

MK had zoned out halfway through the spider demons speech, not understanding a single thing he was going on about. "GP... What?"

Before the demon could speak further, another voice scoffs and buts in, surprising both of them. "Pfft- he's calling you stupid, genius."

Syntax and MK both look up, spotting a figure standing confidently on top of the shelves. They smirk, jumping down onto the ground in front of them and flicking the red ribbon that decorated his hair.
MK looks at the new figure in surprise and shock. "Monkey King?"

Although the new figure looked similar to the sage, it was obvious at a second glance that he was NOT the great monkey. It was an anthropomorphic monkey, much like Monkey King, with peach skin tone and a light reddish-pink heart shaped face marking. Brunette hair covered his head and right arm, while his tail swung lazily behind him. A singular red ribbon decorated the back of his head, a mimic of Monkey Kings own ribbons, while his outfit consisted of a yellow and blue shirt with cloud markings and blue pants.
But what really caught MK off guard was the strange yellow marking that completely covered the monkeys left face and arm, which seemed to glow.

The monkey smirks. "Nope, even better. The name's Lixin, and you must be MK the "famous" Monkie Kid. I'd say it's a pleasure to meet you, but to be honest... I don't really care." He says, his tone condescending as he holds out a hand to shake MK's hand, his fangs bared in an obvious fake smile. Confused and shocked, MK shakes his hand, trying to shrug off the monkeys rudeness. "Uh, who are you exactly? Some sort of Monkey King wannabe?" He asks, gesturing to the monkeys outfit.

Lixin rolls his eyes, his nose scrunched up as if offended by the question. "Of course someone as incompetent and immature as you wouldn't put two and two together." MK frowns, offended by his words as Lixin continues. "I'm the new Monkey King!"

"Wait, what?"

"Sun Wukong isn't around anymore. Hasn't been for 500 years, so someone has to take his place." Lixin states matter of factly, not noticing Syntax trying to sneak away, or so it seemed.
MK was flabbergasted at the monkeys statement. "What?! You can't be the new Monkey King! There's only one Monkey King! And I'm his successor-"

At this Lixin bursts out laughing, easily pulling a strand of hair out and blowing on it in Syntax's direction. MK watches in even more shock as a clone pops out, dashing towards Syntax and causing the spider demon to take a defensive stance as the clone starts its attack.
Not even batting an eye the monkey turns back to MK, a smug smile on his face. "Oh really? And where is the "great and wonderful" Monkey King now?" He asks, leaning in closer to the young man.
MK hesitates, scratching his neck. "Well, he's uh, on vacation right now-"

"Really? He's been on vacation for a very looooong time, hasn't he? Why would he need another one so soon? If you ask me, he's just grown lazy in his old age. That's why I'm here to take his place, and keep Megapolis safe from the demons set to destroy it." Lixin says matter of factly. MK shakes his head. "Yeah well, whatever- we gotta save the city now, so let's get this bug and-"

"Sorry, what part of this exchange implied I wanted to work with you?"
"OKAY WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?!"

As the two boys continue to bicker amongst themselves Syntax, who was still being attacked by the clone, finally managed to stab it in its right eye and make it explode into a pile of red hair. He huffs in annoyance, brushing himself off. "You're lucky I have better places to be." He hissed.
"But that doesn't mean I'm going to let this slide."
Pulling out his phone, he deactivates the sleep bug game from the guardians phones, waking them from the spell before disappearing into the shadows and leaving the two boys to continue their argument. "That should keep them busy."

As the two boys continue to argue, two figures appear right behind them. They stop, turning to see the two Guardians of Knowledge glaring down at them.

"Only those marked in the Great Ledger of Knowledge and Time shall be deemed worthy to enter this Temple of Wisdom," they say in sync before raising their weapons. "And live!"

MK yelps in fear and surprise as they strike at him, dodging the sharp blades before retreating. Lixin, on the other hand, steps out of the way of the blades as MK runs away, digging into his pocket. "Right right, of course- my apologies, good sirs." Lixin says in a much more polite tone than earlier, pulling out a VIP card. "I would've shown you earlier but I was in a teensy bit of a rush saving the city, and you two were asleep."

The guardian who'd stayed behind looks down at the card in surprise, nodding in approval. "No problem! Sorry for the inconvenience, Mr. Lixin." The guardian says before joining his twin to find MK.
Lixin smirks, his hands placed on his hips as he looks around. "Now, to find that virus..."

As he looks around, his gold vision activated in his left eye, he spots the bug running around in one of the aisles. "There you are."
Pulling out his staff he leaps towards the aisle the virus was seen, landing at the end. He skids a moment, catching himself as he turns to face the aisle... only to find the virus gone. "Oh for sage's sake-"

The monkey pulls out a few strands of hair, blowing on them and creating clones. He sends them further down the aisles to search for the virus.
After a few minutes he heard a commotion as one of his clones finds the virus. Lixin rushes to the area, noticing a few of his clones had it cornered. They pounce but the virus evades easily and runs away, annoying Lixin even more.
For the next few minutes the monkey chases the sleep bug, trying to destroy it with his staff.

He finally manages to corner it. "Ha ha! I gotcha now, virus! Time to save the city-"

"GET BACK HERE BUG!"

Lixin flinches, spinning around to see MK had caught up to him. His eyes narrow, clutching his staff tightly as he turns to the young man, not noticing the bug had slipped away once again. "What are you doing here? I thought the Guardians of Knowledge would've "escorted" you out by now."
MK huffs proudly, holding up a card. "I got a card now! Ima registered member! Wait- where'd the bug go?"

The monkey turns to see the bug is gone once again. His teeth clench in anger but he takes a deep breath, trying to remain calm. "Be the hero, Lixin. Smile like a hero..."

He scoffs and chuckles as he turns to MK. "It's around here, and it would've been gone by now if you hadn't distracted me." He says matter of factly. MK's brows furrow in annoyance. "Whatever. Since you're having so much trouble getting this bug too, why don't we work together? It'll be easier-"

"Again, what makes you think I want to work with you?"

MK groans. "Alright! Fine! If you want to be like that then go ahead! But ima get to that bug first!" MK states before running off to look for the bug. Lixin rolls his eyes before heading in a different direction.

—

"Come here little bug! Where are you?" MK calls out, rounding a corner and seeing the bug in the aisle. "There you are! Oh man, that spider geek was right- I don't know how to un-hack this! What would Monkey King do? "You can do this, MK! It's time to stand on your own two feet, bud!"" He looks around, noticing a book about hacking. "I got it!" He says excitedly, holding the book up in the air.

He stands slamming the bug with the book, and in no time the virus disappears. MK yells in victory as everything returns to normal. "Aw yeah! And they said being a nerd didn't have its advantages! Who's the GPU now?!"

"What did you do?! Where's the virus?!"

MK turns to see a furious Lixin standing behind him. The young man stands tall, his chest puffed up in pride. "I just rescued the city! Again! Boo yeah, baby!" He pumps his fist, but the monkey didn't share his enthusiasm. "Are you serious?! How?! Stop trying to steal my job!"

MK frowns. "I didn't- seriously what is your problem? Why do you hate me so much? The city is saved now, it's not such a big deal-"

"My problem? My problem is some boy thinks now that he's got all these fancy powers, he can just go around and fight demons without a care for the peoples safety or for public property. Do you even realise how many buildings the government has had to repair because of your incompetence?"

MK pauses, thinking it over. "I mean, it's not always my fault, you know- anyway, where have you been whenever the demons attack?" He counters, crossing his arms with a smug "hmmmmm?"

Lixin's eye twitches and he takes a deep breath again. "That's none of your business, Monkie Kid."
"Ugh, why are you being so weird and defensive? We just met!"

Before Lixin could reply he goes silent as the ear piece in his ear starts talking, a faint angry voice coming from the speaker. Lixin shoots MK a glare before turning away, talking quietly to the ear piece. "Yes sir, the virus has been disposed of- well no, it wasn't me- I was- he just-" he falls silent again, as MK looks at him in confusion and wondering who he was talking to. After a long moment of silence and the voice still talking Lixin sighs. "Yes sir, I'll be there." With that he straightens, turning to look at MK with an angry smile. "Well would you look at that? My boss wants to see me back at HQ, since he didn't go on vacation or anything. See you around, Monkie Kid."

With that Lixin summons a cloud and hops on, flying out of the Cloud and leaving MK in the dust.
MK scowls at the monkeys retreating back. "Oh I don't like him."

"And even though I was all alone and I had been completely abandoned by everyone," MK shoots a quick glare at his friends before continuing. "I used my brain and saved the whole city! I did great! And there were no negative consequences at all!"

Chen, Mei and Tang glare at MK as he told his story, all three surrounding a Pigsy wrapped head to toe in bandages. The bull demon threw his phone at MK, causing the young man to yelp in pain as it strikes his head. "Ow! Hey!"