Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Below in the sewers, the Spider Queen was stewing and brooding over the New Year's defeat, destroying her lab. "I had the Monkey King's power! The city was mine! And I still lost!" She shouted, huffing.

"My Queen, you will have your revenge." Her attention is turned towards the mysterious girl, who smiles. "Now that we have the Trigram Furnace, it is time to take the next step towards your destiny."

A blue flame flickers in her hand, changing shape, and revealing a small blue box. The Spider Queen scoffed, "And how is that supposed to help? Actually, better question. What is that?"

"The first of six powerful items that we will need," the girl replied. "It must be retrieved from the Cloud."

"The Cloud?" Syntax asked as he shoved Huntsman and Goliath aside, a smirk played on his lips as he crossed his arms. "My Queen, allow me to break in and bring you this item."

"Oh really. And just how are you gonna do that?" She asked. Syntax smirks, rolling up his sleeve. "The Cloud is a labyrinth of information," he informed, pulling up a green hologram. "An unrivaled collection of knowledge guarded by fearsome beings who cannot be overcome by brute strength or the ability to follow footprints in the mud."

This earned him a glare from Huntsman, making him smirk. "However, it is connected to all the technology in the world. Therefore I can exploit it," he says as he grins, pulling up a screen of apps.

"Has anyone heard the story of the Sleep Bug?" He cackles, the screen turning a reddish-purple color.

Across Megapolis, an advertisement for the "Sleepy Bug" app appears across phones and screens.

At Pigsy's Noodles, Pigsy is yelling at his husband as he drags him behind the counter, “That's it! I'm cutting ya' off until ya' clean these dishes!”

Mei laughs as she watches before her phone rings. She picks it up and looks at it, “Sleep Bug?”

"So, why do you need to leave again?" MK asked from where he sat on his fathers’ bed, watching them pack. Next to him stood Daisy, watching the two as well. Zhiu Ye and Zhao Xiyang were helping the two males pack.

MK’s phone beeped, he glanced at it before tossing it behind him on the bed as he got another ad. He had already gotten three for the app “Sleep Bug” and wondered if someone had hacked his phone.

Macaque stopped mid-pack and his golden husband froze. The pair were still nervous about telling the kid what was going on, but the Shadow Demon sighed and walked over. Both Zhiu Ye and Zhao Xiyang left the room, knowing the family wanted to be left alone.

"Do you remember when we fought Spider Queen two weeks ago?"

A nod.

"Well, it would seem that she wasn't the true culprit behind the attack," the black-furred prince said, sighing as the two sat on either side of MK. "Instead, it was someone by the name of...The Lady Bone Demon." An angry snarl escaped Sun Wukong's lips.

MK felt a shiver run up his spine as his fur fluffed up in fear, "Really? W- Who is she then?"

"She's this evil witch who thinks she can reforge the world in "Her Image”,” Macaque said, his hand on Daisy’s head as he petted her.

“Macaque and I encountered her when we were traveling with the monk Tàng Sanzang,” Wukong started, making MK look at him intently. “He sealed her away in a tomb with the help of Lily. The three of us buried her where nobody could find her. But it seems someone did."

Daisy was looking at the ground now, she remembered what had happened that day and it still haunted her. Lilith had only gotten involved with the group two times to help and that had been one of them, the other... Daisy shook her head to get the memory out.

"I'm guessing that the strange power that DBK found was her?" The teen raised a brow, frowning when the two nodded. "So if we broke the canisters, then how did she find Spider Queen?"

"The Bone Woman possessed a body, much like she did with the Bull King," Macaque hummed out. "Only this time, it's a little girl."

"Then if she's out there now, why are you two leaving?" MK's voice was filled with fear. "Why not fight her?"

"Because it's not that simple," Wukong sighed, shoulders sagging, showing how aged the king truly was. "She's smart, manipulative, and views the world like some sort of twisted game that she's playing. If we dive in headfirst, then it'd just be playing right into her hands."

"That is why we're leaving," Macaque continued. "To find any information on her, and possibly a weapon that could defeat her."

"Right, so what do you need me to do?" The boy gave a determined look to his parents.

"Protect the city and stop any sort of plans she might be cooking up," the golden-furred simian explained. "She's weak now, but it won't stay like that for long. You blocking any moves she makes will give us time to find something, and get back."

"I won't let you down!" MK smiled, tail wagging happily. “And don’t worry, I’ll help as much as I can and I’ve got a feeling that so will the Queen,” Daisy said, looking down at the pendent Lily had given her. The two monkeys stared at it with a smile, after it was revealed that Lily was watching them through her Fox Spirits they felt more comfortable leaving MK here by himself.

"Try your best Cub," Macaque said as he pulled him in for a hug, running his fingers through his hair. "That's all we ask."

"We'll check in on you two whenever we can!" Wukong said, smiling, ruffling the fur on Disay’s head in the form of a pet. She frowned when he was done as he had messed up the fur there.

“BOSS!” Yin and Jin yelled as they kicked the door in, scaring the three monkeys and vixen. The two then throw themselves at Macaque’s feet and even cling to his legs.

"No, you can't leave!" Jin cried.

"Yeah, please don't leave me with him!” Yin cried.

Macaque groaned as Wukong and Mk stood in the background, snickering.

"Peeeaches,” Macaque whined, looking over his shoulder at the golden-furred monkey. "Can you please help me out here?"

"Can't help you, Sugarplum. I'm packing," Wukong says before bolting to another room.

Macaque scowled, "Real helpful."

"Boss, take us with you," Yin said followed by Jin, "Yeah let us help you gather the information you need.”

Macaque sighed and said, "No, this will be too dangerous, even for the both of you. You're both staying here."

"But we can-" Yin started but Macaque cut him off.

"No!" He shouted, the two winced at the tone of his voice and even let out of his legs. He calmed down, letting out a small smile. "Besides, I have a task the two of you need to do," he said.

"What is it, Bossman?" Jin asked.

"I need the two of you to look after MK, help him protect the city, and help Daisy keep him safe," Macaque explained.

"Of course sir, we promise!" Yin said, getting on his knees as he saluted him. Jin followed and said, "We won't let you down!"

"I know you two won't," Macaque said as he pulled the twins in for a hug.

Eventually, the husbands managed to finish packing. MK, Wukong, Macaque, Daisy, and the twins stood outside the waterfall entrance. Ba, Bing, and Mami had joined them for a send-off. Wukong summoned his cloud to help carry them and the luggage. They all gave goodbye hugs.

"Remember, we'll check in on you soon, MK!" The two said as they waved to him and got on the cloud.

"Okay!" MK nodded. "You'll be great, don't worry," Wukong told him with a smile. "Monkey Kings out!" They vanished and within a second, a shockwave was left, nearly knocking MK and the twins over.

They all stood there for a moment before Ba, Bing, and Mami walked away, back to the castle. Jin and Yin left too after a while. MK and Daisy stood where they were for a while before Daisy stood up and said, "How about we go get some noodles from the shop, hmm?"

MK’s face lit up as he jumped up, “Yeah! Maybe Dadsy will let me have it free of charge!"

Daisy smiled and let out a laugh, knowing full well that he wouldn’t do that.

“Oh, maybe Red can join us!” MK yelled as he pulled out his phone.

Ever since the meeting between their parents during New Year's, things between the Monkey King’s Court and the Demon Bull Court have gotten a lot better. A few weeks ago MK and his parents had gone over to the Demon Bull Kingdom to visit. While at their house MK had gotten the Fire Demon’s number and found out that his mother would much rather he go out than be in his lab constantly.

Daisy rolled her eyes but smiled. The two don’t talk about the kiss they shared that night and both seem to act like it didn’t happen.

MK sent a text to Red, “Hey, you want to hang out at the noodle shop?”

A few moments later, a ding rang from MK’s phone as he and Daisy walked down the mountain to head back to the city.

“I suppose I can grace you with my presence today,” was the text.

MK grinned as they reached the beach and sent back, “Your mom wants you to get out of your lab doesn’t she?”

He got on Daisy’s back as her markings turned blue. She then took off, running on water towards the city. MK grinned as he felt the fast reply. “NO!” was the response, followed by the text, “She says I need to be a good influence on you as you don’t have any good influences in your life, is all.”

MK laughed as they landed on the dock where he left his buggy. He then replied, “Sureeeeeeee. Anyway, meet you at Pigsy’s.”

He got into the cart with Daisy sitting next to him. As they entered the city, Daisy noticed that the streets were quiet and people were asleep on the floor, but MK didn't notice.

As MK parks the cart Daisy says, “Um MK don’t you think it’s weird that these people are all-”

She was cut off as MK got off the cart and bolted for the shop door, barging into the shop. “-asleep,” Daisy finished with a sigh. She then heard him say, "Hey Dad- What?"

She jumped off the cart and ran into the shop, stopping in the doorway next to MK, shocked and confused by the scene in front of them. Mei, Tang, and Pigsy all lay asleep on the shop floor, phones in their hands.

"Uhhh, guys?" He questioned as the two went over to them and tried to wake them. None of them would budge, however, the app “Sleep Bug” blared on their phones, making Daisy frown as they continued to try to wake them. 

Red Son walked inside, annoyed before stopping at seeing the sight. “Is this some weird mortal thing I don’t know about?” Red Son asked, raising an eyebrow at MK who shook his head. 

“No. This is weird,” MK told him, frowning as he heard his phone go off again. He pulled his phone out to see some sort of dancing neon green bug on his phone screen then a voice was heard, "Sleep bug! Download it now on the nap store!"

Daisy looked at his phone in confusion and asked, "What's that?" MK shrugged his shoulders, "Some kind of new game...I guess?"

'’Strange, I thought I shut my phone off?” MK said, looking at the game closely.

Daisy silently glanced between MK’s phone and his sleeping friends. “Wait a minute...” She said as both of the boys looked at her, her eyes widened in realization.

"MK! I think it's the app!" She exclaimed. MK looked at her in confusion. "Say what now?"

“I think she might be right,” Red Son said in though. “Can I see your phone?” He asked as he held out his hand. MK nodded and handed it to him.

Red Son frowned as he looked at it. “She is right! It’s not just an app but has a spell on it. An incredible combination of spellwork and technology I must say.”

Daisy frowned, “Marvel over it later.” Red Son glared at her.

“What?!” MK questioned. “Well, we need to stop it. Who knows how long it will last or if it has lasting effects on everyone!”

“I agree but how?” Daisy asked.

“The Cloud,” Red Son answered.

“The what?” Both MK and Daisy asked.

Red Son scoffed, “Of course, you two don’t know about such a complex place and now I have to educt-” He was cut off as MK’s phone chimped again and the Sleep Bug app opened up because Red Son accidentally downloaded it when he was holding it. Red Son looked at the screen before falling to the ground asleep.

Daisy let out a laugh while MK looked on with panic. “Daisy, why are you laughing? We need him to help us find this cloud!”

“Relax MK, I have an idea on how we can find out what it is,” Daisy said.

“Really? How?” He asked.

Daisy smiles before turning to look at a space behind him. Her eyes and marks glowed yellow before turning light blue. She then slammed her paw on the ground and a blue wave of energy was released. A group of 9 light blue Spirit Foxes appeared around the room.

MK jumped behind Daisy in fright. She chuckled. “Don’t be afraid MK, they are allies and spies of your mother.”

She then walked forward and placed her forehead on the closest spirit. They both closed their eyes and started to glow light blue. After a few minutes, they stopped and Daisy walked back over to MK as the spirits disappeared.

“The Cloud it's a giant temple of knowledge that's constantly updating itself every second. Both technical and traditional information is stored here as it's wired up to every phone in the world allowing it to learn and adapt to modern-day society,” Daisy told him.

“Wow, how do you know that?” MK asked.

“As I said before, the queen uses Fox Spirits as spies so I just tapped into their memory to see if they know anything about a “Cloud”,” Daisy told him. She then frowned, “Unfortunately, it’s in the middle of a desert and I don’t know where.”

“I thought you said that the Spirit Foxes know about it?” MK asked, confused.

“According to the memories I saw, when the Cloud was built, three Spirit Foxes found it during a scouting mission and reported back to the queen and this was during the first stoning. Later after being released the first time she sent one of the Power Foxes to look at it while she went to take you to the city. A spirit was present for the report so I don’t know what happened and then after the pack got released once your seal broke she sent the same Power Fox to check on the temple again. While I can see the temple being built I don’t recognize the dessert at all.”

“That’s not good! We need to know where it is to get to it and save the city!” MK cried.

Daisy was about to say something when the necklace Lily had given her started to glow before a spiral of light appeared on it, stopping on the brown gem petal.

They both stared at it before the ground began to rumble. “An Earthquake?” MK yelled as he tried to study himself.

“No, it’s something else or better yet someone else,” Daisy said with a smile.

“What?” MK asked, confused. “Follow me,” Daisy said as she ran out of the shop with MK following.

Once outside they looked around before all of a sudden the ground in front of them burst open and multiple foxes, all with different fur colors that looked like different kinds of ground minerals (sand, dirt, mud, etc.) came out.

In the front of the pack was a familiar fox with dust-like fur and White Lotus in front of his ears. “Dustin!” Daisy cried out happily, her tail wagging. The fox smiled at her.

The pack came to a stop in front of the two. “It’s been a while Young Prince,” Dustin said as the pack bowed their heads to MK.

“Yeah it has,” MK said with a smile.

They then watched as an Elemental Fox that was a bit bigger than the others walked up and stood beside Dustin. MK realized that this was a male fox with mud-colored fur that looked a little clumpy and wet. He had yellow eyes and small White Lotus flower buds in front of his ears. MK was surprised by the buds, Daisy had told him that only Power Foxes had flowers on their head but then he remembered that Zalaph had flower buds in front of his ears that matched Umbra, who was his mate. This fox also looked to be about the same size as Zalaph too.

“You gonna introduce me to the prince or not?” The mud-colored fox asked Dustin, who let out a laugh.

“Prince Qi Xiaotian, this is my mate, Mudslide,” Dustin said. The fox bowed its head to him.

“Oh it’s nice to meet you, but please call MK.” MK then turned to Daisy, “Do all Power Foxes’ mates have flower buds and are the same size?”

“Yes and no,” was her response. “All Power Foxes’ mates have small buds of their mate's flowers in front of their ears, whether they are an Elemental Fox or Spell Fox. However when it comes to size, since Spell Foxes are the same size as a Power Fox there is no need for them to grow bigger. In an element pack, size is used as a rank, more or less. Power Foxes are the size of wolves and Elemental Foxes are the size of normal foxes. Power Foxes’ mates are in between that.”

MK nodded as she finished. Daisy then turned to Dustin, “We need to get to the Cloud but we don’t know where it is and according to the Spirit Foxes’ memory, one of the Power Foxes went there after everyone was unstoned.”

Dustin smiled and Mudslide had a grin on his face.

“What?” Daisy asked.

“Daisy it’s in a desert, who do you think the Queen sent?” Dustin asked.

“Also why do you think she sent the ground pack to you?” Mudslide asked.

Daisy’s eyes widened in realization. “Your pack went?”

“Well the first and second time they did and so did Rockslide’s pack but the third time it was just the two of us and our mates,” Dustin replied.

“Queen Lilith sent us to guide you there but that’s all we can do, we have to leave once we get there,” Mudslide explained.

Daisy nodded as her marks glowed and she turned into her Power Form, her marks glowing brown. MK got on her back and asked, “How are we getting there?”

“Ground Elemental Foxes can travel underground by using their magic to push the ground apart to create tunnels. With the whole pack here we should get there faster,” Daisy told him.

“Yes but once we hit the sand we’re not gonna be able to do that without the sand collapsing on us because of all the power so we’ll have to run on the sand,” Dustin said.

“Wouldn’t that hurt your paw pads? The sand’s gonna be pretty hot?” MK asked.

“Don’t worry, Rock and Ground Foxes’ paw pads were made to run on hot ground except for a volcano's surface or the ground around it when it heats up, have to use a Fire Fox for that,” Mudslide explained, joining Dustin and Daisy in the front of the pack.

Dustin stood on his hind legs before slamming his front paws on the ground. The ground shook and a large hole appeared in front of them.

“Wow!” MK said with stars in his eyes.

The pack then jumped into the hole and once they landed they started to run as a tunnel started to form in front of them.

A little while later MK noticed that the ground was starting to soften.

“Get ready, we’re about to go back above ground,” Dustin called out to the two of them. Both nodded.

“Here we go,” Mudslide called out as the tunnel digging stopped going straight and shot up.

“MK hold on tight,” Daisy told them as the fox pack started running up the wall of dirt.

Just then the ground broke open and sunlight shone down on them.

Once the pack jumped out of the hole they continued running. Once MK adjusted to the light he saw a dessert ahead of them.

“Daisy!” Dustin yelled. She looked over at him. “Once we hit the sand we’re going to create a sandstorm around the pack to help the non-sand foxes.” She nodded.

“Uh, Daisy, what does he mean by non-sand foxes?” MK asked her.

“In packs that can control different aspects of their element, like ice and snow are the aspects of the ice element, there are Elemental Foxes who can only control that aspect. In the Ground Pack, there are foxes who can control either mud, sand, dirt, or any other kind of ground material. When we were underground the foxes that were non-dirt foxes were in the middle of the pack with the dirt foxes on the outside doing the tunneling and now that we’re about to enter a sandy place the pack needs to rearrange themselves so the sand foxes can be on the outside,” Daisy explained.

“We’re doing a sandstorm because the sand foxes are very light so they can stand on sand and not start to sink in it but non-sand foxes can’t do that because they’re heavy and used to solid land,” Mudslide explained and Dustin finished with, “The sandstorm is the sand foxes throwing the very loose sand from under us to the side so the non-sand foxes don’t get stuck.”

“Power Foxes, their mate, and Spell Foxes can use all aspects of the element,” Daisy explained.

“Wow this is all so cool to learn,” MK said.

“Then get ready to see it,” Mudslide said with a smile.

Dustin then turned his head, his flowers glowed as he yelled, “Sand formation!”

MK watched as the foxes with sand-colored fur started to make their way to the outside. Once they were MK looked forward and saw they were almost to the sand.

Once they hit the sand, Dustin and Mudslide’s flowers glowed and the sand foxes’ eyes glowed as sand started to fly around them creating a sandstorm.

After a while, MK noticed something in the distance. It was a purple flash of some kind. As they got close MK could make out some clouds but they looked like they were glitching which is where he saw the purple flash.

When they came to a stop and the sand subsided, a nervous expression made its way onto MK's face as he stared up at the temple.

“Well this is where we part ways, Young Prince,” Dustin said.

MK hopped off Daisy who returned to her normal form. “It was nice meeting you, both of you,” MK said with a smile. Both smiled at him. As they turned to leave, Daisy cried, “Wait!”

The two looked at her. “We don’t know what we’re looking for.”

“You’re looking for a bug in the system,” Dustin replied before a sandstorm surrounded the pack and they took off back to wherever Lilith was.

Daisy frowned, “That’s not very helpful.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out,” MK told her with a smile before walking towards the doors.

"No guards? Something is definitely not right. There’s no way a place like this doesn’t have guards. Stay close to me MK," Daisy said, keeping her guard up.

MK nodded and pushed open the doors and the two walked in. Inside was a large library, red fabric laid over them with gold detailing. Two stairs stand on either side of the two, both admiring the place. As they walked around, MK sighed, scratching the back of her head. "How are we gonna find the game?"

A little chattering noise got the pair's attention. They turned to see a small bug flickering red. The two stare at it with blinking eyes.

"This cannot be real," Daisy deadpanned at the creature's appearance.

The virus glitched and made a strange noise, which sounded like it was sticking its tongue out at the two before it darted off across the top of the shelves. The vixen's eye twitched in irritation at the sheer gall that little glitch had, thinking of the many ways Mei could reprogram that thing if she was awake at the moment.

The bug made a series of panicked noises before rushing off, the two looking at each other before chasing after it.

“How do we kill it?!” MK yelled to Daisy, the bug had jumped on top of the bookshelves as they chased it.

“I don’t know! It’s a bug, right, so maybe we just have to smash it?” Daisy said.

“Works for me,” MK said as he pulled out his staff.

The pair chased the virus around the temple for some time, before they managed to corner the tiny thing. "Gotcha'!"

"This can't be real....all this damage is caused by that one tiny thing,” Daisy said in disbelief, staring down at the bug.

"Well they do say big power comes in small packages," MK said snickering. Daisy glared at him.

MK then turned back to the bug and raised his staff, ready to smash it as he said, "Time to set things right again!"

A strange scent filled Daisy's nose, her eyes widening, growling looking around. She turned around and got into a defensive stance. "Someone's here."

"Well, well, well," a voice made the two jump, whirling around to come face to face with one of Spider Queen's henchmen, Syntax. "If it isn't the Monkie Kid and his little fox guardian. You two should be asleep!"

"I'm going to take a wild guess here," Daisy growled, standing in front of MK, "and say that you're the one responsible for all of this."

"You're not as dumb as you look," Syntax smirked. Daisy growled at him.

"Hey, don’t talk about her like that!" The teen growled, pupils thinning into slits as his demon instincts kicked in.

Syntax scoffed, "I see that you inherited the sage's infamous rage. It's a shame I don't have my tools with me. I'd love to open you up, and see just what kind of powers you have from those kings." He then looked over at Daisy and said, “You too fox. The Fox Queen wouldn’t leave just anyone to watch over her child. Your power must be extraordinarily strong.”

Daisy growled again. "Don't you even THINK about laying a finger on him!"

MK gripped his staff and yelled, "Tell me how to get the city back to normal!"

Syntax laughed mockingly. "Please, you don't have the mental dexterity to debug my game, You're just a motherboard with a decent GPU and no central processing unit."

MK gave the Spider Demon a flat look, "Says the guy who didn’t use the CTRL-ALT-DELETE on himself when he was born."

”Oh snap!” Daisy said, grinning and high-fiving him.

The spider blinked in surprise, not exactly expecting such a response, before gritting his teeth in anger, "Why You little-!"

"And look at that face, he must have eaten some bad worms or something," Daisy mocked as she cut off the spider's angered response.

Irritated, but knowing it was time to go, Syntax gave a huff. "As much as I'd love to swap insults all day, I must be going."

The purple-skinned spider pressed a few things on his keypad, before using his mechanical spider legs to climb out of reach of the bunch. "I have other things to attend to and you all are about to be eviscerated by the ancient guardians of knowledge. So I guess we're both pretty busy. Okay, bye!" And with that, he was gone.

"Hey! Get back here!"

“Uh, MK?” Daisy said, causing the teen to stop short, look down at the vixen, and then look up at what she was looking at.

Behind them stood a pair of giants, both dressed in golden armor and wielding spears, with one blue and one red. "Only those marked in the Great Ledger of Knowledge and Time shall be deemed worthy to enter this temple of wisdom, and live!"

The Guardians raised their spears above their heads, making the two gulp in fear before jumping out of the way right before the two spears slammed to the ground where they stood. The two then ran off. What they didn’t see was a pair of glowing light green fox eyes in the distance.

Plucking the spears out with ease, the giants gave chase to the two, seemingly sliding across the floor as if it were made of ice. The guardians were close behind them, their weapons raised above their heads and slamming them on the ground, causing it to crack.

MK tried to send the staff backward into the pair, hoping it'd slow them down, only for himself to be shot forward by the very weapon he'd been trying to use, leaving Daisy alone to run from the guardians.

As the teen struggled to control the staff, he zipped in between various gateways throughout the temple. Both Guardians tried to hit the simian as he popped out of the different gateways.

The wild ride came to a stop when MK slammed into the blue guardian's palm and was sent flying. The guardians walked up to stand before him, both raising their spears to stab the boy.

“MK!” Daisy yelled as she ran in front of him to take the blow.

“THAT’S ENOUGH!!!” A powerful voice yelled, causing it to echo and throw the two guardians back.

They looked behind MK to see a male Fox Demon with black fur that had a glowing light blue tech pattern over it. On his head was a Lime Green Zinnia flower crown but it seemed to be a hologram as it glitched. His eyes were light green with a tech pattern as well. He wore a green and black hakama.

“Lord Kējì!” The two guardians yelled before bowing.

“Kējì?” Daisy questioned out loud.

“The master of this temple and master of technology,” the blue one said.

“Correct. I watch over all technology and make sure it runs smoothly. Now would you two like to tell me why you are chasing this child when there is a virus wreaking havoc over the entire Megapolis mainframe?” He asked as he walked down to the level MK and Daisy were at.

“Um well he is an intruder and we were taking care of him,” the red one said.

“But he is the son of the Fox Queen. The one who helped build this temple with her own magic?”

The two guardian’s eyes widened at that. MK whispered to Daisy, “Is that true?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of it. Maybe this is what Dustin and Rockslide were doing?” Daisy whispered back.

“Maybe, hey wait!” MK yelled, causing the attention of the guardians and fox to be on him. “You said something about a virus. We’re here to stop a game that’s putting the whole city to sleep. Maybe the virus and game are connected?”

“Hmm you might be right,” Kējì said before holding out his paw as the green bug from before appeared in it. “Is this the game you are talking about?”

“Yes!” MK cried.

Kējì let out a laugh, “Then allow me to help you two.” He then crushed the bug in his fist.

“If you ever need help with anything technological, please come here and I will help.”

Both guardians then got on one knee and said, “We are sorry, son of the Fox Queen for how we treated you.”

“It’s ok, you were just doing your job,” MK said with a smile.

“You best hurry back, the city will be waking soon,” Kējì said.

“You're right, come on Daisy,” MK said before the two ran off for the exit.

Daisy looked back at the fox, there was something familiar about him but she couldn’t place why.

Once they were out of sight Kējì’s smile faded as he said in a dark tone, “Didn’t know he was the Fox Queen’s son?”

“We are very sorry sir, it was an honest mistake,” the blue guardian said.

Kējì glared at both of them, his light blue tech pattern turning glowing red, “That mistake almost cost me quite a lot.”

Just then a glowing light green fox appeared next to him and his pattern turned back to blue. “Leave me.”

The two guardians bowed before leaving as the fox turned into a screen and a green fox with tiger lilies all over his body appeared and he looked pissed.

“Kējì,” he growled, “care to explain why your guardians were chasing Prince Xiaotian?”

“A mistake. They didn’t know he was the prince.”

“A mistake?” A voice asked from behind the fox. The fox moved to reveal another in the shadows, glowing golden eyes were all Kējì could see. “You know that my son was heading to you, I told you he was so why didn’t you tell your guardians?”

“I-I thought they knew who he was, your Majesty.”

“Clearly they didn’t and you are lucky that you stepped in when you did or else,” the eyes narrowed.

“Of course, I stepped in, my Lady. I wouldn't let anything happen to the prince,” Kējì said with a serious look.

“Good, then I leave you to your work.”

“Wait! My Queen, I have bad news.”

“What is it?”

“The Spider Queen sent one of her henchmen to steal one of the Locked Boxes.”

The eyes narrowed again, ”Which one?”

“The bone mech one, My Lady.”

The golden eyes narrowed in anger before something was thrown off-screen. The green fox watched with worry. “How? It was guarded!” She yelled.

“When the virus caused the city’s mainframe to glitch, I called back my tech foxes to help me fix it and left the two guardians to watch over it but they were preoccupied with something else and the box was stolen. I am sorry, My Queen.”

“Sorry? Sorry is going to stop that Lady BITCH Demon from what she’s doing!” Lilith yelled. She then growled.

“It’s all right, I know the artifacts that are needed and will work to keep them away from the Spider Queen.”

“My Queen I am sorry once more, I-”

“It’s not your fault that this happened and I can still work to stop it and if I can’t then there is always Plan Hibiscus.”

The green fox gasped, “Lilith do you think it will come to that?”

Lilith sighed, “I hope not because it will hurt to watch them learn the truth but if that is what must happen then so be it.”

The two had returned to Pigsy’s, everyone finally had woken up from the Sleep Bug virus. "That's quite the story MK," Pigsy said, placing a bowl of noodles down in front of the two.

"I'm just glad you're both alright," Mei hummed, the Dragon Demon still quite salty about not being able to wail on Syntax, having made a score to settle the next time they meet for putting her to sleep. Red Son was quite embarrassed to find out that he had been knocked out by the virus and couldn’t help MK.

"Me too," Tang sighed, the scholar having been close to a heart attack when he heard how they'd almost gotten impaled.

“What'd Wukong and Macaque have to say about this?” Pigsy asked. Both of them froze as they realized they never told the others.

“You didn’t tell them?” Red Son asked.

“Tell us what?” Mei questioned.

"Uh, well you see..."

"My Queen...."

Spider Queen turns to see that Syntax has returned, a grin on his lips, holding the box in his hands. Spider Queen grinned as the girl approached the spider, pulling out the skeleton key. The key began to change shape and inserted itself into the box.

The box began to glow, a blue shockwave erupting, blowing the Spider Demons away. Spider Queen held her ground, looking up in surprise and confusion.

"What...is this?" She asked in shock. What stood before them was an image of a large spider-like mech.

"A guide. A pathway to greatness. with this, you will build your revenge one piece at a time, five more items of power must be collected and then, we shall forge your destiny."

The little girl smirked, eyes flashing blue.

Chapter Text

MK was busy mopping the floors as Mei took pictures. "Mei, I'm trying to mop!” MK cried before giving in and posing, “At least get my good side!" Yin and Jin were sitting next to her and laughing at the scene.

A sudden wave of energy hit him and MK fell to his knees, gasping loudly. Pigsy looked over with slight concern, "MK? You alright?"

"Hey bud, do you hear me, hello?"

"You feeling alright kid?" Tang asked, looking at him in concern. "I don't know I think I'm-" MK tried to say looking around the shop to where the voice was coming from, blinking rapidly as his eyes were flashing gold.

Everyone in the shop looked up, worried.

“Xiaotian!" The voice called out and a gold projection of Sun Wukong appeared right next to Tang and Mei.

"Baba?!" MK said in shock. "Monkey King’s here? Where?" Mei said, looking around. "He's right there, can't you guys see him?" The teen said pointing to where he was standing.

All of them shook their heads.

"Uh, kid I don't see anything?" Pigsy said, raising an eyebrow.

"Hey there Kid!" Macaque's voice called out in the background. “Papa? Wait, are you guys actually here, or some kind of ghosts?" MK said, completely confused.

“Relax, a little Astral Projection never hurt anyone," Wukong said smiling before turning around, “I think.”

MK looked at his father with a betrayed look before yelling, “I heard that!” Wukong had a surprised and guilty look on his face as he turned back to him.

"MK, what's going on?" Tang asked.

"Baba's using Astral Projection, and apparently I'm the only one that can see and hear him," MK informed.

“I think I can fix that. Hold out your hand MK,” Daisy said. She walked over to MK, who held out his hand to her. She then closed her eyes and a golden daisy grew in his hand, golden light spilling out. Everyone gasped in awe as the light dimmed slightly and the picture of Wukong and Macaque appeared.

“Boss!” Yin and Jin yelled when they saw them. Macaque smiled at them.

"So anyway, super glad that none of you are not dead yet," Wukong said.

"WHAT?!" MK, Mei, Yin, and Jin yelled.

“What did you do this time?” Daisy asked with narrowed eyes.

“Well, you see," Wukong trailed off, trying to explain.

“My idiotic husband fucked up!" Macaque said, crossing his arms and giving him an irritating look.

"WHAT IS THAT?!"

Everyone rushed out as the woman pointed at the sky. A giant dumpling was hurling toward them, flaming hot and dangerously close.

"Baba, What the hell is that!" MK exclaimed.

"Okay, First off: Watch your mouth,” Macaque said with a glare.

“Second, it's a giant dumpling. Me and some giants got into a food fight and long story short I need you to handle that tiny, itty bitty giant dumpling before it falls to Earth and destroys everything,” Wukong said with a smile.

“What!?” MK yelled as he turned to his father, Macaque was in the background frowning. “How am I supposed to do that?”

"I'd recommend looking in our treasure room for something to help you out, Cub," Macaque said, putting a paw on his shoulder.

Anyway we gotta go,” Wukong said and Macaque walked over to him and stood next to him. “Believe in yourself and you can do anything, okay byeee!" Wukong said and the projection vanished.

"Wait, Baba!" MK called out, but it was too late.

As the projection ended, both kings' smiles fell, frowning, turning around to face the terrified giant. Around them, the passed-out forms of other Celestials lay with golden and shadowy clones sitting on top of them.

"Now then, where were we?" Macaque hummed, pulling out a dark blue scroll from his pocket, and tossing it into the air, the old paper turning massive in a puff of smoke and slamming onto the table.

"I believe," Wukong joined in with a mocking humm, motioning to the paper behind him which showed the horrifying depiction of an old enemy. "You were going to tell us something about this."

"Oh, and do yourself a favor," the Shadow Prince's voice turned cold. "Don't drop any more food."

Through the eyes of the Spirit Foxes in the room, Lily watched the scene.

Next to her stood a green fox with tiger lilies all over his body, watching as well. There was a bark behind them and the green fox turned to look and smiled when he saw a sunset-colored vixen with sunflowers all over her body and a vixen with fur the color of the twilight sky with moon flowers all over her body that blended into her fur. Both had two different tails; a fox tail and a monkey tail. The sunset-colored one was carrying an orange hibiscus in her mouth.

The green fox ran up and nuzzled the two before looking at the hibiscus and taking it from his mate. He took it over to Lilith who took it from him. She held it up and looked at it. She smiled at it and said, “Everything is falling into place now.”

Meanwhile, back on Earth, the giant dumpling was closing in. MK, Mei, Tang, Pigsy, Daisy, Yin, and Jin stared up at it.

"Alright. This will undoubtedly be our most perilous mission of all time. A journey to the room where Baba keeps all his junk to find, uh, something to stop the celestial dumpling from destroying the world," MK said before turning to Mei and placing his hand on her shoulder. "And there is only one person with the smarts, the bravery, and the heroically awesome hair to be my wingman on this mission of death."

Mei has a smile on her lips, a look of expectation. "I mean, it's me, right?" called Tang.

MK pushed Mei to the side, leaning an arm on the scholar's shoulder. "I mean, obviously."

The two started laughing and Mei growled, furious. Daisy stood off to the side shaking her head. Pigsy crossed his arms, raising a brow. "You're kidding, right?" He asked.

"No I am not my sweet, sweet Dadsy," Mk smiled. "Dad and I are experts on Monkey King! So yeah, this makes sense."

"Aw C'mon! This is so obviously a mission for just you and me!" Mei shouted.

“Oh don’t feel so offended Mei, he didn’t pick me or the twins and we live on the actual mountain and I’ve seen the stuff his majesty collects, and yet-” Daisy was cut off by Pigsy as he said, "Uhh....Daisy?"

They all turned and saw that MK and Tang were gone. "Sorry, Mei! I can't hear you over my awesome new hoverbike! Okay, bye!" MK yelled as he and Tang drove away.

“Wait MK!” Daisy yelled as she ran after them.

"Dammit, I'm gonna get you for this, MK!" Mei shouted, flailing her arms.

Tang and MK were on their way to Flower Fruit Mountain. "You'll wanna hang a left and land up at the top of the mountain."

"Hmph. I'm pretty sure I know how to fly a futuristic hoverbike," Tang says as he flies down, startling MK.

"Uh, Dad? Dad! I said the top!" But it was too late as Tang crashed the bike into the beach, frightening nearby monkeys, who hooted and scurried away. MK sat up, spitting sand from his mouth.

"Like I said, I know how to fly," Tang scoffed. "Anyway, I presume it's this way?"

MK blinked, following after Tang. "You know, maybe I should've brought Mei or Daisy instead," he grumbled.

"Don't be silly. Who else would know the difference between the legendary Ozula and your average nine-dragon trident?” Tang asked.

“Daisy would,” MK deadpanned. “And Mei wouldn’t have crashed the bike at the wrong spot.” Tang frowned, “MK, MK. I’m better than them both because I know what I’m talking about.”

“But-” MK started only to be cut off as Tang yelled, “Come now, onward to the peak of Mount Huaguo! That's where Monkey King's cave is, by the way."

MK sighed, following behind him, finding it weird that Tang forgot that he lived at the top. “You don’t say, Dad.”

Meanwhile, at the peak of the mountain, Huntsman stood on a rock, standing in front of the waterfall. "It's close, I can smell it." He glanced down at his hologram map.

He tried to go through the waterfall, but it was protected by a golden barrier, and it sent him flying. "It's never easy." He growls in frustration.

Voices increased behind him, and the Spider Demon quickly hid. MK appeared at the opening and turned to the steps as he watched Lotus carrying Tang up the stairs, piggyback style. When they had gotten to the village Lotus had greeted them, asking what MK was doing back here so early. Once MK explained what happened Lotus offered to help them.

"Thank you, kind sir. I thought we were done for back there when my weak ankles began to give me trouble."

"Sure, no problem," Lotus said with a smile as he put him down. MK rolled his eyes with a deadpan expression on his face as he said, “Yeah at the bottom of the stairs.”

Tang shrugged his shoulders "Well, childhood injuries pick up at inconvenient times do they not?" MK growled as he mumbled, “I really wish I had just brought Mei or Daisy.”

“Prince Qi Xiaotian, I had no problem carrying him at all. Us soldiers do that as part of training so it’s no prob-” Lotus was cut off by Tang as he yelled "WOW!! Shuilian cave! That's the name of the Monkey King's cave!" He squealed in excitement and reached a hand out towards it.

“Uh I wouldn’t do th-” Lotus was cut off by MK putting a hand over his mouth. “Let him figure it out on his own, maybe he’ll learn something.” The brunette monkey watched smugly as Tang was sent flying back.

"I-I knew that would happen!" Tang declared as he stood up. MK stared at him with a frown before wordlessly putting his hand above the flowing water. A golden symbol appeared, opening the waterfall with a stunning display of power.

Tang immediately ran inside and MK slowly followed with Lotus behind him, "Wow, not even a thanks..?"

Huntsman smirked, sneaking inside before the parted water could close.

Tang was in awe, eyes sparkling, staring at the cave and castle as they walked in. "So, what do you think we should be looking for?" MK asked.

“A vase,” Tang said.

The two monkeys stared at him. “What?” Lotus asked.

“That dumpling looks to be a Xiaolongbao, which is a type of dumpling filled with hot soup, so simply blasting it won't do,” Tang told them.

“And a vase is gonna help how?” MK asked.

“Legends say that your father sought help from Quan Yin to help defeat a demon I don't remember the name of. She used the vase that contained pure water, enough to flood a whole mountain range. It seems logical that we should use that to suck up the soup and save the world from third-degree burns.”

"But how do we know that Baba even has the vase?" The teen asked, frowning.

“You're in luck,” a voice said. They turned around and saw Zhiu Ye heading towards them. “Your father was a hoarder so his vault is filled with things from their journey. I’m here to take you to it."

“Thanks, Zhiu Ye,” MK said as the group followed the monkey.

Once at the door to the vault, Zhiu Ye apologized for not being able to help because she had other things to do but Tang assured her he knew what they were looking for.

MK pushed open the door and let out a growl in frustration, his eyes glowing red and his tail swatting and frustration. Inside was a clutter of trinkets, books, weapons, etc. The others stared in shock while Tang merely stared in awe.

"Oh c'mon, this vault is a dang mess!" He yelled, pinching his nose. "I didn't think The Great Sage was this bad a hoarder."

"This could take a while!" Lotus called out, searching around.

"Yeah well, we don't have a while! So let's get digging!" and with that, he dove into the pile. As he dug around, he knocked over a mirror.

Unknown to them, Huntsman sneakily makes his way down a pile, heading for the mirror. MK lifts a box and is surprised to find a spider underneath it, gagging, he places the box back before it comes crashing down.

“He just looked tiny because he was far away!" He yelled. Huntsman noticed the mirror on the ground behind MK as it gleamed and he smirked, throwing his webs at it.

MK was quick, using the fire-tipped spear to grab the mirror. Huntsman growled, running at MK and punching him in the stomach, sending him crashing into a junk pile. Huntsman grabbed the mirror, only to look up with wide eyes as the pile fell on top of him.

Tang and Lotus, who had been looking for the vase, jumped at the crash. MK groans, popping out of the pile.

"MK! I can't find the vase anywhere!" Tang called out. MK panicked for a second before activating his gold vision. "It's there! Right in that crate!

"Why didn't you do that sooner?!" Tang cried out.

"I keep forgetting I have it, okay?!" He exclaimed. There was a crash behind him, Huntsman appearing. Lotus got ready to fight but MK yelled out, “No, help Dad get the vase.” Huntsman grabbed a fallen sword with his web, swinging it at him. MK spun the spear, blocking the attacks.

His eyes widened, noticing the sword was headed towards Tang. "Dad, look out!" MK called out as Lotus quickly pushed Tang out of the way, sending him crashing into the crates with a groan. The vases were all sprawled out on the floor and Tang laughed nervously.

MK grunts, dodging Huntsman's attacks.

"Oooh, I can smell your fear, little boy,” Huntsman cooed. "It's my conditioner!" MK yelled. The spear is thrown out of MK's hands, almost hitting Tang but Lotus grabs it before it does. MK hurriedly ran away, only to be pinned down by Huntsman.

"Dad! Hurry!" MK cried. Tang looks around frantically, looking for the right vase.

"You better hurry, Time's running out, little chimp," Huntsman grins. MK huffs in frustration. "You know, if we don't stop that dumpling, you'll die too, right?" 

"What?" Huntsman asked in confusion.

“Get off him, you fiend!” Lotus yelled as he slammed his spear into Huntsman's leg and sent him flying.

Huntsman growled before noticing the mirror behind him and looking back at the two.

"You know, you've got a point." he grinned, shrugging his shoulders. "How's about a truce? Just this one time?"

"What?" Everyone yelled.

"What kind of villain are you?!" MK yelled, narrowing his eyes.

"The kind that has bigger plans than getting boiled to death by dumpling soup," Huntsman states. He shoots his web into the air. "Besides, I got what I came for." He then throws his arm behind him and grabs the mirror as he retreats. "Until we meet next time, Monkey Boy."

"Ugh, Dammit!" He kicked the ground in anger.

"MK, I got the vase. Let's get going!" Tang called out to him. MK looked over to where the scholar was and smiled as he saw him waving the vase. "Okay!"

They make it back to the city, just in time to see the dumpling getting closer to the city, Mei, Pigsy, Daisy, Yin, and Jin watching in worry.

"Guys, we're back!" The sound of MK's voice had them turn right as the jet crash-landed. MK and Tang climbed over the edge onto the roof and ran over to the others.

"What took you two so long?!" The chef shouted. "We kinda' ran into one of Spider Queen's goons," Tang grumbled.

"What?!" The Pig Demon shrieked, Mei whined in disappointment as she missed the action, and the twins were mad that one of them made it onto the mountain; they knew Macaque wouldn’t be happy about that.

"It's okay. We managed to drive him out!" MK was quick to ease their anger. "But...he got away with one of Baba's artifacts."

"We'll have to continue this conversation later," Pigsy huffed, motioning to the flaming food behind them. "Right, we've got a dumpling to trap!" Tang said as MK pulled out the vase.

"Guys, hurry! It's almost here!" The Dragon Demon cried as the dumpling almost reached impact.

Tang and MK looked at the other, nodding in determination. They stood their ground, MK uncapping the vase, holding it in front of the dumpling. A whirlpool of water bursts out, engulfing the dumpling, the wind knocking Tang back.

"Dad!" MK panics, holding the vase and he starts sliding from the pressure. Pigsy came up behind him, putting his hands on MK's back, helping him keep his ground. "Don't worry kid, I gotcha!" Soon Mei, Tang, Jin, Yin, and Daisy were behind Pigsy.

A bright smile appeared, turning into a confident look as the teen's head went back to face the nearly trapped food. With one final push, MK slammed the cork back onto the top, everyone slumping to the floor with a tired sigh.

"Alright, you did it! It wo-" Mei was cut off as the vase exploded, soup splattering all over the city. "Ewww," Mei said in disgust, looking at her now ruined clothes.

"We probably should've grabbed more vases," Tang said.

MK nodded in agreement. "Yeah, probably."

“What are we going to do about this mess?” Daisy asked. Just then her necklace started to glow before a spiral of light appeared on it, stopping on the red gem petal.

All of a sudden there was a burst of heat as a large group of orange and red foxes on fire ran past them. A large familiar vixen with Asiatic Lilies in front of her ears was in the lead. “Wildfire!” MK called. The vixen winked at him before she and her pack started to run along the street with the soup and food, burning it away.

Once it was all gone, the pack flew past the group and Wildfire yelled, “You’re doing good, Young Prince, keep up the good work.”

“Thank you for the help,” MK called to her.

Meanwhile, down in the sewers, a splotch of soup fell, splattering onto Syntax's shoe. Syntax looked down and quickly shook his leg of the soup, grumbling in disgust. The Spider Queen kept her gaze on the mech before her, smirking. "Ahem, My Queen."

She turned to see Huntsman emerge from the shadows, grinning. "Well? Did you get it?" She asked.

Huntsman hops down, kneeling before her. "Oh course. One demon revealing mirror." As he said this, Huntsman turned his attention to Syntax and gave him a prideful smirk, angering the other spider.

He chuckles, lifting the mirror towards him. A sharp-toothed skeleton reached for the mirror, making him gasp in shock. He looked back where the reflection was, only to see the girl in its place. He broke out in a nervous sweat as the girl reached for the mirror.

"May I?" She asked as she took it, her polite voice dripping with venom.

She slowly walks towards the furnace, dropping the demon revealing mirror into the bright blue concoction brewing inside.

Later that night Daisy called the kings because MK wanted to talk to them about what happened with the artifact.

"I see," Macaque hummed, looking deep in thought as the image of Monkey King fighting a bunch of strange creatures, was seen in the background. "That sounds concerning."

"Nice problem solv- EXCUSE YOU!! I AM HAVING A CONVERSATION WITH MY Cub!!" The golden king shouted at the creatures, uprooting a nearby tree, and chucking it at the beasts. "WAIT A FUCKING MINUTE!! As I was trying to say before I was so RUDELY INTERRUPTED!! You did a nice job problem-solving. Sorry again for the mess."

Both MK and Daisy sweatdropped.

"I-It's fine Baba...how's the search going?" MK gave an awkward smile.

"Just a bunch of dead ends I'm afraid," the Shadow Demon sighed, shoulders slumping. "Well. That, and the fact that your father keeps leaving behind a trail of destruction wherever he goes."

The golden simian gave a nervous chuckle, at his husband's pointed look, "They refused to give me answers Plum. So I spoke in the universal language that is violence."

"What you meant to say was that you were thinking with your dick instead of your brain," Macaque yelled at him.

The teen's jaw dropped at his black-furred father's words, not used to hearing such crude language, coming from his normally polite parent's mouth.

"That's where you're wrong hun," the golden-furred monkey cooed, nuzzling his cheek to his husbands, in an attempt to calm the tall one's rage. "You see, I was born without a dick, so basically-"

"You don't need a literal one to think with one," the black-furred monkey deadpanned with a huff. "I've met plenty of people to know this." Macaque let out a sigh as he turned back to MK.

Wukong was now sulking in a corner, a dark cloud hovering over the normally cheery king, making the two sweat drops once more.

"It's getting late MK. Best get yourself to bed, okay?" Macaque said. "Love you Cub."

"Love you both too. Sweet dreams!" Macaque smiled as the golden figure of his son faded away.

Chapter Text

It was a Sunday and MK and Daisy were hanging out with Sandy and Mo on their ship. MK was in a lounge chair with sunglasses on while Daisy lay next to him and Mo was on a mech next to MK.

“Aww Mo! Such a cute lazy cat! You ain't got in trouble in the world, do yeah?”

“Alright MK,” Sandy called, causing them all to look up at the Water Demon. “It’s time to teach you the most important lesson of them all. Let’s do it. Let’s make some tea!” The deck around him turned into a sort of kitchen.

“Right!” MK yelled as he jumped up from his seat and ran over to stand next to the demon. “Follow my instructions exactly and make some of the best sleepy-time tea you’ve ever had.”

MK nodded as Dasy stood up and watched with Mo jumping on her head.

“Step 1: get your water humming to a ballming 171 degrees.” MK turns the oven on and places the kettle on the stone top but forgets to put water in it. Before Sandy can say anything Daisy’s marks glow blue before a wave of water shoots out of her tail and into the kettle which MK did not see. Sandy smiled at her.

“Step 2, and this is important, add just a pinch of my special sleepy time leaves.” Daisy watches in horror as MK dumps the entire bag of tea leaves into the pot along with the entire bottle of honey. What’s killing her the most is that Lily loves tea very much and the fact that her son was messing it up this much was alarming, to say the least. She was also pretty sure if Oakley was watching he’d start crying at the sight of how ruined it was.

“Step 3: serve it in your favoritest cutest teacup and enjoy.” MK poured it in a black cup for Sandy who thanked him before taking a sip of it and passing out asking, “You did add just a pinch, right?”

“Uh, what was that Sandy?” MK asked before noticing he was fast asleep. “Aww, big guy you must have tuckered yourself out.” He picked up Mo from Daisy’s head, who was trying her hardest not to laugh and placed him on Sandy. “I’m gonna keep you safe. Nothing bad's gonna happen. Not on my watch.”

Daisy just started laughing from her spot but she soon fell on her back laughing harder when a golden portal opened above him and a large crate fell out of it and landed on Sandy before bounding away a few feet away. On it was the seal of the two kings which caused MK to cry out, “Oh, a supper special package from Baba and Papa.”

He ran over to the crate and Daisy, still laughing, followed him. MK tried to open it with a crowbar but wasn't having any luck. Daisy watched unimpressed. Finally, when he stopped she cleared her throat causing him to look at her as she raised her tail which turned to stone as her marks turned light brown. He smiled and moved back.

She hit the top of the crate and the lid opened and a letter flew out of it. MK opened his hand and it floated into his open hands. He opened it and read the letter out loud.

Dear Cub,

So sorry we haven't spoken in a bit, your father got us caught up in a particularly nasty situation, which had me indisposed for some time. Luckily we were able to escape. I hope that you and the others are doing well and that you've been getting plenty of rest, after last week's incident. 

MK I meant it, get rest.

MK sweatdropped and gave a nervous laugh, the teen having a habit of pushing himself too hard. Daisy rolled her eyes because this was something he and Wukong shared in common. Macaque was trying to break them of that habit, back then he had Lily’s help but now he had lost his help and had another to worry about. 

As for why I'm writing this, Wukong and I thought up a new training exercise for you, which involves a power you inherited from me and your mother. That being my six-ears and her enhanced fox hearing. You need to learn how to rely on and use it. After all, your opponents won't always give you a fair fight, and some may use dirty tactics to blind you in an attempt to gain the upper hand. This is where your ears come in; their sensitive nature allows them to catch any noise around you, acting as a second pair of eyes. I've enclosed this blindfold to help with said training.

And before you say anything, no, it's not something particularly special. Just a normal blindfold. Your father just insisted on getting a fancy gold one.

MK giggled but Daisy had a feeling that Macaque might be lying… about it being a normal blindfold.

I must cut this letter short, seeing as we're approaching another temple, hopefully with answers this time. I love you dearly, stay safe, and please get some rest MK.

With love, 

Baba and Papa

MK smiled at it before noticing more writing on the bottom.

P.S. The crate is big because there are some things in it for Daisy.

Daisy’s ears perked up at that. MK walked over and took the rest of the top off and true to the letter there were many things in the box. The golden blindfold hit MK in the face though. Daisy peaked over the side and gasped at what she saw.

Using her magic she pulled out several rolls of fabric. “This is Stellar Realm fabric!”

“The Stellar Realm has its own fabric?” MK asked as he grabbed a roll of fabric that was blue with crashing waves on it. He was surprised to find that it felt like the ocean just without the wet feeling.

“Yeah, the Stellar Realm makes fabric by taking elements and weaving them into fabric which they can sew into clothing. Your mother made it all the time and gave lots of the fabric to the old seamstress at Flower Fruit Mountain when she started living there.”

“Wow, that’s so cool. What else is in here?” MK asked as he looked back in the box and saw there were multiple bags of different colored jewels and a few artifacts. “Jewels and artifacts?”

“The jewels are Element Gems. Gems a Stellar being can eat to power themself up. The artifacts are Stellar artifacts. I’m guessing they found this stuff and sent it to me to watch over,” Daisy suggested, putting the fabric back in the crate and teleporting it to the castle.

MK looked down at the blindfold and smiled as he put it on. "Master of hearing here I come! I can hear everything!"

All of a sudden they heard someone screaming. “That sounded like-” Daisy started but was cut off by MK, “-the sound of someone in trouble.”

“No it sounded like Mei being over dram-” Daisy was cut off by him once more as he pulled out his staff, “I better go help,” and then blasted away on it.

Once the dust cleared, Daisy let out a sigh before her marks turned sky blue and she ran after him on the air.

In front of the shop was Mei on her knees crying dramatically while Yin and Jin stood behind her, looking unimpressed and worried.

All of a sudden MK zipped past them in the space between Mei and the twins, startling both of them. Mei stopped crying and looked behind her where MK landed as he asked, “Mei? What's wrong?" The boy's brows furrowed in confusion. "Who do I need to beat up?!"

“MK!” Mei yelled as she ran over to the boy, grabbed him, and yelled while pointing to where Pigsy and Tang stood by a delivery woman who seemed to be getting ready to wheel Monkey Mech away, “You have to stop this!”

Daisy, who had landed a few minutes ago, just shook her head and looked at Yin and Jin with a “Really?” look. They nodded their heads.

Pigsy turned to where the pair was and got angry when he saw MK. “MK! Where have you been?”

The pair walked over to them as the lady wheeled the game away.

“I asked you to mop the floors three hours ago and you disappeared instead,” Pigsy yelled at him. Tang then noticed the blindfold and asked, “Um MK, why do you have a blindfold on?”

“Who cares why!?” Pigsy shouted. “Take it off and get back to work!”

“I’m trying. It won't come off!” MK yelled as he tried to take it off.

Pigsy let out a sigh, “Classic MK, can’t listen to basic instructions and screws around all day.” He then pointed to where the game was now in the back of the truck and said, “This is exactly why I'm getting rid of this arcade machine!”

“What?!” Both Mei and MK yelled before clinging to Pigsy’s ankle, begging him not to. The others watched, uncomfortable.

“I’ve seen it all before; games suck up the best years of your life until you're left a hollow, bitter, old man,” Pigsy said, crossing his arms. Tang and Daisy shared a look at that. “The arcades out of here!”

“Uh, Pig Man?” The delivery lady said, catching his attention. “Where do you want the table?”

“Table? What table?”

“Well the order says that you wanted to swap the Monkey Meche Arcade Cabinet with a ping-pong table,” she said reading over her clipboard before pointing to her left where a ping-pong table sat. Pigsy ran over to it and started gawking over it. This surprised the others (minus the still-crying teens who weren’t paying attention).

Pigsy snapped out of it and yelled, “No I didn't order this! Doesn’t anyone listen?”

“Tang I think you should intervene,” Daisy suggested. Tang let out a nervous laugh, “Just let him get it out of his system.”

“Hey, I’m just doing my job man. You gotta sign for this, so…” The lady told him.

“I got it,” Tang said as he walked forward and did so. “What are you doing, Tang?” Pigsy yelled.

“Pigsy if we don’t sign it then the game doesn’t get sent back and what’s so wrong with ping-pong?” Tang asked as the lady walked away.

“No, not ping-pong! This isn’t good. I really do play hard,” Pigsy mumbled to himself, causing the non-teen to look at him with more worry. “Listen, as long as this table is here I won’t stop, I can’t stop!”

“Trust me Dadsy, I super hear what you’re saying,” MK said as he placed a ping-pong paddle in Pigsy’s open hand. “You need me to work hard so you can play hard!”

“What? No! You’re not listen-” Pigsy tried to say but was cut off by MK who was now on his cart. “Have fun with your game! Super hearing delivery boy! GO!” He shouted before taking off only to hit a pole.

Mei climbed into the seat next to him and said, “Uh, MK let me help.”

“Please just let her drive MK,” Daisy called out and Tang nodded his head in agreement.

“You're not coming Daisy?” MK asked.

“Nope. You two have fun. I'll be here and if you need my help you know how to call me.”

“Bye then,” MK said as Mei drove away. “Wahoo, Super hearing.”

“Think they’ll be fine?” Yin asked.

“Mei? Yes. MK? No,” Jin said.

“I have to agree with that and I hope that Mei will make sure to keep MK out of dangerous trouble,” Tang said. Daisy nodded.

They all turned around when they heard the sound of a ball bouncing off a wall. They saw it was Pigsy bouncing a ping-pong ball against the wall with the paddle. They however didn’t see the large dark grin on his face.

Tang walked behind him and called his name but he didn’t respond. Finally when Tang said it a third time and more loudly, Pigsy snapped out of it and caught the ball in his hand before it fell to the ground. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to sneak up on people like that?”

Tang blinked in surprise but then took a step back as Pigsy turned around with a dark grin as he asked, “Say how about a game?”

“Uhh,” Tang said, confused. “Should you be playing this? What about the restaurant?”

“No more dishes if you beat me,” Pigsy said with a terrifying grin that sent shivers up Daisy’s spine.

Tang’s eyes turned to stars as he exclaimed, “You're on!” before frowning as Pigsy’s dark look returned.

“Uh I don’t like this at all,” Daisy said.

“You said it,” the twins said in unison.

On the other side of town MK had managed to get back in the driver seat and was driving down an alley. “I think my super hearing is getting better! I only crashed three times!” MK declared with pride as he let go of the wheel.

Mei frowned as she grabbed the wheel, “Yeah amazing.”

“Yeah, I did awesome. That’s gotta show the blindfold that I’m a good listener,” MK said as he tried to take it off once more but it wouldn’t come off. “Uh, why won’t this come off?”

“Well Macaque said that the blindfold wouldn’t come off until-” Mei started but was cut off by MK, who continued to struggle with the blindfold, “-I learn to truly listen, yeah, but I listened great.” Because of his wiggling, he almost fell out of the cart but Mei caught him, however, the cart crashed.

Mei groaned as she pushed MK off her. The two then heard a very childish laugh and looked up to see a fox floating on a cloud. This fox had light gray fur that was hurricane-like, dark gray eyes, and Dandelions in front of his ears. The flowers gave away that he was a Power Fox and he was smaller than a wolf but looked to be a few inches taller than Snowstorm.

“Hey you’re a Power Fox,” Mei called out.

“What?! Where?” MK asked, looking around.

“Above you,” the fox said before letting out a laugh, “Silly Prince. You’re really bad at this game.”

“Game?” MK and Mei asked, confused. “This blindfold is a game?” Mei asked, sounding irritated.

“To me? Yes. In reality? No, it’s a training exercise,” the fox said, resting his head on his front paws.

“Who are you?” Mei asked.

“Yeah you don’t sound like any of the Power Foxes I’ve met so far,” MK said, still trying to look around for him.

“That’s because you’ve never met me. I’m Hurricane, the Wind Power Fox,” as he said his name he stood up on his cloud. “The High Queen sent me to help you with your training exercise since you don’t seem to be grasping it.”

“And how are you gonna help? You sound like a kid?” Mei asked.

“I’m the youngest of the Power Foxes so the queen thought I would click with you better. Now,” Hurricane jumped off his cloud, which disappeared, “If I know the Monkey King, which I don’t, his lesson here isn’t going to be as simple as hearing, it’s some sort of twist.”

Mei then perked up, “Maybe it’s about listening good! You know?” Hurricane smiled seeing that she had caught on.

MK thought about it for a moment before asking, “Isn’t that the same thing?”

Both Mei and Hurricane frowned before something exploded behind them. They ran towards it with Mei having to come back and grab MK. When they turned the corner to the street where Pigsy’s noodles was they saw the street was destroyed with hurt people scattered everywhere.

“What the ham?” Mei asked as she looked around.

“Mei?” MK called. The two looked behind them to see him walking on people. “I don’t remember the ground being so squishy?”

Mei frowned while Hurricane stared in surprise. “He’s not very bright is he?” Mei just sighed.

All of a sudden a person was sent flying towards MK, sending them both flying into a building. Mei watched in shock before turning around.

In the middle of the street was a large rock column and on top of it was the ping-pong table and Pigsy.

“Pigsy!” Mei called out. “What happened?”

“I am the Master of Ping! The Emperor of Pong!” Pigsy answered before letting out a chuckle as lightning flashed behind him.

“Mei!”

She looked over to see Daisy with an injured Tang, Jin, and Yin under some rocks. Daisy’s eyes widened when she saw Hurricane. “Hurricane!”

Hurricane smiled, “The one and only. So what happened to the pig?”

“His hunger for the win…it’s insatiable,” Tang cried. Hurricane and Mei shared a look of confusion.

MK appeared behind them on a rock as he yelled, “Pigsy you have to stop. People are getting hurt.”

“Stop?” The Pig Demon questioned, stomping his foot on the table. “I told you that as long as this table is here I’ll never stop.”

“Uh, what are we gonna do?” Jin asked. “He wouldn’t listen to reason!” Yin yelled.

MK tripped and fell down to where his friends were as Mei smiled at him and Hurricane said, “Yeah there’s a bit of that going around.”

“Listening?” MK said as he walked forward and picked up a ping-pong paddle. “Then there’s only one thing we can do!”

“Don't say something stupid, don't say something stupid, don't say something stupid,” Daisy mumbled under her breath.

“Pigsy, I challenge you!”

Pigsy laughed, “You? If you step to me then you are gonna lose.” He then blasted a ball at MK with an impressive amount of speed and power.

It flew through MK’s hair and left a hole where it went past. MK frowned, “Yep ok. You know this might be the one scenario where not being able to see puts me at a bit of a disadvantage.”

“MK you’re an idiot,” Mei said in the background while Daisy shook her head, “I know it.”

“That was just a warning shot,” Pigsy said before getting ready to hit another ball, “This is the real deal.”

MK managed to catch the ball but the sure speed caused some of the people around them to blow away. “MK!” The group yelled out, worried.

“Dadsy stop!” MK called out but Pigsy just laughed.

“Why wouldn’t you listen to me?” As soon as he said it he realized this is what Hurricane was trying to tell him. He gasped, “That’s what Papa meant. Not super hearing, actually listening to what people are saying. I have to listen.”

MK managed to hit the ball back and his blindfold started to loosen. “Now he’s getting it,” Hurricane called out.

“I get it now; Dadsy like me, he’s not listening but I’ll get through to him.”

“Young Prince, let me help you with the rest.” MK nodded as Hurricane became a gust of wind.

The ball that MK hit back was caught by Pigsy who yelled out, “Are you gonna keep on yapping or are you ready to finish this?” Pigsy hit it back at him.

“No Dadsy, I’m ready…to listen.” Hurricane appeared behind him and released very strong winds. MK then hit the ball back with force and Pigsy did the same. They continued to do this.

“Is that all you got?” MK asked as he got ready to hit the ball back. “I thought you were gonna play hard?”

The winds stopped as MK hit the ball back and started running for the mountain, Hurricane following as a gust of wind.

Once at the top, he called out, “Come on Pigsy!”

Pigsy then hit it back with as much strength as he could. The blindfold then started to glow before it disappeared. MK then remembered what Pigsy said about the table. Once he hit the ball back he called out, “Hurricane destroy that table!”

Hurricane nodded as he turned into his namesake and slammed into the table, breaking it in two.

“NO!” Pigsy yelled, tears forming in his eyes.

The blast sent the two flying backward. Everyone ran over to where Pigsy was, Hurricane stood next to MK. “What? No, it happened again.”

“Dadsy! I’m so sorry I should have listened, this is all my fault,” MK cried, hanging his head.

“No kid, that game,” Pigsy held up the broken paddle as he continued, “-it’s got a hold on me.” Pigsy then dropped it and pulled MK in for a hug, “Thank you, kid.”

“Yeah you really listened to what he needed,” Hurricane praised.

“I’m not sure who taught you guys ping-pong,” Jin said as he looked around at the broken street. A sign near Daisy started to fall and almost fell on her but Jin caught it. “But this isn’t it,” Yin finished.

“Yeah you guys really did a number on this street,” Hurricane said. “Well, I’ve got to go so good luck with it. Ok bye,” and with that he disappeared in a gust of wind.

“He is right,” Daisy said with a sigh. “Should we maybe clean it up?” Tang asked.

“Or maybe we could go to check on Sandy?” MK suggested.

“Yeah,” everyone, even Daisy, agreed.

Chapter Text

It was a beautiful morning as MK got out of the Noodle Cart, happily whistling a tune as he danced to the beat of the music in his headphones. Qin Yang let out a giggle as she watched the older monkey and handed him the delivery.

Qin Yang had wanted to visit MK and hang out with him so Sùsù brought her down the mountain and to the shop which had been crowded with people. Sùsù offered to help Tang and Pigsy at the shop while MK and Qin Yang did deliveries.

The house they were dropping the food off to was only across the street, so the elder simian left the younger waiting in the cart, volume turned down low so he could keep an ear out just in case she decided to wander off...again.

Though the younger running off wasn't what got his attention but the sound of a motor driving full-speed in his direction, the teen jumping up and backflipping onto the cart's roof, right before the driver could hit him. Originally going to scold the driver, only to groan as he saw that it was one of those stupid Speedy Panda drivers, who had skidded to a stop to glare at him.

For the past week, they'd been harassing him on his delivery routes, trying to destroy the food and actually physically harm him. The first time he had Qin Yang with him since the kings left was last week and they'd run into the group who had tried to physically harm the younger monkey, but quickly learned how stupid an idea that was when MK proceeded to beat the ever-loving shit out of all of them the moment they'd tried to lay a finger on her. Of course, he didn't use the staff, only his fists.

But oh, did he want to.

Sùsù had been so pissed when she heard what happened and was ready to hunt down and kill those delivery guys. You see, a little after New Year’s Eve, Sùsù had officially adopted Qin Yang.

Daisy had disappeared before any Speedy Panda had started leaving a note that she was on a mission getting something and would return as soon as she could but that was 3 weeks ago. Honestly, he was kinda happy she wasn’t here because out of all of them, she was the strongest and could kill all of the drivers in one swift move.

Macaque had to remind Wukong of their current mission the moment his golden husband tried to bolt off on his cloud to kill the drivers after hearing about them harassing MK. The Shadow Demon didn't mention that they shouldn't kill the drivers, just that they had a mission to do. Besides, Pigsy had that covered, the other's sweat dropping in the background as the chef, the Monkey King, Mei, and MK all schemed together. Sùsù, Ba, and Beng wanted in on any revenge they had planned.

He'd gotten full permission from both parents to use the staff if those drivers tried anything again.

Heaving a sigh, the monkey prince hopped off his vehicle, summoning the staff with a whirl, "Really guys? Again? What is this, the 4th-5th time?"

Four more drivers showed up behind the teen, who sighed once again, pinching the bridge of his nose, "Listen, I don't have time for you, so could you maybe...I dunno, leave us alone this one time?"

His answer was all four zooming toward him on their mopeds, aiming to ram the teen.

"Guess that's a no."

Back at the shop, Pigsy was ducking and dodging incoming books.

"I can't believe you!"

"Hold up, Tang! Wait a minute!" Pigsy tried to reason with the somewhat angry scholar, only to duck when he threw a book at him.

Sùsù was sitting at a booth watching with worry but Tang had a mean throw so she didn’t dare get in between them.

"After all these years of being married, You forgot our anniversary!?" Tang yelled angrily, throwing another book at the Pig Demon.

Today is Tang and Pigsy's 40th anniversary, and it completely slipped the Pig Demon's mind. I mean it wasn't on purpose, there's been so much going on and…

"Tang, sweetie, please calm down-"

"Do I really mean so little to you, Pigsy!?" Tang says as he looks at Pigsy, tears threatening to spill from his eyes.

Pigsy stared at his husband in disbelief, does he really think what he thinks of him? Before he could respond, the front door opened, entering MK and Qin Yang.

The two walked over to the booth where Sùsù was seated, not noticing the two arguing husbands. MK face planted onto the table with a groan and Qin Yang climbed up onto the set in between Sùsù and MK. She started rubbing his back in a soothing manner.

"Are you okay, MK? Sùsù asked worriedly.

“Yeah, but I’ve had it up to here with those Speedy Panda delivery brickheads!” MK grumbled.

"Another one?!" The Pig Demon shouted in anger, popping out of his hiding spot and watching as the brown she-monkey began to fix his adoptive son's hair

Tang grabbed a bowl of noodles for each kid, giving it to them.

"We got cornered at the first stop, and MK easily sent them flying with the staff," the young monkey explained. "But at each stop, drivers were waiting, some even trying to keep him from leaving the cart."

"Neither of you are hurt, right?" Tang asked, making a move to go and get the first aid kid.

"No, we're fine Dad, I'm just tired," MK yawned, flashing his fangs momentarily, before rubbing the exhaustion from his eyes.

"Where are they?!" Came the voice of a certain Dragon Demon, Mei skidding through the shop's entrance, sword out and ready to kick ass, with Jin and Yin following her with just as much anger. "When I see those no-good rotten-"

"We're fine Mei," MK hummed out, smiling when he saw her shoulders relax, putting away the sword with a huff. 

"It's not fine MK," Mei said as she angrily plopped herself on the seat on the other side of the brown simian and grumpily thanked Pigsy as he handed her a bowl of noodles. "They've tried to harm you, physically harm you! That's illegal! At the very least, they should be in jail!"

"Better me than Qin," was the boy's tired response, as he sleepily took a bite of noodles.

"I'd prefer that neither of you get hurt," Sùsù sighed. Pigsy gave Mei and the twins a look when they tried to sneak out, most likely to go on a headhunt for the drivers. “I have to agree with Sùsù on that,” Tang said with a frown.

"If I wasn't stressed enough I'd go up there and shove my-Ow!" Pigsy was cut off as he rubbed the back of his head, seeing Tang throw another book at him.

"Pigsy, enough! You're making the children here uncomfortable!" The scholar scowled at his husband, not wanting him to swear in front of the young monkey.

Pigsy growls, clenching his fists, but eventually calms himself down. He just really, really hates those speedy panda assholes.

“Those punks with their flash-frozen microwave junk! Convenience can never replace a traditional home-cooked family recipe,” The chef growled, looking back at a corkboard that was filled with varying pictures from over the years.

One was him and his mother, him and his father, another where he was first opening his shop, him and Sandy as teens, the Pig Demon's wedding day with Tang, and one was a family portrait with MK after they first got him. Two of the more recent ones were of MK and the gang after the first time they saved the city while the second was of the group on Flower Fruit Mountain after the Wall Race with MK’s parents, grandmother, and the generals, all eating at the table together.

His fondest memories.

“When it comes to our noodles, each is handcrafted from scratch with love, care. It's what our customers have come to expect. That other place can’t hold themselves up to our standards at all.”

"Yeah!!" The others shouted in unison, making the chef chuckle, ruffling the kid's hair and kissing Tang on the cheek but the schooler turned away from him, still angry about him forgetting their anniversary. Pigsy frowned at that.

Just then, a brick flew in through the open kitchen window, barely missing the back of Pigsy's head, as it was caught in a flash by MK. The teen gave a dark growl and handed the brick to Tang, using his True Sight to try and find the culprit, but scowled when he found nobody.

They got away...this time.

"What's that?" Mei asked, pointing to the paper tied around the rust-colored stone.

"It's a note," The bookworm's voice was less than pleased, himself also quite unhappy as his husband nearly died. "It says..."

'Attention! Pigsy's Noodles!

Prepare for your worst nightmare! We challenge you to Food Wars!! To determine which restaurant truly reigns supreme!

Signed,

Speedy Panda'

"Mei?"

"Yeah MK?"

"I changed my mind. Let's nuke 'em."

"Heck yeah!" The girl cheered, digging out her phone and going to open up her family's security app, only for Pigsy to snatch the phone out of her hand. "Hey!"

"Nuh-uh!" The demon huffed, waving a finger in front of the scowling teens. Qin Yang and Sùsù simply watched from the stool and Qin Yang finished her lunch while Sùsù frowned, having been happy when she heard they were going to take action against the drivers.

"I'm not about to let you two blow up the competition! No matter how much these jerks deserve it! I'm making sure you both don’t get arrested or worse! Which means no nuking rival restaurants! And that means any other options on the table, looking at you Mei!"

Pouting, the Dragon Demon puts away the remote control, which was connected to a bunch of security drones.

“Can someone explain to me what "Food Wars" is?” Sùsù asked.

“Food Wars. The ultimate arena for chefs to duke it out, where the victors are hailed supreme above all others,” Pigsy said with fire in his eyes.

"I'm guessing that means we're participating in this?" MK asked with a frown.

“Speedy Panda, I accept your challenge!” Pigsy yelled, holding the note with the rival restaurant’s “Declaration of War”.

"Welcome one and all to Food Wars!!" The announcer spoke over the intercom as the crowd cheered. Mei, Jin, Yin, Sùsù, and Qin Yang sat in the front to get a good look at the action. "Today, two teams will compete in three rounds of food combat in order to be crowned Supreme Restaurant Champion!"

"No pressure or anything," Mei muttered sarcastically, still upset that Pigsy didn't want to go with her option of just destroying the assholes.

"Introducing first for Pigsy's Noodle shop, Pigsy and his assistant MK!" The man continued, the two looking up and smiling, when they heard the cheers of their friends. Both looked confused when they saw Tang wasn't there, receiving a shrug, since no one in the group knew where the noodle connoisseur was either.

"And their opponents, Speedy Panda! And it's owners, these guys!"

"Those little-!" Jin and Yin shrieked, immediately recognizing Xinghong and Zise.

"Wait, you two know them!" Mei asked.

“Yeah, that’s Xinghong and Zise. The ones who trapped MK and Qin Yang in the Calabash,” Yin told them.

"Remember us Monkie Kid?!" Xinghong smirked. "We're your worst enemies!"

"Oh no, you've got to be kidding me," MK groaned, his eye twitching in irritation.

"Xinghong and Zise, the Scarlet and Violet Demons!” The two said, striking a pose.

"What do you two want?" MK asked.

“Yeah and what do ya' got against my restaurant?!” Pigsy shouted

"So here's the plan, right? We figure if we put your noodle shop out of business, then Noodle Boy is out of a job," Zise said grinning.

"And if he's out of a job, he'll starve, which will make him weak and then we'll finally be able to destroy him!!" Xinghong finished as the two laughed, high-fiving each other.

"Idiots," Yin and Jin deadpanned from within the crowd. The others just stared in confusion because this plan was just so stupid.

“Um, they do know that he lives on a mountain, in a castle, and that he’s a prince, right?” Qin Yang asked with her head tilted.

"It’s like Jin and Yin said, they’re a couple of dumb-dumbs," Mei said. Sùsù nodded in agreement.

"It is now time for round one!" The announcer came back on, Pigsy walked over to the pantry area and MK got into the cart. "The competitors will have to get all the ingredients they need and race from the Food Wars Ultimate Pantry to their respective kitchens at the center of the courtyard! In 3...2..1!!"

A blaring sound was heard, Pigsy grabbed every ingredient he needed in a flash of pink and tossed them over to the teen who waited in his cart. Acting on instinct from his time cooking during lunch rush with the demon, alongside training with his fathers, the boy easily caught the various foods and sped off.

The demon twins' jaws dropped; however, they quickly shook themselves from their stupor and tossed over a box of their frozen food to the Speedy Panda driver, said driver was off like a flash. But unfortunately, they didn't manage to catch up on time as when the driver was halfway across the track, MK was casually hopping out of his cart and setting the food down on the counter.

He had to bite back a smirk at their looks of shock.

"Round One goes to Pigsy's Noodles!"

The crowd cheered and Pigsy cheered as well. "Way to go kid!"

"Go MK!" Mei, Yin, and Jin cheered too.

"In round two, competitors will put their culinary prowess to the test, in a cook-off! With the winner being chosen by a panel of randomly selected judges!"

MK and Pigsy nodded to each other and got into the rhythm of making an old but familiar recipe. As for the Cat Demons, they simply microwaved their food. From where they sat in the stands, the group's noses scrunched up in distaste, at the sight of the...could that even be considered food?

“What is that terrible smell?” A familiar voice called out.

They turned around and saw Red Son standing at the end of the row.

“Red Son? What are you doing here?” Mei asked.

“I could ask you the same thing Dragon Horse Girl,” Red Son called out to them.

“We’re here to cheer on MK and Mr. Pigsy,” Qin Yang told him.

“What?” Red Son asked before looking over and seeing the two cooking.

“Noodle Boy! He’s the competition?” Red Son yelled, trembling a little, feeling his heart race and palms sweating.

“Wait! Don’t tell me you’re here to cheer for those two idiots,” Yin asked him.

“What? Of course not. I’m here for my mother,” Red Son said, crossing his arms.

Before anyone could ask Sùsù let out a cry, “Qin Yang! Where’d you go!?”

They looked behind them and saw that the young monkey was no longer in the white monkey’s lap.

Back with MK and Pigsy…

The two continued cooking and MK was on edge, looking at the time. “We gotta move!”

"Relax kid, There's just an ingredient missing." The Pig Demon hummed in thought. A certain pair of twins attempted to cheat by swapping out the sauces.

However, they were sorely mistaken, as a furry tail had wrapped around both their wrists. They looked up with a nervous gulp, seeing the ominous aura MK was giving off, well learned from his shadowy father. "Put. The Bottle. Back."

Nodding frantically and doing as told, the pair zipped off in fear, once they were released from the tail's iron grip. Now gone, the simian huffed and looked down at the sauce they were swapping out and blinking in surprise before smiling. "What about this?"

Pigsy looked at the sauce in the kid's paw and smiled. "Perfect! That's what was missing." Finishing up the food the chef duo walked over with the dishes in hand. MK took a deep breath, the pressure began to sink in.

"Hey." The boy looked over at his adoptive father. "It doesn't matter if we win or lose this kid. Because I don't know about you, but I'm having fun cooking with you. It's been a while since we've done this, so it's nice to get that time together."

The younger one smiled, "After this, what do you say we go back and cook dinner together?"

"I'd like that kid."

"And that's the timer! Both competitors must now present their culinary creations to our panel of judges!”

"Introducing our first judge!" The announcer cheerfully exclaims as a huge gust of wind blows back the curtains, revealing the first judge to everyone watching. "Princess Iron Fan!!"

"Eh?!" MK, Pigsy, and the group in the stands exclaim, shocked that the prideful demoness would voluntarily be here given that she'd shown such distaste for 'peasant folk' and being around them. Something that Red Son had obviously gotten from her.

“Your mothers a judge?” Mei yelled at Red Son.

Red Son sighed, “Yeah, she and my father like cooking shows and since they are powerful demons they get invited to judge a lot but my father finds it too embarrassing for himself to be on it and my mothers the better critic of them. I’m just here because she dragged me along with her.”

Angrily, yet elegantly, slumping into her seat.

"Mrs Iron Fan!?" MK exclaimed, shocked that she of all people was here. "What are you doing here?"

She let out a tired sigh before pointing to Xinghong and Zise, who gave her cheeky smiles. She then mumbled, "Ugh, I knew I shouldn't have made that blood oath."

Oh. So the two must have won a bet against her. The princess was a demon of her word, even if it sabotaged her own pride in the process. MK gave a sympathetic look to the woman because it sucked having to deal with the Scarlet and Violet siblings.

Both she and her husband had been visiting the Flower Fruit Mountain to check on MK since his parents had left. Ba, Beng, and a few servants still didn’t trust them but Mami did and MK was always polite to them. Red Son had been hanging out with him and Mei a lot more now.

"Judge number two is none other than....a little girl?!"

Everyone in the crowd blinked in confusion, looking over at where the curtains had opened, only to all coo at how adorable the very confused-looking Qin Yang was, said monkey wondering how on earth she'd gotten at the judge's station. One moment she was in her adoptive mother's lap, the next, some strange Cat Demon man had snatched her off the white monkey's lap and shoved her out onto the stage.

“QIN YANG!” Both MK and Sùsù yelled. Fiddling nervously with her tail, and looking about ready to break down crying, the little she-monkey only shuffled in place.

Sùsù made a beeline for the back to grab her terrified cub but several security guards stopped her and as she started to pull out her spear to fight them, Red Son ran up behind her and stopped her before shooting a glance at his mother, who nodded.

Princess Iron Fan got out of her seat with a sigh, shooting a very nasty look at Xinghong and Zise, who she could only assume was responsible for this mess. The Wind Demoness gently scooped up the younger female and walked back over to the judge's table, setting Qin Yang down in her lap and rubbing soothing motions on her back, much like she did when Red Son was younger.

Sùsù seemed to calm down a bit but she shot a dark look at the Cat Demons as Red led her back to the stands where the others were. MK and Pigsy were rightfully seething with the younger male itching to take out his staff, but holding back so he wouldn't cause a scene and risk his adoptive father's business suffering due to the bad publicity. Though the dark aura he radiated seemed to make up for that.

"R-right...well! Our third judge is the illustrious food critique: The Golden Cicada Yum-Yum!"

The curtains open to reveal Tang, who sat down in his seat. "Thanks for having me! Great to be here!" Tang smiled, waving. 

"You're the man, Dad!" MK exclaimed happily. However, Pigsy seemed to look nervous. "Uh, Dadsy what's wrong?" He asked.

Tang turned his attention to Pigsy, frowning as he sat down, his glasses gleaming. Guilt started flowing through the Pig Demon's head. His mouth felt dry as he gulped.

"Oh, I bet you're worried that he's gonna vote against you as some form of revenge 'cause you forgot y'all anniversary and the fact you treat him like garbage all the time, right?"

"Would you be quiet!" Pigsy hissed.

"First up is Speedy Panda!" The announcer's voice swept over the crowd as the demon twins walked up and presented their… 'dish' with little Qin Yang's nose scrunching up in distaste at both the smell and the sight of the food, from where she still sat on Princess Iron Fan's lap. "With what looks like an assortment of mushy Dimsum filled with-"

"Mystery Meat!" Xinghong explained with a smirk.

"With a side of Deep Fried Spring Rolls, topped with whatever sauce was in this packet," Zise joined in, showing some random red and green sauce packet. "It's edible...enough."

"I'll take your word for it," Princess Iron Fan's nose scrunched up in disgust, as she pulled out the chopsticks she'd been provided with, and moved the inedible dish slightly.

Xinghong and Zise turned to Qin Yang.

"She's not eating it either," the demoness intervened on the child's behalf, knowing the poor thing would get food poisoning if the supposed 'food' so much as touched her tongue. Sùsù sighed in relief, she’d have to thank the demoness for protecting her cub.

Tang took a bite of the Dimsum, his face turning green as he threw up. Pigsy and MK watched with worried looks.

"The judges aren't giving anything away, now onto Pigsy's noodle with what looks like..."

The two males approached the table, both setting down the dishes and revealing it. "Family Recipe Shing-Jang Pulled Noodle Soup!" Qing man yong!" Pigsy smiled, spinning his spoon.

The onlookers gasped in awe, and hunger, at the sight and scent of the dish.

“Qin Yang!” MK called as he approached her and Princess Iron Fan with a dish. He set it down, revealing desserts. "Here, It's Steamed Creamy Custard Buns, made them myself," MK gave a proud smirk. The young monkey’s eyes widened at the food.

In the stands, Red Son looked at the buns in awe and curiosity. Sùsù noticed and said, “You know Prince Red…”

The bull prince looked at the female monkey as she pulled a container out. “That recipe MK used for the buns is his mother's and he’s been practicing the recipe for a while. Before we came here he practiced it one more time and gave them to me to give to Qin Yang as a snack but since she’s not here, do you want them?”

Red Son’s eyes widened as she passed the container to him. He opened it and found three buns in there. He picked one up and took a bite, his eyes widened at the wonderful taste as if fireworks had exploded in his taste buds.

It's the most wonderful thing I've ever tasted. The bull prince hummed in delight, little hearts floating in the background.

Tang was the first to take a bite, both his husband and adoptive son looking on with nervous expressions, as this wasn't the scholar they normally knew...this was a World-Renowned Food Critic!

Qin Yang, well she was happily eating everything in her bowl, tail wagging as she did. After all, her Uncle Pigsy's cooking was amazing, coming in second to her adoptive mother's of course. The small child gave a bright smile as she set her chopsticks and ceramic dish down. She then reached out and grabbed one of the buns and started eating it as well, her face lighting up as she did.

As for Princess Iron Fan, the elder female was in shock over how good the noodles were, the flavors blending perfectly in her mouth and the buns tasted just like the ones Lily used to make her. She smiled at the memory but frowned when she realized she had a debt to fulfill.

“MK, I’m sorry but my vote is for Speedy Panda!" Princess Iron Fan told them. Xinghong and Zise high-fived the other, grinning in triumph. “But if this was under different circumstances you would get my vote and MK you’re custard buns taste just like your mother's so good job,” Princess Iron Fan praised.

MK smiled at that, neither he nor Pigsy blamed her for not voting for them. They know it was just her fulfilling a debt.

Next was Tang's turn.

"Well, well, well. I've been waiting a long time to say this to you, Pigsy..." Pigsy gulped, feeling fear course through him. "My vote goes to...Pigsy's noodles!"

That seemed to catch the Pig Demon off guard, staring at Tang. "His food is a work of art!"

"You can't do that!" Xinghong and Zise huffed. "He's showing obvious favoritism since-"

"Since he's on our side?" MK interrupted with a growl, eyes narrowed at the now-sweating twins. "Like how you're using your bet with Princess Iron Fan to help win the competition?"

"N-Nevermind," Zise sputtered out nervously.

Finally, it was time for Qin Yang's vote, "I'm voting for Mr. Pigsy's shop!"

"Round Two goes to Pigsy's Noodles!" The announcer reported the results, with the crowd cheering loudly, as both contestants were shown to their final challenge.

During this, Red Son took Sùsù down to the judge's stage where the little monkey was happily babbling away about her favorite activities, to a smiling Princess Iron Fan. The demon princess had missed the childlike wonder and innocence since her son had long since gotten older and had insisted on taking a more adult role in order to help her in his father's absence.

"And then we-Hi Sùsù!" The youngest female looked up at the smiling white monkey. "I was just telling Miss Princess Iron Fan about when we go fruit picking to make pastries during mango season!"

"Such a lovely little one," The demoness cooed, gently handing the child over to Sùsù. "You are obviously doing a good job of raising her."

Sùsù's smile widened, “Thank you, Your Majesty, and thank you for keeping her safe from getting sick.”

“Of course. No child should get sick from such idiots.”

Sùsù bowed to her before walking away, back towards the stands with Red Son, being extra careful to not let any more demons nab her little cub.

An idea sparked in the demon sisters’ heads. "How about we make this more interesting?" Xinghong spoke up with a smirk. "A Sudden Death round! Loser has to close their shop down..." Zise finished for her sibling. "FOREVER!"

"You're on!" The Monkey and Pig Demon duo confidently shouted back.

"And now the final competition! Mascot Combat!"

"Huh/Say what now?" Pigsy and MK blinked in confusion, turning over to where the smirking Scarlet and Violet duo stood, pressing down a button on a panda-themed remote, summoning forth a massive Panda Mech.

MK scoffed, "Yeah that's cool and all, but that ain't got nothing on our-" MK looked behind him as the truck was beaten up and broken.

"Oh..okay, so, we might have a little problem." 

"I can't believe it, I dedicated my life to that shop, but now I'm gonna lose it to a couple of demons because I was too arrogant to stand down." Tears welled up in the Pig Demon's eyes as he looked down at a photo in his hands. "I guess no one cares about tradition or centuries-old recipes anymore. They're being forgotten and replaced by instant microwavable junk." 

"Dadsy..." MK whispered, Tearing up, MK looked at the chef, anger starting to fester and bubble to the surface. He had finally had enough. "No!"

"MK it's okay-" He tried to reassure him.

"NO PIGSY!!" MK interrupted, clenched his fists, to the point where his knuckles turned white, his eyes become slits, and his teeth were starting to look sharper. "You worked so hard to make your dream come true! But that shop...it's turned into so much more than just a shop! It's where you found me as a baby, where I had my first birthday with you and Dad! Where I met Mei! It's my home!"

Dark orange lighting sparked around the teen, his eyes turning the shade of the same color, as his form began to shift and change to something much larger...and a lot more terrifying.

"And I refuse to let these assholes take it away from me..!" Tears streamed from his eyes as a powerful shockwave swept over the crowd, who all gasped in awe as Mk turned into his Kaiju Form, which glared down at the ghostly white figures of Xinghong and Zise.

Ever since he activated this form during his fight with Syaoran, he and his father had been trying to see if he could activate it again but hadn’t had any luck.

“MK?” Pigsy said looking up with a tear running down his cheek.

“Quite amazing power don’t you think?” A voice asked behind him.

He turned and saw a light yellow fox with Light Blue Calla Lilies in front of his ears standing behind him.

“You! I remember you. You’re one of his mother’s Power Foxes,” Pigsy cried.

The fox let out a laugh and nodded, “I am Ray, the Light Power Fox. I came here to help you with the fight against those demons but it seems that you don’t need me at all.”

Pigsy looked at him confused before looking back at MK as a snarl rolled past his lips as he brought up a paw and slammed it down upon the Panda Mech, leaving only broken parts behind.

The whole group's jaws dropped, neither expecting this of all things to happen, but they couldn't say they weren't impressed or fascinated by it.

Princess Iron Fan and Red Son started up with shock as well. They hadn’t heard of this but should have expected he, the son of Monkey King and the Shadow Prince, could have a form like this.

"U-uh..." Zise chuckled nervously. "What do you say we call this a draw?"

A growl.

"Alright, we give up!" Xinghong screeched in fear.

MK smirked before turning back to normal. Pigsy ran over and hugged MK, “Kid, that was amazing. Can’t believe you did that.”

"Of course. Pigsy's Noodles are worth fighting for!" MK said, a look of determination on his face.

"Yeah! No amount of convenience will ever win the hearts of food lovers!" Tang's voice chimed in as he walked over to them.

"Oh, Baby!" Pigsy said happily, pulling him into the hug.

Ray let out a laugh as he approached the family. MK looked over at him and smiled. “Ray! What are you doing here?”

“Well I have come to help you deal with those demons but I don’t think you need it.”

“Thanks for coming anyway,” MK said with a smile which Ray returned.

Princess Iron Fan rolled her eyes, “I knew I shouldn't have come back this season.” Her eyes then widened when she saw Ray talking to MK. She stared at the fox for a moment, debating whether to go talk to him or not. She let out a sigh before looking up at her son, who had a goofy look on his face. "Son?"

Red Son sighed, a lovesick smile on his face. MK's determination, his admiration, it's all the qualities about him that just make his heart sing. But, he couldn't help but wonder about his sudden aggressiveness towards those demon sisters and those Panda workers.

"Psst! Hey, Excuse me." The fire demon felt something tugging on his trench coat as he looked down to see Qin Yang sitting there beside him. "Hey, you're MK's boyfriend, right?"

"What? N-No I-" He became flustered at the young one's comment, glancing over hoping his mother didn't hear that. "Why would you ask me that?"

"Well, because you seem to care about him a lot," Qin Yang said.

Red Son scoffed, ”That’s because he’s the son of a family friend and my parents were tasked with looking after him, that’s all. But could you tell me why he and the others seem to hate those two Cat Demons so much?”

“Oh, it’s because…”

Red's eyes suddenly widened and gasped softly as he heard what the two had done to her and MK.

"Not like you could've paid for another mech anyways," Came a third voice, which was from a male blue Cat Demon who was holding a clipboard.

"What are you talki-" Zise began to shout before he showed them the clipboard.

"Well, you spent all your profits on that panda mech. We ain't got enough money to pay our drivers! Speedy Panda is bankrupt."

"Say what? Give me that!" Xinghong shouts. She took the clipboard from the male demon, looking over the billing with wide eyes.

Zise hummed, "Oh yeah, must've been the hydraulics. I told you about that." Her sister nodded in agreement.

"We're not getting paid?" One of the Speedy Panda workers spoke up with a growl.

"Okay, yeah, so..." Xinghong shrugged nonchalantly, neither of the female demons realizing how much trouble they were in, their male demon assistant nervously looking between his bosses and the workers. "Traditionally, people expect money when they do work."

Zise continued, "But it's like the pig man said, no one really cares about traditions anymore, right?"

The workers didn't seem to agree with them as they were about to beat the living crap outta them, there was an explosion.

The crowd immediately dispersed as a furious Red Son stomped over towards the drivers and Cat Demons. A shadow fell over Red Son's face as he clenched his fists, he looked up with a furious look on his face.

"YOU...YOU...HOW DARE YOU FILTHY PEASANTS TRY TO HARM MY INTENDED!!" He roared in anger as he was engulfed in his flames.

"Excuse me?" Princess Iron Fan and Pigsy looked shocked at the raging demon's outburst.

"U-uh," Zise chuckled nervously, taking a step back along with her sister and the workers. "Wait a minute now, let's just take a breather."

"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!" He charged towards and began to beat the loving SHIT, out of them.

Princess Iron Fan stared in complete shock as she watched her precious son beating them up. "Oh my..." With that, she leaned back in her seat and started to eat another bowl of noodles.

Sùsù covered Qin Yang's eyes, preventing her from seeing what happened. Mei, Yin, and Jin were cheering Red Son on while Sùsù just smiled and tried to hold back a laugh. Pigsy was smirking in satisfaction as he watched. Tang did a side glance towards MK, who grinned nervously.

Ray stood there with a shocked look on his face. For the past two weeks, Lily had been seething with anger after learning about what the Speedy Panad drivers had been doing to her son. Many of the other Power Foxes had offered to go and kill them, which is what Ray is actually doing here. Lily had sent him because in her words, “he’s more cleaner about it and will make it look like an accident and because Dustin is busy.” Despite that, he had a feeling he no longer had to do so.

It wasn't long until his mother had to drag Red Son away, still shouting angry threats. "LET ME GO! LET ME GO! I'LL KILL THEM!"

"Order up!" MK called out in the kitchen, while Pigsy, Tang, Sùsù, Qin Yang, Mei, and the twins sat at the counter. Pigsy peers over at the bowl in MK's hands, a smile on his lips.

"Looks good, kid!"

MK looked a bit unsure, placing the bowl in front of him. "Are you sure? I'm not sure if I got the broth right."

Pigsy smiled, "It's alright, You've got plenty of time to learn. Hey guys, thanks for having my back... back there."

"You know it," Mk grinned.

"Always, hon," Tang smiled.

Pigsy turned to Tang, a guilty look on his face. "Tang, I'm sorry about, you know, about forgetting our anniversary and taking you for granted. I didn't mean to-" Pigsy was interrupted when Tang shushed him.

"It's okay, I know you didn't mean to." He smiled lovingly, leaning over for a short and sweet kiss, to which Pigsy gladly responded.

"Besides, Tang whispered into Pigsy's ear. "We can make up later," Pigsy's face turned red, and steam came out his ears.

The teens and the twins suddenly became uncomfortable by the married couple. Sùsù was chuckling in the background at the pig's reaction while Qin Yang had confusion on her face at what was happening.

Suddenly a wave of energy hit MK and a gold projection of Wukong and Macaque appeared behind him.

“Baba! Papa!” MK shouted as he turned around in his seat, causing the others to follow his gaze.

“Oh, right. Give me a minute,” MK said before digging in his pocket and pulling out a daisy seed. He clutched it in his hand and closed his eyes. When he opened them a golden daisy grew in his hand, golden light spilling out. The light dimmed slightly and the picture of Wukong and Macaque appeared.

“That’s so cool MK,” Mei commented.

“Thanks but Daisy was the one who gave me the seeds,” MK said, rubbing the back of his head.

“So what’s new with you guys?” Macaque asked them.

The group started telling them all that had happened that day. At the end of it, Macaque said, “It’s good to hear those fiends got what they deserved though what did Red Son have against them?”

Everyone went quiet, not sure if they should tell them.

“Oh well, they are annoying demons so I can’t imagine what it was that they did to piss off the Demon Bull Family,” Wukong spoke up. MK sighed in relief.

“But besides that, you managed to activate your Kaiju Form again?” Wukong asked with stars in his eyes, his tail wagging like mad.

"Yeah..." The prince chuckled, tail flicking, as he bashfully rubbed the back of his head.

"WOAH!" The Monkey King yelled, flipping a nearby boulder, surprising the others present in the shop. "My son can use his Kaiju Form! Mei! Tell me you got it on camera! Please!"

"You know it!" Mei laughed, pulling out her phone, and showing the husbands images.

"Ahhhhh!" Wukong squealed, eyes sparkling. "You look so adorable! I'm so proud!"

Flusteredly covering his face with his paws, MK looked away, "Th-thanks Baba."

"My Little Prince is growing up so fast" The golden monkey sighed happily.

"Sorry to cut this short Peaches, but we're about to have company," The Shadow Prince's ears flicked, sending his cubs an apologetic smile. "I'm very proud of you MK. Controlling such a large amount of power is very hard, especially when you’re not even using any magic while in it. You're going to do great things Cub, I just know it."

"Thanks, Papa," MK smiled as a warmth spread in his chest.

"Love you cub," the pair said in unison.

"Love you Bàba, love you, papa," MK responded, waving goodbye as the call cut off.

Today may have started out bad, but at least he helped save one of his homes.

Meanwhile, in the hot desert of China, there was a demon city hidden from the view of mortals. This city was the kingdom of the Demon Bull Family. 

On the richest side of the city was a large penthouse that belonged to the city’s royalty, The Demon Bull Family. To a regular mortal, having a house like this requires selling your heart and soul to buy it. But you couldn't, since it was already owned.

Inside, one side of what was the living room was completely windowed and, due to the height of the building, had a perfect view of the city lights. This height also meant you couldn't see inside.

Inside, Red Son stood seated in front of his mother, who was watching last night's episode of the Food Wars.

"Son, is there something you wish to tell me," she said, eyeing him. "Like how you brutally attacked a bunch of workers and called the Noodle Boy your 'intended'?"

Red Son gulped grinning nervously as he felt beads of sweat pouring down on him, "I-I can explain..?"

Chapter Text

Deep within the caverns of the Lady Bone Demon's old lair, a pair of immortal Monkey Demons dodged traps as they looked for information on the demon that used to reside in the cold environment.

Wukong grunts as he holds up a spike ceiling trap that threatens to crush him. "Baby! A little help please!?" He shakily asked for Macaque's help.

"Hold on for a second, Peaches!" The Shadow Demon yelled as he dodged traps himself.

"Any minute now, Honey!" Wukong exclaimed, quickly pushing the spike ceiling trap above him away. Macaque dipped himself and his husband into a shadow portal transporting them to the outside of the throne room.

Wukong pants, sighing in relief, and wiping away sweat. "Thanks, Plum. I told you this place would be full of traps," Wukong grumbled.

"I know. I'm sorry, okay?!" Macaque whined, tail drooping as he followed his husband.

Wukong turned and caressed his mate's face. "Macaque you gotta calm down, I know you're worried about the cub and so am I but he’s got the others with him.”

"I know, Wukong..."

"It'll be okay…," Wukong smiled, giving his husband a quick peck on the lips.

All of a sudden a golden projection of MK and Mei appeared. "Baba, it worked!" The teen said smiling at his achievement while Mei seemed to sigh in relief.

"MK?" Wukong and Macaque gawked in surprise, not expecting the teen to have mastered Astral Projection so quickly on his own.

"Hey, Baba! Hey, Papa!" The young prince's tail wagged gleefully. "Look! I mastered Astral Projection!"

"Yeah," Mei scowled in the background. "After about five nosebleeds." At that moment MK grinned nervously, wiping the thin trail of blood from his nose.

"What!?" The husbands screeched in horrified unison, their tails puffing up.

"Bud that's incredibly unsafe!" Wukong said in a worried tone.

"D-don't worry!" The golden-eyed teen was quick to try and calm his parents. "That's why I have Mei here! She’s backup!"

"More like here to make sure you don't overdo it," the jade dragon said while rolling her eyes.

"Well, congrats on mastering it bud!" Wukong smiled, giving his son a thumbs up, yelping as he had to duck, not realizing that he'd set off another trap.

"Is everything okay?" Mei's brows furrowed in worry. "Are we distracting you?"

"Don't worry kids," the Shadow Demon smiled gently as he used his powers to stop a barrage of poisonous darts whilst his golden buffon of a husband bashed through the locked door in front of them. "We're just finishing up in Lady Bone Demon's old hideout, we've gotten past most of the more deadly traps."

"How is the search going so far?" MK fiddled with his tail a bit, something the teen tended to do when he got anxious.

"More dead ends," the golden simian sighed, shoulders drooping. "But hopefully this witch's old lair will give us something to work with."

Macaque's six ears perked up, hearing the sound of eerie whispers. "Peaches..." He trailed off.

"Uh bud, I'm afraid I'll have to cut this a bit short," Wukong spoke up, giving the trio an apologetic look. "But! I do have a new lesson for you to try."

This makes him excited. "MK, keep working on shrinking your staff."

“Oh, you mean like this?” MK said as he pulled out his staff and perfectly shrunk it and grew it.

“Okay, smart guy, try shrinking yourself then!” Wukong said with a laugh, proud that his son had mastered so much in his absence.

MK nodded, "You got it! Stay safe. I love you and Bàba!"

"We love you too," the scarred royal chuckled. "You stay safe as well!" Wukong called from the background.

With that the boy cut off communications and slumped back on the bed next to Mei, who ran her fingers through his hair soothingly, a sympathetic look on her face, "They'll be okay, don't worry."

"I know," MK sighed. "But that won't stop me from worrying about them or Daisy."

It had been a month and she still hadn’t returned, it was starting to worry the group.

"I know, let's call Red Boy and hang out together," Mei suggested and then snickered at her friend’s bright red face.

The Food Wars incident had happened a week ago and Red Son seemed to be avoiding them after what happened. Though something MK had yet to tell the others was that since then he had been receiving gifts and flowers from an unknown person. He’d found a bouquet of red and orange roses on his bed next to a large basket of apricots the day after the competition. The following days he found similar things on his bed. He hadn’t told anyone else about it except Mei who believed it was Red.

Before MK could answer they heard Pigsy’s voice shout, "MK! I need your help down here!"

“Looks like I can’t hang out with you and Red today, got to help Pigsy with whatever it is he needs,” MK said with a nervous smile. Mei smiled and shook her head.

They then heard out of the room and down the stairs.

Meanwhile, in the sewers, the little girl held up her arms, she was still currently creating the mech. The powerful artifacts that were needed hovered next to it.

"I don't know who taught you to take revenge, but it ain't normally this boring! Can we hurry this along?" Spider Queen demanded, hanging upside down, her arms crossed.

The girl blinked, her eyes focused on the hologram. "With time and patience, the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown," she said as she spun a small part of the projection in front of her. "There are still more items we have yet to add to the furnace, destiny cannot be rushed my queen," the little girl said.

The Spider Queen huffed in frustration. "So, you keep saying. Well, my patience is growing thin, Little Miss Mystery.” She rolled her eyes. "At least lighten up a little, your creepy whisper business is getting on my nerves."

The little girl turned her attention back to the furnace uninterested in her patience.

"Hey Dadsy, what's up?" MK asked as he hopped past the last stair, and onto the tile floor. "Whoa, what's with the cleaning fest?"

The mountain prince had to squint when he looked around the practically glowing restaurant, whilst his adoptive dads both zipped around, frantically cleaning.

"Health inspections moved from next week to today," Tang spoke up, scrubbing away a tea stain left by a customer as the scholar helped his husband turn the place spotless. "The jerks didn't even bother to tell us they'd done so until they were an hour away from the shop!"

Eyes wide, the teen bolted off towards the kitchen, "I'll get started on the dishes then!"

"Thanks, kid," the Pig Demon sighed in relief, glad he could count on his partner and adoptive son for help.

About an hour and a half later while MK was draining the sink after cleaning all the dishes, his mind wandered back to his lesson of the day.

'Shrinking myself...I wonder how--EH?!'

Not having noticed himself glowing, the young Monkey Demon gave a high-pitched shriek of fear when he suddenly found the world around him had grown.

He fell through the pipes, hitting against the side at every turn before finally falling to the ground in a large cavern.

"Ow! Fuck that hurts!" MK said standing up and rubbing his sore head but then looked down at himself. "Hey, I did it. I shrunk myself!" He exclaimed.

The poor boy then realized that not only had he finally shrunk himself but he shriveled up in fear when he recognized he was back in the Spider Queen's lair.

"No, no, no, No! The Spider Queen's lair," He trembled in fear as his arachnophobia started kicking in. "Not here, not now, come on!" MK yelled, his voice echoing throughout the lair walls.

Spider Queen perked up when she heard a familiar voice echoing off the walls. "Ah, the Monkie Boy!" Spider Queen grinned, landing back on the ground. "My day just got a little more interesting. She said with a smirk.

The little girl sighed, "My Queen, perhaps you should-" The Spider Queen interrupted her.

"Sorry! Can't hear you over the sound of me rushing destiny, kay bye!" Spider Queen taunted, swinging her web MK's location.

The little girl smirks, her eyes flashing blue.

MK focuses on his breathing, trying to calm himself but continues to panic more, “It's finally gonna happen! A spider's gonna wrap me in its butt web and eat me!"

He shook his head, "Okay, okay. No! I am the Monkie Kid, I ain't gonna keep being terrified of spiders my whole life!" MK said clenching his fists. "I can do this, I can get out of here!" He shouted before closing his eyes and focusing.

Before he knew it, MK turned back to his normal size. "Yes! I'm normal-sized again!" MK cheered. The teen froze when he heard the sobbing of a little girl. "Hello?" MK calls out, slowly walking towards the sound pulling his staff out in case it was a trap, he peaks around a corner and sees a little girl sitting between some rocks.

She's dressed in a qixiong ruqun with a standing collar. The ruqun consisted of a white top that secured the right blue trimmed lapel using two blue bone-shaped buttons and a long flowing black skirt. Her hair was rolled up around a jade green bun holder that curved up into sharp tips on its ends.

"S-stay back!" The girl cried out, flinching and frantically backing away from the MK.

"Oh, it’s just a kid," The elder male said, putting away his staff and asking in a soft and soothing voice, "What are you doing down here?"

"I-It's you..." The little kid gasped. "You're the Monkey Kid."

"Um, yeah," MK gave a nervous laugh. “Come on let’s get you out of-”

He was cut off as the girl quickly hugged him. ”Please, you have to help me, there's not much time!" She said, looking terrified. She gasped as she heard whispers coming from the pipe. "What was that?" She asked curling back to the wall sobbing.

"Hey, it's okay. I get it, it's scary being alone," MK said, kneeling down to her, trying to ease her sorrows. "But you're not alone now, I'm here now. We'll find our way out together,” MK said, smiling. "I promise." MK held his hand out for her.

The girl started to reach out to him but stopped. "Wait! You're the Monkie Kid..." she muttered, her terrified face turned into a determined one as she quickly got onto her feet.

"Come on! You have to follow me!" The girl exclaimed, running off in the direction of Spider Queen's lair.

"Hey, wait!" MK cried out, rushing after the child, trying to stop her from getting hurt. "Hold up. We really shouldn't be here!" MK pants, finally caught up to her.

"We can't go yet. Spider Queen is building something...evil," she said pointing at the giant blue hologram of a mech suit.

"Whatever she's planning, it’s all to do with that," she told him, pointing at the furnace. "I-I've seen you use your staff, surely you could use it to smash that thing?" She suggested.

MK stared at it. "Don't let her hurt someone else, please?" She begged.

MK turned to look at her. "Okay but maybe step back," he told her, watching her take a step back as he prepared his staff.

"Here..." he launched himself forward with his staff. "Comes..." he pulled it above his head. "Monkie Kid!" He said about to hit the hologram.

“DON'T DO IT!!!” A voice yelled before a large wave smashed into the side of him, throwing him to the side. When he landed he couched out water and looked up at the thing he was about to smash and recognize it. "Wait! Is this...this is the trigram furnace! From the Celestial Realm! How is this-"

“Monkie Kid!” The young girl called out, making a run towards him.

The water around him started to form into something which made her stop as growling was heard before it formed into several Water Elemental Foxes. Rainstorm appeared over top of MK.

“Rainstorm?” MK asked.

“Young Prince, trust your instincts!” Rainstorm called out to him, still growling at the young girl.

“Monkie Kid please!” The young girl yelled.

MK closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes his golden vision was activated.

He looked over at the furnace and gasped as blue spirits came out from under the furnace, whispering quietly. MK recognized the whispers from when he fought the Demon Bull King.

'No, it can't be.' He slowly turned as he remembered everything he'd seen and it sent chills up his spine.

The sound of cackling came from the girl as a light blue storm of spirits surrounded her as her true form was revealed.

MK yelped as the pack continued to growl, their fur fluffed up as well. "It's you- you're-"

"I am the Lady Bone Demon," the girl’s chilled whisper rang in his ears as his head started to hurt, the pain getting stronger as the seconds rolled by.

There was a large growl followed by a weak whine. MK looked up and watched as the Water Foxes started to yell in pain before turning into water. Rainstorm backed away from him and had her eyes closed tight in pain.

"You're quite the observant little boy," she started, getting closer to him with every unstable change of scenery. "MK, I do apologize, but I need to take that staff," She demanded.

MK, in a panic, quickly got to his feet, collected his staff, and tried to make a break for it, but with every step he took the pain kept growing bigger and bigger.

“Young Prince,” Rainstorm said, struggling to move. She let out a scream and collapsed on the floor, half her body turning to water.

"Calm yourself," a whisper came from behind him. "It is pointless to deny me," MK couldn't take it anymore. He turned around and aimed his staff toward the girl, her not even flinching, standing there with a calm collected smile.

“I helped you! I thought you were-” MK started but was cut off by the demon, “-a helpless girl?”

“Oh yes, my disguise has fooled many. This body in particular is useful...for now," she said smiling.

"Body? What do you-" He stopped, he remembered what Macaque had told him before they left.

"Let her go! She's just a little girl!" Lady Bone Demon stood there for a second before she began to giggle.

"It's so cute, you really think you can stop me," LBD cooed mockingly at the boy, who groaned in pain as his vision flashes blue once more, the world around him glitching sporadically.

"I'm not going to let you win, Monkey King and Macaque will stop you and-" He gripped his head more as the glitches continued.

"Monkey King? Do you really think he can stop me? Curious that he is not with you now? Perhaps he made the wrong choice, he picked the wrong successor," her voice seems to come from every direction.

"You were right, you know.” His attention was drawn back to the bone witch, holding her hands in front of her as his vision switched from her host form to her true form.

”It's scary being alone!" She whimpered in the little girl's voice before her eyes were shadowed. One glowing a bright blue as she grinned. "I do pity you."

MK gagged as the Lady Bone Demon slowly started to rise out of the ground below him, grabbing tightly onto his neck as she smirked at him.

"You're just a piece in a game you simply cannot possibly comprehensive," she grinned squeezing tightly, MK tried to loosen her grip but to no prevail.

Then an explosion shook the room behind MK, making her let go and MK left gasping for breath as he dropped to his knees, his eyes filled with fear.

The Spider Queen cackled as she slowly made her way through the hole in the cave she'd just exploded, grinning. "Monkie Kid! I'm done waiting! I'm going to enjoy this!" She said happily, launching herself at him.

However, Rainstorm appeared over top of him and her flowers glowed before a large storm of water appeared around them before they disappeared.

"Run. Run along as you wish, Destiny will find you soon enough."

On Flower Fruit Mountain, Foxes and Monkey Demons were all around the pond in front of the magic pond that led to the hidden castle of their kingdom’s royal.

Kits and cubs were running around playing in the water while the adults talked to each other and teens played with each other in the trees. The mountain monkeys and foxes were playing around as well.

Lotus and Zhao Xiyang were on a date by the water. Zhiu Ye was playing with her nieces in the water while her sister and brother-in-law watched and talked with her mother.

All of a sudden the water started to shake causing everyone to grow quiet and the young cubs and kits to cuddle up to the oldest ones around them or to each other.

Suddenly there was an explosion in the water as a tornado of water appeared in the center. All the cubs and kits started screaming and running for their parents on land. Many adults jumped in the water to grab the kids while the ones that were already in the water grabbed as many kids as they could and ran for shore.

They all watched as the form of a large fox appeared in the water storm. All of a sudden the water broke to reveal Rainstorm and MK. Once the water broke apart, Rainstorm collapsed in the water while MK, who had already fainted, lay in the water near her.

“Prince Qi Xiaotian!” Zhiu Ye yelled as she darted over to him with Lotus, Zhao Xiyang, and a few other servants who worked in the castle following her.

“Lady Rainstorm?” Jink called out as she approached the large vixen with a few other Spell Foxes following her.

The vixen opened her eyes and smiled at the vixen, “Jink it’s been a long time since I last saw you.”

“What happened? Where is the queen?” Jink asked her.

She let out a laugh, “I can’t tell you that but I was sent by her to help her kit but don’t worry if all goes according to plan then you will see her soon.”

Jink opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by Zhiu Ye, who yelled, “Lotus help me get him into the castle and someone call the royal doctor.”

The group of servants rushed away and Rainstorm smiled. “It seems it’s time for me to go.”

“Lady Rainstorm, please! Don’t go-” Jink pleaded but was cut off.

“I was only supposed to stay and make sure he was taken care of and that has happened so now I have to leave and go back to the queen, I’m sorry Jink. I know you long for her but you have to wait a little longer,” Rainstorm said before standing up.

Her eyes then glowed misty green as she looked up at the vixen and said, “She is right dear friend, you must wait for my return.”

“Lilith!” Jink cried. Several of the other foxes got on their knees in a bow. “No please stand up, I’m not here now am I?”

She then turned to Jink and said, “Jink, I know you crave my presence because of your loss but I can’t comfort you and you know that but also you know that you are not alone. You have family, you just ignore them because you are scared of what they think and of seeing your sister in them but you can’t keep waiting and holding it in. Please talk to them.”

Jink had tears in her eyes as she watched the green leave the vixens' eyes. Rainstorm smiled at her before disappearing into the water.

"No physical wounds as far as I can see," the doctor, a male Monkey Demon, said, having finished checking over the awoken boy, who held an ice pack to his head to ease the headache and was in his own bed. "Seems like the headache, alongside a bit of mental trauma is all you have."

Zhiu Ye had called Pigsy and Tang to ask what had happened but they didn’t know. Pigsy had promptly kicked out the Health Inspector, telling them he'd reschedule. Tang was the one to call Mei and the three of them rushed over to the castle just as MK had woken up.

They'd had to coax most of the information out of the prince, who seemed to be in some sort of shock, the encounter having been quite jarring for him.

"Who's gonna' be the one to call the Monkey Dads?" The sword user asked, squeezing MK's free hand in worry.

"I will," both the chef and Zhiu Ye said in unison, looking at each other in shock. Tang stepped forward and said, "You kids have a movie night or whatever to cheer MK up and the three of us will talk to his fathers, okay?"

Nodding, the Dragon Demon turned to her friend and asked, "Fluffy blankets, hot cocoa, apricot slices, and a wholesome movie?" Mei offered up, knowing her friend's go-to comfort items, frowning when she only received a silent nod in return.

The other adults left the room and headed for another room on the other side of the castle so they could contact the kings. Shouting was never something MK handled well, especially when he was so emotionally drained like right now and in need of some comfort. And given how protective Wukong and Macaque were, there would be a LOT of shouting.

Far away on an island surrounded by large storm clouds is a large stone building. On the shore around the building are many Elemental Foxes. On a large stone on top of other stones are eleven foxes. They are Wildfire, Snowstorm, Oakley, and Hurricane. The others are Dustin and Umbra with their mates, Mudslide and Zalaph. The other three are Storm the Lightning Power Fox and Rockslide the Rock Power Fox and his mate.

They are longing on the rock and watching the packs, waiting to be called for a mission by their queen. The other Power Foxes were away on a mission while the Star Foxes were hiding on another part of the island.

All of a sudden there was a loud bark which caused all the Power Foxes to look up at the storm barrier. Most of the other Elemental Foxes stopped what they were doing and followed the gaze of their pack leader.

The storm then parted in front of them and they all watched as a large wave of water was headed their way.

“It’s not slowing down,” Wildfire said as she stood up.

“Somethings wrong with the water pack,” Oakley said as he got up as well with worry in his voice. Many of the other Power Foxes stood up as well.

“Go figure Rainstorm would fail her mission,” Storm said as he stood up.

The others looked at him with frowns.

“Everyone move away from the edge of the water, something is wrong with the water pack,” Dustin cried out to the other foxes. Many scampered away towards the rock their leader was on.

The wave didn’t stop as it got closer to the shore and when it hit the land water scattered on the land before it formed into the bodies of many injured Water Foxes. In the middle of them all was Rainstorm, who stood on shaking legs as she pants heavily.

“Rainstorm!!!” Wildfire and Oakley yelled as they jumped off the rock and ran towards their friend. The other Power Foxes followed as other Elemental Foxes ran out to check on the injured Water Foxes.

“Rainstorm what happened?” Oakley asked as he went to one of her sides and let her lean on him.

“The Lady Bone Demon. I tried to protect the Prince but she was too powerful. I managed to get him out and to Flower Fruit Mountain as well as get my pack out and here but many are injured,” Rainstorm said.

“What about Daisy? Is she ok?” Oakley asked with worry. Storm’s eyes narrowed and he frowned.

“Daisy wasn’t there,” Rainstorm said.

“What?” She’s supposed to be with him!” Wildfire yelled.

“She is away on a mission but it’s taking longer than I thought,” a female lighting vixen said as it approached them with misty green eyes.

“Your Majesty,” Rainstorm said as she tried to stand up straight only to fall over.

“Do not try to get up, you are injured and so is your pack. You did well protecting my son. I feel guilty for allowing your pack to go and get hurt so I apologize for that,” Lilith said through the Lighting Fox.

“My queen, what now?” Dustin asked.

“We must stop her from getting the last three items. Oakley head to the Mystic Jungle of the Emerald Lynx and guard the Crimson Jimson Weed. I will send Unbra to guard Macaque’s Shadow Lantern.”

“What about the staff?” Rockslide asked.

“Yes, I understand that you trust your son but if she gets it…” Snowstorm said with worry.

“Why do you think I gave Daisy that necklace to summon you all?”

All the Power Foxes looked at her in surprise.

“Oakley, Storm, Rockslide, Jet, Umbra, and Sirius have yet to be called and once they are I will be fully charged once more. Also, I have already put Plan Hibiscus in order so be ready for that.”

They all nodded and the misty green disappeared in her eyes.

“Lady Rainstorm!” The vixen yelled as she ran towards her.

Rainstorm smiled, “It’s alright Tempest, I’m fine.” She then nuzzled Tempest and looked at all the Water Foxes scattered on the land and then she looked up at the stone building.

The building only had one window, on the very top which was the room that held the stoned bodies of the Nature Foxes, Spell Foxes, and Lilith. In the center of the room was a symbol that allowed them to speak with her, to go into her world, her mind.

All the Power Foxes wondered what emotions she was feeling now because, in the last few months, it had been nothing but temper tantrums as she was forced to watch her kit be thrown into problem after problem and she couldn’t help due to her stone prison.

Chapter Text

In the world made of darkness there stood a goldish-white Fox Demoness with yellow eyes, and long golden hair that was tied up in a bun. She had gold fox ears with pure white tips on the top of her head and in front of her ears were goldish-white lily flowers. She also had nine goldish-white tails that were swaying in a calm motion.

Behind her stood three foxes; a green fox with tiger lilies all over his body, a sunset-colored vixen with sunflowers all over her body, and another vixen with fur the color of the twilight sky with moon flowers all over her body that blended into her fur. They watched the demoness with worry in their eyes.

It had been a week since her son’s run-in with the Lady Bone Demon and the water pack washing up on the shore of the island and Lilith seemed very…calm. This was unusual for her and it scared the Power Foxes and Nature Foxes making them be on edge around her.

Right now she was watching Daisy run around a forest on an island close to the one the pack occupied. This island had once been the pack’s first choice of hiding spot but the demon that lived on that island was very powerful and a hoarder. He protected his hoard with his life not to mention he was stubborn.

Daisy had managed to distract the demon and make a run to their hoard. Lilith had sent her to this island to get an item that had fallen into the demon’s collection. The task wasn’t an easy one and that’s why she had been gone for almost two months.

As she ran into the demon’s cave where piles upon piles of items littered the cave. Daisy looked around, wondering what it was she was here to find.

As Lilith watched her eyes narrowed and she whispered, “Come on. She’s right there, let her know where you are.”

As Daisy continued to look around something orange caught her eye. She looked to her right and saw an orange hibiscus floating in the air on a pile, Stellar magic radiating from it.

Lilith smiled, “There we go.”

Daisy slowly approached it and once she took it in her mouth Lilith smirked in triumph, “Phase 1 is complete.”

Just then there was a bright light behind her as a vixen with shadow-like fur took shape. “My Queen!”

“Umbra?” The green fox cried. Lilith didn’t turn around and continued to watch Daisy as she took off running after the demon burst into the cave. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be guarding the lantern?”

“I was but it was stolen and the magic they used against us was almost as strong as the Bone Demon,” Umbra said.

“Not like, was her magic,” Lilith said, still not turning around.

“You already know?” Umbra asked.

“That you failed to protect my husband’s most prized possession? Yes.” Umbra’s ears flattened at that.

Lilith watched once more as Daisy jumped off the island and started running on water, the demon didn’t follow her and only roared at her. Lilith smirked before turning around to Umbra with an evil grin on her face.

“So that bastard is on her side is he? Well, That just wouldn't do at all. Now let’s see where he is, shall we?” Her eyes glowed light blue.

“You sent Spirit Foxes after him?” Umbra asked.

“Of course I did.”

After a moment of watching through the fox's eyes, she smirked once more and said, “Oh well what do you know.” She laughed before her eyes changed from light blue to black as she said, “Take your pack to the Shadow Play Theater. Protect my son and get the lantern back.”

It had been a week since MK’s encounter with the Lady Bone Demon and MK's behavior had changed.

At first, he hasn't been sleeping, due to the constant night terrors or eating. However, after two days of this, he seemed to spring back to normal however he started training like crazy. He stopped hanging out with his friends or even working at the noodle shop, which Pigsy wasn’t happy about, and would train from dusk to dawn. Many of the servants had to start watching him to make sure he ate, took breaks, or even went to bed or he’d be training all night long.

After a week of it, Zhiu Ye had enough of it. She managed to secure tickets for the group to the local Shadow Play theater. Something only the royal family and a few of their servants and close friends knew was that Macaque was the star puppeteer at the theater under a disguise of course.

“I'm so excited! I haven't seen one of these in ages!” Mei said in excitement as they all waited for the performance to start. Sandy couldn’t come because of a problem at the docks he had to deal with.

“Uh, what is this again?” Pigsy asked.

“It's a shadow play, with puppets,” Tang answered his husband’s question.

“Yeah, it’s really cool. It’s kinda like a puppet show but they use the shadow of the puppets. Papa likes to use his shadow magic to make it more interesting,” MK said with a smile on his face.

“Sounds like you’ve seen these shadow plays quite a lot, MK,” Pigsy said.

“Yeah, anytime Papa had a new one me and Baba always came here to see it,” The Monkey Demon said, his tail wagging a little.

He then noticed the Mayor sitting a few rows down. “Hey isn't that the guy who gave us that weird key and invited us to the Hero’s Gale?” They all look over at the direction the monkey prince is pointing in.

“You mean the magic key that can unlock anything? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that is him, and I'm also pretty sure that he's still not actually the Mayor,” Mei said with uncertainty.

The man slowly, and creepily, turns his head to the group and waves to MK, a smile tattooed on his face, too big to be considered natural. “Hello!”

A shiver ran up their backs as MK waved back to him, nervously.

“Eurgh. Well, that's not creepy at all,” Tang said, creeped out.

“Point is,” Pigsy said, turning back to them and hoping to change the subject. “Whatever we're watching, you've earned a break, kid.”

“Yeah, you have been training super hard. I can't even remember the last time we all just hung out together!” She let out a sigh and mumbled, “I missed this.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I have been training a little more than normal,” MK said, rubbing the back of his head.

“A little more?” Tang asked with a raised eyebrow. “Just yesterday you blew off checkers night cause' you had to train and then trained until two in the morning!”

“Yeah not to mention the fact that you train from sunrise to sunset and sometimes longer if Zhiu Ye doesn’t drag you back to the palace and force-feed you or chain you to your bed,” Mei said.

“Hey we said we wouldn’t talk about that and it was only one time,” MK said, his face all red at the memory. His friend and adoptive parents chuckled at the memory.

“So why are you training so much?” Mei asked.

“I just- I need to be ready,” MK said, thinking back to his encounter with the Lady Bone Demon in Spider Queen’s lair.

“Ready for what?” Pigsy asked.

before the teen could answer the lights dimmed.

“Shh! It's starting!” Tang whispered-yelled.

Pigsy, wanting to hear an answer from MK yelled, “Tang, would you-” Tang cut him off by shoving his finger to his husband’s lips and aggressively shushing him.

Smoke slowly poured from beneath the floorboards, generating an air of mystery. After a few moments of silence, a hanging shadow puppet emerges on stage from the ceiling. It turned its head towards the group causing a shiver to run up their back.

“Uh, Tang, what kind of play did you say this was?!” Pigsy asked. Tang didn’t answer and only stared at the stage.

The curtain opens to reveal, the puppeteer, a tall man. His face was hidden by his clock which looked like Macaque’s but instead of red cloud designs, it had light blue ice designs. “Welcome viewers to a shadow play the likes of which have never been seen!” From the folds of his sleeves, he pulled out a beautiful, but familiar-looking, lantern that floated in front of him. A mesmerizing yet familiar purple glow emanated from the center.

No one in the theater noticed the purple fox eyes glowing on the wall, watching the light of the lantern and seeming to match its glow. The biggest pair of eyes was on the ceiling above MK, glaring daggers at the puppeteer, who did notice them and smirked as he continued talking, “Our tale follows the tragic tale of a warrior and a legendary prince and how even the strongest of bonds can be severed through the trickery of the wicked.”

In the background, the shadows twisted and grew in the lantern’s light. Carefully they formed a beautiful scene of three different mountains, the biggest one in the front which had the sun shining down on it. The one behind it was the second biggest and was cast in shadows while the third was the smallest and covered in flowers and trees. On top of the biggest mountain stood a monkey with armor on and a circlet. He held a staff much like the one Monkey King wilded. Another monkey stood on the mountain cast in shadows, but this one had six ears. On the last mountain which had flowers and was barely visible but you could see a nine-tailed Fox Demoness who was hiding her face with a fan.

“Mei, I just realized something,” MK whispered, staring at the scene in front of him with a thoughtful look on his face.

“What?” Mei asked.

“I, I don't have snacks!” MK cried. All three of them stare at him in confusion.

“Kid, relax, you literally just ate!” Pigsy said with a sigh.

“Must get snacks!” MK said, begging the Pig Demon.

“Ugh, fine. Go grab some snacks.”

MK bolts out of the theater and into the lobby. As he does Tang yells after him, “And don't forget to get me some-” He’s cut off by his husband who shushes him with a smirk as payback for when he did it to him. The large fox eyes above him disappear causing the puppeteer to smirk once more.

“Like light, heroes bring warmth, hope, and friendship,” the puppeteer said as the lantern started to glow before it became so bright that the three had to cover their eyes. Mei noticed that the puppeteer’s eyes glowed a familiar light blue.

“But they also give life to the darkness.” The lantern stopped glowing before it sucked up Pigsy, Tang, and Mei’s shadows. In a puff of smoke, the three were gone from their seats, leaving only a dent in their place.

“Umm, just a fizz whizz, jelly babies, a large sweet popcorn, milk drops, and an extra large soda gulp,” MK says to the lady behind the counter. The woman scoffs before going to retrieve the snacks.

While waiting MK feels a familiar aura and turns around in time to see a golden leaving out the back door. He follows it not noticing a large pair of fox eyes appear on the wall along with five other, small, pairs of fox eyes. They blink and watch him leave the building before disappearing.

“Baba?” He asks as he steps outside and closes the door. “You're-” He looks around but realizes the alley is empty. He sighs, “-not here.”

As he walks back into the lobby he fails to hear the muffled shouts. Behind a trash can two black foxes are on top of the Wukong MK saw leave the lobby. One of the foxes is on his back, holding him down while the others use their tail as a mouth cover, turning their tail into pure darkness.

The two foxes laugh before their eyes glow black and they look up at the wall and see a large pair of fox eyes along with a smaller pair of fox eyes.

The eyes glare down at the Wukong before flashing. The Wukong’s eyes flash silver before turning into a dark gray clone. It then puffed away leaving behind Dark Purple Calla Lilies.

The two foxes then jumped into the wall before the eyes disappeared.

Back inside the theater, MK walks back in with an armload of snacks. “Sorry, sorry, sorry. Where's that step?”

He manages to get back to his seat and doesn’t realize that his friend and parents are gone, however, the lights start to dim. “Ha ha! Got back just in time!”

Once seated he holds out a bubble tea and says, “Oh! And here's that drink you asked for Mei.”

When no one takes it he looks over and realizes she’s not there, “Uh, Mei?”

He then looks around and notices that no one is there, “Where'd they?! Did you get bored already or- Whoa! So sparkly!” He cuts himself off once he sees the lantern’s light. He was so mesmerized by it that he didn't notice when it cast its light on the wall to reveal his friends’ shadows.

The puppeteer then stepped on stage and took the lantern in his hand as he started the show. “It all began with the imprisonment of the King, the Sun.”

Shows a picture of the first monkey being dragged down to Earth by chains wrapped around his limbs. With a quick flex, the chains shattered, but the King was doomed as a mountain landed on him with a seal placed at the top.

“His partners, the Moon, his prince, and the Flower of Life, his queen mourned his disappearance.”

Goes back to the original scene. The first mountain cracks as the sky turns dark. The second monkey, the Prince, falls on his knees and lets out a silent cry while the fox, the Queen, looks away and covers her whole face with her fan.

“The Prince, desperate for his partner, goes out looking for the King while the Queen defends their Kingdom on her own.”

The Prince jumps off his mountain to go in search of the King. a crown appears over the Queen while many foxes and monkeys appear around her bowing as dozens of terrifying figures surround her mountain. She continues to cover half her face with her fan.

“Centuries passed and their love still burned strong. Soon their patience was rewarded, the King was freed but he was soon trapped in a new prison.”

A monk approached the mountain and removed the seal. The King swiftly destroyed the mountain. The monk humbly bowed to the King and offered fresh clothing and a circlet. The King garbed himself in the gifts only to collapse in agony when the monk prayed.

“Enraged by this, the Prince continued to follow them, crafting a plan that would allow them to take their revenge on those that dared to separate them and before long he met the Warrior, the Shadow.”

The Prince stood on a rock looking down at the Warrior, another monkey. The Warrior bowed to the Prince who jumped down and held out his hand. The Warrior takes it and the two smile at their alliance. 

“After allying the two stayed in the shadows and watched the group that dared to trap the King. One night the group was attacked by a demon and the Prince saved them. The King and the Prince had reunited.”

The pilgrims are attacked by an Ox Demon but the Prince jumps out of his shadow and sticks his spear through the ox’s heart. The King then hugged and nuzzled his Prince. The Warrior watches from the Prince’s shadows, feeling jealous.

“The King, overjoyed to see his beloved Moon, invited him to stay with the group. The Prince agreed. Later that night, when they slept, the Prince and warrior trapped each of the group members in a shadowy prison. When they got to the Monk they were discovered by the King.”

At night the group sleeps before each disappearing in a flame of shadows. The Prince with the Warrior in his shadow walks to the sleeping Monk and that’s when the King appears before them, putting himself in between them and the Monk.

“As the Prince explained his plan, confident in his beloved’s lust for vengeance, however, he found that the King had changed. It was as if the King had lost a crucial part of himself. The King tried to dissuade the Prince from killing the monk and his companions while the Prince tried to remind him of his rage at the Celestial Realm.”

The two yell at each other back and forth and tears run down their faces.

“The Prince could not believe his ears. This could not be his King. His love always had goals to make heaven pay. The Prince knew this change was the monk’s fault. The Prince moved to silence the deceiver in one quick strike only to find it blocked by the King.”

The King and Warrior exchanged blows that tore mountains asunder, split the heavens, and burned down forests. Due to the power used against the King, the Prince had released the other demons following the monk and they tried to aid the King, but nothing they did seemed to slow down the Prince, if anything their attacks only served to further enrage him. The Warrior also tried to help by giving his magic to the Prince but was blown away by a blast and knocked out.

“The two clashed until the King managed to bring the Prince down and with no hesitation he drove his staff into his beloved’s body, taking his life.”

The King shoots the Prince to the ground, creating a crater, before standing over him and driving his staff into the other monkey’s eye. The Warrior with tears in his eyes tries to attack the King but is blown away like a speck of dust.

“However later the King fell into despair at the loss of his beloved moon. His Queen couldn’t comfort him as she was still ruling over their kingdom. So the King, driven by grief, drove into the Underworld to save his precious moon.”

The King is surrounded by the pilgrims who applaud him but he just looks down and tears start to fall. At night the King sits in front of a fire while the others sleep around him. He then stands up with a determined look in his eyes. The other pilgrims disappear as a symbol appears under him before he is seen falling towards the Prince who is held down by many chains. The Prince reaches a hand out towards him and the King takes it.

“Once above ground once more the Prince submits to the monk and takes the same prison as his beloved. The Warrior, angered by this, attacks them, hoping to free his beloved Prince but is blocked by the Prince who tells him to leave.”

The Prince bows to the Monk who places a circlet on his head. He and the King hold hands before there is an explosion as the Warrior attacks them. The Prince meets him, locking his staff with his spear. The Warrior yells at the Prince, confusing his feelings for him but this doesn’t phase the Prince as he throws him back and tells him to leave. With tears in his eyes the Warrior runs away as the Prince is embraced by the King and a large fox wraps its body around them creating what looks like a lock around the Prince.

“Even now the Warrior yearns for the companionship of his beloved Prince, knowing that at his core the Prince craves the same. After all, the Moon’s shadow always follows it and casts the world in darkness as well as blocks out the sun.”

With the final line sending shivers down the spines of the viewers, the puppeteer vanished in a flash of light.

As people started to leave the theater MK sat there, in thought at what the puppeteer said. It all rang through his head.

“Hello, young one.”

Almost falling out of his seat, MK looked up to see the puppeteer standing before him with a knowing smile. The lantern in his hand glowed brightly. Its light shone on the ceiling revealing the large fox eyes watching the two along with smaller fox eyes watching them from around the room.

As he stared at him he started to actually think about how the play went and it kinda sounded like when Macaque met Syaoran and when Wukong had killed Macaque when he tried to kill the pilgrims. However, the narrator seemed to view Syaoran as misunderstood and Macaque like he was locked in an obsessive relationship with his mother and father. Clearly, this guy needed a reality check if that’s what he thought.

Wait, how long has he been quiet? “Oh. Ah-hello. C-can I help you with something?”

“I was about to ask the same. You do know the shows over right?”

“Oh, um yeah I was just thinking about it, your show, and I actually have a question about your play.”

“Oh and what might it be?” The puppeteer asked as he leaned in closer to the brunette Monkey Demon.

“Um, what happened to him? The Warrior?”

The puppeteer let out a laugh and asked, “What would you like to hear? That the Prince suddenly remembered his beloved friend, the Warrior, and forgave him, or maybe that he abandoned the King and Queen to be with the Warrior? That they lived happily ever after?”

“No! No, no, no, no, no. The Warrior tried to destroy what the Prince had just gotten back in jealousy because the Prince didn’t love him even though he was already in a relationship and the Warrior should have known the Prince wouldn’t suddenly drop everything to be with him and I’m rambling about this to a complete stranger and went past my point but-” As MK said all this the puppeteer was frowning deeper and deeper with each word. “But I guess I kinda feel like the Warrior, left behind and never given a chance to prove that I can be useful. Is that dumb?”

“I take that as a compliment, young man. The tell-tale sign of a good story. That you resonate with it so personally. But I think maybe you missed the point-”

MK cut him off which only made him scowl more. “It's like I wanna be strong and I'm trying to be, but it's like Baa isn't giving me a chance!” He sighs and looks down at his paws. “What if... what if he knows he made a mistake? Choose wrong. Choose the wrong successor.”

“And?” A familiar voice asked. MK turns to look and sees his golden father sitting where the puppeteer was previously standing. “What if he did?”

MK, thinking it was some trick his father had made to try and motivate him growled, “Ugh. This again? Look, I know you're not really here! I've been doing what you told me to do. Believing in myself, blah blah blah. But I'm not ready for this. I can't face the Lady Bone Demon alone. I just feel so...”

He’s cut off by Wukong who starts laughing, causing MK to get angry as he yells, “Uhh! If you're not gonna help just leave me alone!” MK tries to punch him but Wukong catches it. “Whoa, bud. You been working out? You pack a bigger punch than I remember.”

MK backs away in confusion. “What? But how are you here?”

Wukong starts laughing, darkly.

“Enough!!!” A voice echoes throughout the theater as the lights go out.

Hundreds of pairs of fox eyes appeared in the darkness, partly lighting up the room before a large pair of pure dark purple eyes appeared above them. From them came a large vixen with jet-black fur and Dark Purple Calla Lilies in front of her ears. Her flowers glowed dark purple which bathed them in light.

“Jet?” MK called out to the vixen. She didn’t say anything as she put herself in front of MK and started growling at Wukong who didn’t seem fazed.

Many other Dark Elemental Foxes came out of the darkness. While they didn’t approach him they did start to circle the stand-off between their leader and Wukong.

“Young Prince? Are you alright?” A kind sounding voice asked.

MK looked down and saw another vixen who was larger than the other Elemental Foxes. She had onyx black fur, bright yellow eyes, and small Dark Purple Calla Lilies flower buds in front of her ears. MK realized that she must be Jet’s mate.

“Yeah I’m fine but what’s going on here?” MK asked as he looked back at Jet.

“You heard him, go on reveal yourself,” Jet demanded.

Wukong stared at her for a second before he threw his head back with a full-bodied laugh, showing how little he thought of her. In a flash of light, Wukong turned into Syaoran, who smirked.

“No. No, no, no. It's. It's you... Syaoran!” MK said, panicking, still scared from the last time he saw the Silver Shadow Demon.

“The one and only! So why so glum? I've noticed that lately, you've been lookin' a little down!” Syaoran said, no real concern in his voice as he started to step towards him. The foxes’ growl got louder and louder as he did.

“What are you doing here?!”MK said with some determination before realizing, “Oh no! I just-”

“Unloaded all your secret insecurities on me! I know! But hey, no shame in that, man. Sometimes you just gotta talk it out, y'know?” He said with a smile before frowning, “I don't really do it. Maybe I should,” He said with a thoughtful look before realizing where he was. “But we'd be here all day and you’ve already heard most of my problems.”

MK stared at him in confusion before getting it and saying, “So the play was from your perspective. I always figured you were delusional, but this is a new low.“ He then seemed to remember something, “Wait a minute. Where is my family?” He all but growled, showing off his fangs, much like the foxes were doing.

“Oh, they never left. I’m surprised you didn’t recognize this.” Syaoran opened a shadow portal and took out the lantern, which added more light to the room. When he did, Jet and her mate’s eyes flattened, Jet growled once more while her mate let out a whine.

“Of course, I don't recognize it! I’ve never seen it!” MK cried.

Syaoran stared at him in shock before laughing, “So your father never told you about his greatest creation.”

“W-what?” MK asked, confused.

Syaoran let out another laugh before explaining, “The big deal is that My Dear Shadow crafted this lantern long ago. It was his finest work and like everything he made, it has multiple uses. The Shadow Lantern can do more than enhance one’s skills in shadow magic, it can trap the bodies and souls of its targets. So long as the targets are trapped, the lantern can steal the shadows of its victims so its master can use them as a personal army until there is nothing left.”

“Except you forgetting the fact that it’s also alive,” Jet said. The lantern seemed to glow at that. “It’s been fighting you this whole time but because its real owner is far away it’s easier to twist its power, am I right?” Jet smirked at her words and Syaoran growled.

MK wasn’t listening and was staring at the lantern. As he paid closer attention to it he could feel its aura, its magic. It was so similar to his father, it was cool and soothing, but on the edge, there was an unmistakable edge of malice. As he continued to focus on its aura his eyes glowed purple, something that caught the attention of the others in the room. All of a sudden there was a cry and MK could hear what he guessed the Dark Elemental Foxes could hear; the cry of an artifact that was in pain as its magic was twisted and it couldn’t do anything about it.

“So you can hear its cries,” Syaoran said, guessing what was going on. “Beautiful isn’t it? Powerful as well but also loyal. It took me a while to be able to finally twist its magic. I’m surprised that Shadow Fox guarding it didn’t use its magic to stop me.”

“You know why she couldn’t,” Jet said with a growl.

“Oh I do,” Syaoran said with another laugh before holding up the lantern, it glowed with more purple light and MK had to cover his ears as he heard it scream in pain. He then watched in horror as Mei, Pigsy, and Tang's shadows emerged from within the lantern.

“Guys!” MK cried. “Let them go now!”

“Mm, I don’t think so. See I want to mess with you for a bit and what better way to do that than have you fight the people you care about,” He then snapped his figures as the shadows lunged at them. MK managed to stop Pigsy’s punch but Jet wasn’t so lucky as Mei body slammed her and Tang tackled her mate to the ground causing Jet to yell out, “Onyx! Young Prince!”

The other dark foxes rush forward to start fighting them but Mei manages to blow them all away by sending a powerful blast at them before being tackled by Jet.

Tang jumps up in the air and manages to hit MK on the head and send him flying backward.

As Jet is thrown next to him the two stand up and get ready to fight again. Syaoran appears on stage with the lantern and says, “Also, side-note: How did you not know it was me? Shadows, kinda my gimmick isn't it?”

MK managed to get away from an attack but got thrown into a wall. As he looked at Syaoran, he made a move to go attack him but Mei appeared out of the wall and grabbed him. “Hey don't look at me! Focus!” Syaoran said, jokingly, enjoying every moment of this.

Pigsy then appeared under him and threw him across the room. “Ooh, this bit might hurt!”

The shadows tackle MK to the ground. Jet gets up from her spot next to her beaten mate and then at the scattered members of her pack before looking over at MK. Her eyes glow as a grow escapes her throat. “Enough!”

Her flowers then glow and so does the lantern. Syaoran stares at it in disbelief. “How are you doing that, you can’t control the shadows!”

“Incorrect. Shadows are a part of darkness, while I can’t control them as well as Umbra, I can enough to get the lantern under my control,” Jet said as the shadows slowly got off MK and looked over at Syaoran.

“No, no. You shouldn't be able to do this,” Syaoran shouted as he tried to force his power through the lantern to gain control over them once more but to no avail as they charged at him.

“Umbra couldn’t use this magic because there was no one around to trap and because that power you got from the bitch was too much for her and her pack but now that you no longer have it and have already trapped someone this will be fun.”

As Syaoran dodges the blows from the shadow he continues to try to gain control over them again but when it doesn’t work he gets hit which causes him to be thrown into a wall.

MK and Jet stare in his direction and watch as the dust settles. All of a sudden they hear laughter. “Not bad, not bad at all. I didn’t expect this at all so good for you, however-” Syaoran said as he stood up, the lantern still in his hand, “I know for a fact that the Fox Bitch wants this back and there’s no way in hell that’s happening so let’s just end this once and for all.” Syaoran then crushed the lantern.

“NO!” MK and Jet yelled. The lights in the room dimly come back on as the dark foxes disappear into the shadows except for Onyx and Jet. Pigsy, Tang, and Mei’s souls go back to their bodies, freeing them.

“Guys! You're okay!” The prince cried with a smile before tackling them in a hug.

“What happened?” Mei asked before Jet ran past them chasing something out the door. “Wait, is that a-” Mei started to ask before MK took off after her.

Outside Jet is growling at Syaoran who is mocking her and Lilith. MK bursts out of the door and yells, “What is your deal? Why did you do that!?”

“Hm, why'd I break the lamp? Well, I was gonna do that whole 'watch the hero be tormented by his own mistakes' thing but it seems like you’re kinda already doing that to yourself, which honestly has been an absolute pleasure to watch,” Syaoran said before turning into MK’s shadow and flying away, his voice still echoing in the alley, “Y'know, I meant what I said. You really are a good kid. A good kid with a really terrible teacher.”

“I thought you were my teacher?” MK deadpanned with a frown.

“Ooh ouch!” Syaoran said laughing before appearing on the roof, “She’s coming you know, the Lady Bone Demon and you're not even close to ready to face her. Don't worry. You can never have too many teachers, right?” He then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Pigsy, Tang, and Mei then burst out the door with Onyx following them. Jet ran over to her and nuzzled her, making sure she was ok. “Kid. Explain now,” Pigsy said.

“Uh, okay. But we're definitely gonna need snacks,” MK told them as he rubbed the back of his neck.

Jet shakes her head and lets out a laugh, “He’s definitely the King’s son.”

Syaoran reappears in the destroyed theater and walks up to the pieces of the broken lantern. He then uses his magic to put it back together. He smirks as he takes it in his hand, hearing it cry out again from being imprisoned once more.

He then hears clapping and turns around to see the Mayor seated behind him, he lets out a growl as he turns to the “human”. “Bravo! Bravo! What a performance!”

Sweating nervously, he backs up and smiles as he says, “Thanks, last show actually, I was just heading off-” He turns around to leave but then the Mayor appears in front of him and grabs his neck, holding him in the air.

“Lady Bone Demon would like a word,” the man says before looking down at the lantern, “Oh, and she'll be needing that.”

After they left the theater Pigsy got a call from Zhiu Ye, asking why they had been gone for so long. The play was at noon and lasted only about an hour but now the sun was starting to set which meant they had been gone for multiple hours.

Pigsy explained what happened to her and she grew very worried. While on the phone with her someone else walked into the room she was in and started talking to her. Whatever they said to her she agreed to and then turned back to Pigsy and said, “Can one of you bring him back to the palace?”

“Um sure but I’m worried about his mental health, it seems he’s bounced back to the way he was when he encountered the Bone Demon,” Pigsy said, looking over at where MK and Mei were sitting on a bench together. Mei had gotten them bubble tea but MK hadn’t touched his and was instead staring down at his paws, his tail wrapped around his leg.

“Don’t worry there is someone here who wants to talk to him and I think they’ll be able to help him bounce back once more, and so do their Majesties since they requested them,” Zhiu Ye said before hanging up.

Tang and Pigsy looked at each other before going over to the kids and telling them what happened. Mei offered to him and off the two went.

When they got to the palace they found Zhiu Ye waiting outside for them along with two other familiar Monkey Demons.

“Ba! Beng!” MK yelled as he saw the two generals, running up to give them each a hug. “Where have you been? I haven’t seen you since before Daisy left.”

“We’ve still been around the mountain but we were trying to tie up some loose ends,” Beng explained.

“We came back at the request of Macaque after hearing what happened to you,” Ba said as she let go of the cub.

“Papa called you?” MK asked.

“Yes they were very displeased when they found out about your meeting with the Bone Demon,” Ba said and Beng, with a smile, followed with, “Wukong wanted to fly back here immediately and beat the ever-loving shit out of her.”

“No offense MK, but your Baba isn’t the smartest person when it comes to thinking before doing. Thankfully he has Macaque there with him who, while he did agree on that course of action, knew that flying in blind wouldn't be the wisest of decisions, so he contacted us and asked if we would pause what we were doing to come help you,” Ba said with a smile. She then waved Zhiu Ye away who took Mei into the castle and to her spare room while the two generals led the boy to the garden outside.

“Now there wasn’t a lot Wukong and Macaque could tell us about your encounter and Zhiu Ye didn’t seem to know too much about it either so why don’t you tell us what has happened since we left,” Ba suggested as they took a seat on a giant lily pad.

MK told them about the Ping Pong table incident, Food Wars, and meeting Power Foxes (new and old), and as the two listened they noticed how happy he was telling them about it but once he got to his encounter with the Lady Bone Demon and Syaoran, he frowned the whole time, tripped over his words, and seemed to be on edge of having a panic attack. This caused Ba to move closer to him and rub his back in soothing motions to calm him down.

“Well MK it sounds like the last two months have been hard on you, positively and negatively,” Beng started. “But a pattern I’m noticing is that during the positive moments, you sought out your friends and family, the people who cared about you but once you were in a negative moment you pushed them away and tried to fix it yourself.”

“An example of that is when, instead of talking to anyone after meeting the Bone Demon you just started training, pushing away spending any time with others. That’s not healthy, mentally or physically,” Ba told him.

He looked down at his paws in guilt, “I know but I just want to be ready, want to be useful to Baba and Papa when the time comes to face her.”

“MK, you are not a tool or object that its owner decides when it’s time to use it, you are a person. Your parents have never thought you weren’t useful and will never think that because you are their child,” Ba told him before putting her hand under his chain and making him look at her.

“MK the two of us have watched all three of your parents react to having you around, your mother left the kingdom to imprison herself in stone to keep you safe and you were her treasure, her lifeline while she was pregnant with you. She did everything to keep you safe during the time she was with you. Never once did I see her frown while she carried you or thought of you,” Ba told him with a smile thinking back to all the memories of watching Lily with her pregnant belly.

“Yeah, and your dads were so heartbroken when they found you and Lily gone from the mountain. Wukong destroyed a whole mountain when he found out and Macaque went looking for you two for 500 years. And when they found out you were their son they were overjoyed,” Beng said, smiling as well, thinking back to the conversation he overheard Wukong and Macaque have the night they found out MK was their son, all planning they made.

“Our point, MK, is that you are not useless and Wukong made no mistake making you his successor. The two never would have entrusted the city to you if they thought you couldn’t handle it and it looks like you’re doing well at that.”

“Yeah I am aren’t I?” MK said with a smile.

“There’s that famous Monkey King smile,” Beng said with a laugh.

“Come on, let's go inside so you can have something decent to eat, all that junk food you ate at the theater will do you no good,” Ba said as she stood up. The other two followed her.

“And MK remember, if you ever need to talk to someone you have us, your grandmother, adoptive parents, friends, even the servants in the castle will talk to you, just talk to someone.”

MK nodded.

Later that night after eating some and playing a few games with Mei, Ba, and Beng MK headed up to his room. When he opened his door he stared in shock at the Bull Demon that was currently placing a basket of chocolate-covered apricots on his bed, the balcony door wide open.

The two stared at each other in silence for a moment before the Bull Demon let go of the basket, straightened up, and shouted while his hair caught fire, “I can explain!”

MK let out a laugh and leaned against the door frame, “OK I’m listening.”

“I heard from Dragon Horse Girl about what happened with you and the Shadow Demon known as Syaoran and was worried about you so I thought I’d drop off a basket of treats for you, nothing more,” Red Son said, crossing his arms, his cheeks still bright red and his hair still on fire.

MK let out another laugh before going over to the basket and popping one of the treats in his mouth, “Thanks Red, it’s just what I need after today and they’re really good.”

“R-Really?” Red asked. “Good to hear Noodle Boy because I made them so of course they're good.”

“Really you made them?”

“Yes, picked the fruit, dried them out, made the chocolate, dipped them; it was all me,” Red Son, a smirk on his face.

MK just smiled wider as he sat on his bed. The two stood/sat there in silence before MK popped another treat in his mouth.

Red Son watched before glancing away, then back at MK. He opens his mouth to speak, though nothing comes out. He couldn't hold it in anymore. He has to say something now.

"I...I have to say something."

"Hm, What's wrong?" MK looked up at Red Son, curious about what he wanted to talk about.

Red Son was sweating bullets and was a nervous wreck on the inside, "Ever since I met you I've been...having these unnerving feelings," Red Son eventually admits. "And it's so very frustrating."

MK blinks, a blush coming to his cheeks at what he thinks Red Son is saying.

"Red I think—"

"When I came to your house after the invasion with the Spider Queen and so rudely...kissed you..." The Fire Demon trailed off.

"Red Son.." He interrupted the Monkey Demon again.

"I meant I shouldn't have even done such a thing. I didn't even ask if you wanted to! I just let my feelings get the better of me..."

"Red Son..."

I admit it! For I-I was I who has been sending you all those gifts, the flowers, the treats, and that Monkey King plush you've been wanting." He stared at the ground, eyes shadowed as he was trembling slightly.

MK stared at the nervous demon, his eyes slowly began to sparkle, and a blush slowly formed on his cheeks.

"Red I think you're-" but was cut off as the other teen continued his confession/rambling again. MK’s eyebrow started to twitch a bit in irritation.

Red Son clenched his fists tightly to the brink of whiteness. "I can completely understand if you're not interested and don't return them but I just couldn't hold it in anymore." He stated, looking up at the brown simian, his face now as red as his trench coat.

"So just do us both the trouble and reject me already-" The Monkie Kid cuts off the rambling Fire Demon by roughly grabbing him by his mouth.

"MMPH!?" He muffled against his paw.

"You know, for a so-called villain, you talk too much," MK released his hand from his mouth, smiling at him. "I like you too," he says, moving his hand to rest it on Red Son’s cheek.

"Y-You do?" MK brought his hands out to cup Red Son's face, gently thumbing his cheeks. Red Son nuzzled into MK's touch.

"Yeah, but...This is moving a little too fast for me."

"Oh," Red looked a little disappointed but recomposed himself. "I understand. If that's the case...Can I take you out to dinner?"

"...Yeah, I'd like that," MK responded with a smile. The two stared into each other's eyes for a moment before a camera flash went off.

They looked over to see Mei standing in the doorway with her phone out, snickering. “About time you two got together!”

“Mei!/Dragon Horse Girl?” MK and Red Son shouted.

“I’m gonna go send this to the group chat, can’t wait to see what your parents say,” Mei said before taking off down the hall.

“Wait Mei get back here! Don’t send that picture!” MK yelled as he took off after his friend.

After a few minutes, the shock left Red Son and the realization hit him fast as he also ran out of the room to give chase to the Dragon Demon, his hair fully on fire. “GET BACK HERE PONY GIRL AND DELETE THAT PICTURE!”

Within her prison, Lilith held back a laugh as she smiled at the picture of the two teens chasing the Dragon Demon.

Behind her, there was a bright light as Jet took shape. “My Queen, I have failed you, and the lantern is broken,” she said, her head hanging.

“You were right about what you said to Syaoran,” Lilith said.

“What?” Jet asked, looking up.

Lilith moved her hand to the side and the screen in front of her moved with it and showed a picture of Jet when she managed to take control of the shadows of Pigsy, Tang, and Mei.

“Incorrect. Shadows are a part of darkness, while I can’t control them as well as Umbra I can enough to get the lantern under my control,” Past Jet said. “Umbra couldn’t use this magic because there was no one around to trap and because that power you got from the bitch was too much for her and her pack but now that you no longer have it and have already trapped someone this will be fun.”

The scene then changed to when Syaoran crushed the lantern. This caused Jet’s ears to flatten again.

“The reason I bring this up is because of this,” Lilith said before the sense turned to Syaoran fixing the lantern.

“My Queen I didn’t know-” Jet tried but was cut off.

“Know it could be fixed? Of course, you didn’t but think, do you really think an artifact as powerful as my Starflower’s lantern can be destroyed that easily?”

“No can’t be and I should have used my head I’m sorry I-”

“Enough!” Lilith yelled as she turned around, the vixen getting a submissive position. Lilith looked at her with pity and sadness. She sighed and got on her knees in front of the vixen. “Jet, I brought up what you said to Syaoran because it’s why you wouldn’t have been able to do anything. You control the darkness but can’t control the shadows because darkness is a Stellar Realm Element while shadows is a Celestial Realm Element. Because of how different the two are it’s harder for you to control this realm’s shadows since it’s different than Stellar Realm shadows. That lantern uses pure shadow magic, the fact you were able to use it was because the lantern was working with you so you could. Only Umbra would have been able to fix it and I didn’t send her because she’s still recovering from her encounter with Syaoran.”

The vixen’s ears poked up at her queen’s words.

“While you did fail to get the lantern back you did manage to protect my son and for that, I’m not mad at all. And besides, getting mad at you for something I can’t change wouldn't get me anywhere,” Lilith smiled as she stood up and turned around, a picture appearing in front of her once more that showed Daisy still running on water as the city came into view.

“Go to your pack, check on them, make sure they’re all right. Oakley is still guarding the Crimson Jimson Weed and Daisy is heading back to MK, who still has the staff. We don’t have to worry too much just yet…”

Chapter Text

It was the morning after the Syaoran incident and MK and Mei were having breakfast in the dining hall of the palace with the two generals. MK was still sulking over what happened yesterday.

He was happy about his date with Red Son which would be next week but what he was sulking over was the picture Mei took of them. The two had managed to catch her but by the time they did, she had already sent it to the group’s chat.

Sandy and Tang had congratulated MK and Red Son but Pigsy hadn’t stopped bombarding him with text asking questions.

Red Son had been ever embarrassed to learn that Mei had his mother’s number and had sent her a picture as well.

“Oh come on MK, you can’t still be angry about what happened last night,” Mei asked from her seat.

MK glared at her, “It wouldn’t have been this much of a problem if Dadsy wasn’t texting me all night and is still doing it by the way, I’ve gotten 147 texts from him.”

His phone beeped.

“148.”

His phone beeped again and he banged his head on the table, startling the others at the table.

“Cheer up Kiddo, at least it’s just Pigsy. I mean if Wukong was here it'd have been ten times worse,” Beng said with a smile. Ba glared at him.

All of sudden the doors to the hall flew open. They looked behind them and saw Daisy but she didn’t look good. She was completely wet, had mud all over her feet and stomach, and was covered in scratch marks, some actively bleeding.

“Daisy!” MK yelled as he jumped out of his seat and rushed over to the vixen. “What happened? Where have you been?”

Daisy opened her mouth and the flower she had been carrying dropped to the ground before she fainted.

“Daisy!”

That was a week ago and since then she had been doing better. Later she told the group about her time on the island. “The queen sent me to get this flower. She said that when the time comes the magic in it will awaken and help us.”

MK kept the flower in his room in a vase to keep it safe.

Today was the day before MK’s date with Red Son and to say everything was going well was an understatement.

Hiccup!

Hiccup!

The entire noodle shop shook as MK let out another loud hiccup causing the others in the shop to all fall on their faces or ass, groaning in pain....well, except for Daisy. The vixen shook her head at the scene in front of her. Truth be told she had actually missed this.

"This is the worst case of hiccups I've ever seen!" Pigsy grunted as he heaved himself to his feet, using the counter as a way to lift himself. "How'd it happen?!"

"Well, uh, do you remember the meatball eating contest you told him not to enter?" Mei chuckled nervously, avoiding eye contact with the concerned Pig Demon.

“Um I told you as well not to because they were cursed,” Daisy yelled at the Dragon Demon. She then narrowed her eyes at the two, “What did you two do?”

Mei laughed nervously before pulling out her phone and showing a picture of MK chowing down meatballs. Daisy facepalmed at the picture while both Tang and Pigsy gave the picture looks of horror.

"I broke my own record, yeah boi!" MK gave a thumbs-up, before letting out another hiccup and falling on the ground.

Pigsy growls in frustration. “You two were supposed to be watching them and stopping them from doing something stupid, like this!” Pigsy yelled at the twins.

“We tried but got distracted,” Jin yelled.

“By what?” Daisy asked.

“Blacksmith,” Both twins said in unison.

"MK, out of all the reckless things you've done, this one takes the cake," Pigsy said.

"We tried everything to get rid of them!" Mei whined. "I tried rubbing his belly, giving him a good scare, and hitting all his pressure points! But nothing worked."

The young prince gave out another hiccup, which shot him up into the roof of the shop, his legs and tail dangling down.

Daisy sighed as she summoned a cloud to help her get the monkey down.

"Have you tried calling his parents?" Pigsy huffed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You know, one of which is well versed in magic, and even has created his own spooky magic lantern before which most of us got sucked into?"

"Bàba and Papa are too far for me to Astrally Project to," MK chirped out, thinking back to yesterday when they'd been told that both adults wouldn't be available to talk for a bit. During that call, Mei told them about MK’s date and it had gone about as well as they thought it would have.

Macaque had to use his magic to hold off his golden husband from bolting back to the city to do heaven knows what. The whole time MK and Mei sweatdropped as Wukong screeched angrily from where he was held down by shadow clones as they talked to Macaque, who hadn’t been happy to find out his lantern had been destroyed. MK felt himself freeze when he heard that the lantern could be fixed if the user had enough power and shadow magic. Both Macaque and MK were pretty sure that Syaoran had fixed the lantern and still had it.

"Great," The chef muttered under his breath with a sigh.

“What about Ba and Beng?” Tang asked.

“We already called them and they don’t know. They also asked a few people in the palace but since we don’t know what kind of curse it is they were no help,” Mei said.

"I may have a suggestion!" Sandy cheerfully spoke up, from the booth where he and Mo had been listening in on the conversation, but had remained quiet up until this point. "I find when I'm not feeling so hot, a special brew of tea perks me right up."

Suddenly everyone but Daisy was knocked off their feet once again as MK let out another loud hiccup, followed by its usual blast of golden magic.

“Uh, Sandy, something tells me that a bit of loose leaf ain't gonna help us in this particular scenario!” Pigsy shouted as he stood up.

“Don't underestimate the power of the tea leaves,” Sandy said before pulling out a book. “Besides, I'm not talking about any old tea. I'm talking about tea made from the leaves of the wild Crimson Jimson Weed. An ancient and powerful flower said to influence over mortality itself. In the wrong hands, deadly. In the right ones, deadlier!”

“Uh, we're not trying to kill him, Sandy. We just want to cure his hiccups,” Tang said with a nervous laugh.

“Cure, kill. You say potato, I say potato.” Daisy and the twins exchanged looks at that.

“However, the Crimson Jimson Weed only grows in the Mystic Jungle of the Emerald Lynx. So who's gonna get it?” The Water Demon smiled, acting as if he didn't just ask one of them to go into a dangerous lake.

Everyone in the room deadpanned at the Water Demon, who flinched with a nervous chuckle as he realized what they were implying. "O-oh no, I'm strictly a Water Adventure kinda' guy."

“Well let’s see no one else in this room knows where it is or anything about it. And let’s not forget that MK's life is at stake!” Daisy yelled.

"Alright! I'll do it! For my friends!" The demon said with a determined nod.

“Wonderfully and we’ll help you get there,” a voice said.

“Who was that?” Pigsy asked as the group looked around the shop.

“Why does that voice sound familiar,” MK asked before hiccuping, causing three potted plants to fall on the ground and break.

There was a green glow from the dirt on the ground before three Perennial flowers, one white, one red, and the last one pink. They start to glow green as well before a bright light appears causing all of them to look away.

When the light disappeared three foxes with tree-like fur, tails made of tree leaves, and tree leaves on the top of their ears were standing in the room.

“Willow! Pine! Maple!” MK and Daisy yelled. “What are you three doing here?”

“Spider Queen and Lady Bone Demon are after the Crimson Jimson Weed so the High Queen sent the Nature Pack to guard it,” Willow explained.

“When the queen heard you would need the flower she sent us to take you to it so you can get a petal when it blooms before we take it back to our hideout,” Pine said.

“Wait, what do you mean when it blooms?” Pigsy asked.

“Well you see the Crimson Jimson Weed produces just one flower and blooms under the light of a Crimson Moon,” Maple said with a nervous smile.

“Wait, that’s tonight,” MK cried.

“Then we better get going,” Daisy said. They all looked at her.

“You’re going to Lady Daisy?” Maple asked, her tail wagging.

“Of course. If Spider Queen is after it then she’ll send one of her lackeys and you can never be too safe,” Daisy said with a smile.

The other smiled at her before she, the three Nature Elemental Foxes, and Sandy left.

"Bye!" MK and Mei called out after them. "Good luck, and stay safe!"

At the outskirts of the forest, Sandy takes a deep breath of the fresh mountain air as he pushes some bushes away "Ah! Could this day be any more perfect?"

"I know right!" Maple said. “Once we got here the three of us were on scouting duties and I made so many friends. There’s one now.”

A butterfly lands on Sandy’s shoulder. He turns to it and says, “Aw, hello little friend!”

Maple lets out a laugh before the butterfly flies and lands on her head. Sandy pulls out his map and looks at it before looking up at the mountain.

“Well let’s go, Oakley is waiting for us,” Pine said as he started walking, the others following him.

“Where is the pack?” Daisy asked.

“Most of them are at the top with Oakley but some are in the area acting as scouts. Tonight the pack will all be together to watch the flower bloom and once it is we head back to the Queen with it.

They got to the mountain. “We’re going to have to climb it but it should be easy since we can use our vines to-” Willow was cut off as Sandy started scaling the mountain while Daisy’s marks turned light brown and she started walking up the rock. “-or you could do that.”

As he climbed Sandy passed a mountain ox, giving a cheerful salute/waving to the beast, "Good day to you!"

Later he aided a worried mother bird, whose chicks were about to get eaten by a snake. Being the peaceful tea lover that he is, the male demon naturally offered the snake some tea, much to its confusion and the confusion of the foxes.

During a break, the Water Demon studied the map with Daisy as Maple played with a few local monkeys and sneaked them some snacks from the bag. Of course, Sandy had eventually caught them but was more than happy to share.

Gasping in awe when they reached a stone archway that had been weathered down into the shape of a sleeping panda.

before they finally reached the top of the mountain.

“Oakley!” Maple yelled as she ran forward. When they got to the clearing Daisy and Sandy saw multiple Nature Elemental Foxes lying around the area. In the center of the clearing was the unbloomed flower and a fox with oak tree-like fur and a small bushel of Red Perennial flowers in front of his ears.

The fox turned in their direction and smiled when he saw them. “Maple, my dear, you found them.”

“My Lady,” Oakley said as he bowed to Daisy, whose face turned bright red.

Sandy gasped in awe at the flower. "The Crimson Jimson Weed!"

“Yes and it’s almost time for it to bloom,” Oakley said as he approached the Water Demon and looked up in the sky.

After a few minutes, the Crimson Moon's light shone down upon it and it bloomed, all the foxes gasped in awe at it.

Giving a squeal and running up, nearly tripping in the process, Maple sniffed the flower. "It smells like cinnamon and spice tea!" She said as she turned to her mates, who just facepalmed.

Oakley let out a laugh at the young vixen’s innocence.

"You're right! It does!" Sandy agreed, himself taking a gentle sniff of the flower. "Now all that's left for us to do, is to get this back to MK!"

"Actually, I have a different idea," a gruff voice spoke up from behind them.

They all whipped around, the foxes started growling and getting in defective positions while Sandy screamed in either shock or fear at the sight of one of Spider Queen's lackeys, Huntsman.

"Now big guy," Huntsman smirked, the clanking of his metal legs on the stone, echoing across the valley. "How about you hand over that pretty, pretty flower?"

Daisy narrowed her eyes at him and let out a growl as a sinister smile fell on her lips. "How about no?"

Turning his back to the demon and quickly, but gently, placing the Crimson flower into his tea book, Sandy stood up with a frown, "He's right. This is for my friend-"

Eye twitching, the purple-skinned arachnid turned out the other's rambling with a growl, teeth grinding in agitation as he spoke to himself, "Is this guy for real?!"

Lunging forward, Huntsman aimed one of his sharp metal legs in an attempt to skewer the Water Demon.

Fortunately enough, Sandy was able to doge with a yelp of surprise, before he bolted for the path down the mountain, the book in his hands while Daisy and Oakley ran after him.

“Slow him down,” Oakley yelled to the pack as they all jumped towards Huntsman.

Huntsman let out a laugh, echoing in the valley, "I love it when they run!"

A rumble shook the valley, followed by screaming from Sandy as he and the two foxes both fell from the top of the rock spire.

Daisy’s eyes and marks glowed green while Oakley’s flower glowed the same color as vines shot up from the ground and caught all three of them. Placing them on the ground.

They all looked up before hearing the sound of many whines before Huntsman jumped off the ledge.

They all ran into the forest and away. 

"Come on, don't you want to stick around and fight?" Huntsman's voice echoed around them. "Or are all those big muscles just for show?"

"Past the sleeping panda rock, across the winding serpent stream, turn left at the marker I-gasp!" All the red ribbons he had tied to the trees earlier were gone.

"Trying to find your way back, gentle giant?" The Spider Demon's voice mockingly cooed. "Might be hard without these!"

The sound of a fist hitting bark echoed around them before a rain of shredded red fabric fell like snow in winter around both the companions, Sandy's eyes widening in horror...they were now lost without the markers.

"Not go-AUGH!!"

The blue-skinned tea drinker yelped in surprise, when he stepped back on a trap that Huntsman had set up in the forest earlier, the book falling from the pacifist's grasp.

“Sandy!” Daisy cried before Huntsman kicked her in the face, sending her flying. She let out a yelp of pain as she hit her head on a sharp rock and passed out.

“Daisy!” Oakley cried out before being strung up on a tree.

"So what's your deal, big guy?" The lilac-skinned arachnid hummed with a smirk, slamming down onto the floor from the tree he had hidden in "A frame like that? Now that's a warrior's build!"

"Leave him alone!" Oakley growled from his spot on the tree.

"You know," Huntsman smirked, ignoring the fox. "I've heard some at the docks say you were quite the fighter back in the day."

"I'm n-not like that anymore!" Sandy sputtered out, pale at the mention of his past, haunting memories flashing in the blue-skinned demon's mind. "H-how about we talk things over? Yeah? I have this nice Chamomile tea blend that-!"

Sandy was cut off when the Spider Demon grabs the net and with a quick motion wraps the Water Demon in a cocoon. "I have a better idea," Huntsman said and swung the trapped Sandy around, slamming the said Water Demon into a rock wall.

"Oh, that's gotta hurt?" Huntsman replied with a sadistic laugh. "Come on!" The arachnid shouted, slamming the larger male into a boulder. "I want to see you go crazy!"

Sliding down with a groan, Sandy looked up as Huntsman, who was now on his normal two legs, instead of his four metal ones, approached with an angry scowl.

"Seriously? Nothing?" The shorter demon huffed. "What is with you?! All that potential, wasted, being that little chimp’s errand boy?" Huntsman said his hands on his hips.

"Well you three did save me the hassle of tracking this down myself, for that I gotta thank you," Huntsman laughed mockingly. "You guys keep doing that, you're making this whole endeavor real easy for me."

"Hurting others isn't a measure of one's strength, it took me a really long time to realize that," Sandy groaned, looking up at the demon restraining his friend.

Huntsman let out a groan. "Oh boy, here we go," Huntsman grumbled.

"As long as I'm doing something to help out a friend, I don't mind what it is, I just wanna be there for them, when they need me," Sandy said as a snake he helped pull on the webs around him.

"Yeah, sure, whatever you say blue," Huntsman said with a shrug.

"Because at the end of the day, helping my family is more important than anything else in the world!" Sandy exclaimed.

"But why do you do it, huh?" Sandy asked, genuinely curious. "Why are you her errand boy?"

Growling, Huntsman clenched his fist tight. "I ain't no one's errand-Huh!?"

Vines had wrapped around Huntsman’s hands and feet. He looked behind him to see Oakley had gotten out of the webbing, his flower glowing. "Hey ugly! Why don't you pick on someone your size!" He then throws the spider into a rock wall.

Scowling, the spider shot out of the dust and tackled the fox to the ground, "You have a real smart mouth, fox."

Oakley narrowed his eyes at him and chuckled, a sinister smile appearing on her face. "Well, it distracted you didn’t it?"

Huntsman looked at him confused before noticing that Diays was gone. "Wait, where's the other one?"

All of a sudden a bird swooped into Huntsman's face and started pecking the Spider Demon. "Ugh! Damn thing!" Huntsman groaned, dropping the book he was holding.

Daisy then came charging through the forest in her Power Form, her marks glowing green as she attacked him with thorny vines.

"No, wait!" Sandy called out, just then Oakley came and joined in as the Water Demon watched in fear.

Enraged, Huntsman roared and with a quick motion threw both foxes off him. He then jammed his metal leg into Oakley’s foot causing him to scream in pain and used his webbing to pick up Daisy and throw her into a stone. She turned back into her normal form as blood ran down her forehead.

Sandy gasped as a ringing noise filled his ears as he watched his fellow companions land on the ground hurt, his mind glitching to a battlefield, all of the bodies that surrounded him.

'No...No...' He thought in his head, the tears started to form around his eyes.

A butterfly lands on Huntsman's hand, Sandy's breathing quickens as Huntsman chuckles.

"Bye-bye, little butterfly," Huntsman said with the butterfly in his hand as Sandy looked at Oakley, his mind flashing and then...

He snapped.

The beads on his necklace broke and floated in the air becoming fireballs as a large gust of wind appeared ripping Sandy's sweatshirt to shreds, Huntsman shielded himself from the blast of wind and looked up at the Water Demon.

Huntsman chuckled "Is that it? All it took to bring out the beast inside you was to smack around some of your woodland friends," Huntsman taunted. "Are we doing this, or are you gonna brew me another cup?"

Not responding to his taunting, Sandy began glaring daggers at him making a large gust of wind blow at Huntsman who tried to stand his ground but soon flew against a wall.

He flinched as the Water Demon was already in front of him staring down at the Spider Demon with glowing pink eyes.

“What's wrong? Isn't this what you wanted? Now let me show you why I promised NEVER TO FIGHT AGAIN!! " Sandy shouted, with enough power from the orbs Sandy threw his fist towards Huntsman who gasped and closed his eyes for the impact.

But the fist stopped when it was about an inch away from Huntsman's face, the Spider Demon opened his eyes and saw not only was the Water Demon's fist an inch away from his face but a blue butterfly was on the fist gently opening and closing their wings.

"Leave this place," Sandy commands, and with that, the demon disappears into the forest. The blue giant opened the book with a gasp as he saw that a single petal was missing from the flower and he'd noticed a map drawn in his book, leading the way back to the city.

He then ran over to Daisy and Oakley to make sure they were ok.

“Oakley! Lady Daisy!” Maple yelled as she and many other Nature Elemental Foxes appeared around Sandy and the two foxes.

“It’s alright, Maple, I’m fine but Lady Daisy needs medical attention,” Oakley said as he stood up, holding his injured foot in the air.

Sandy then pulled out some bandages from his bag and started tending to her. Once done he did the same to Oakley, who later used magic to heal his leg enough that he could run.

Later on the edge of the forest Sandy opened his book and showed the flower to Oakley, the pack gasping at the missing petal.

Oakley frowned before his eyes turned misty green, “Take it.”

“Huh?” Sandy said as he pulled the book back.

“It’s the High Queen,” Pine yelled.

“The only reason I sent the Nature Pack to get it was so she didn’t have it but now it is of no use to me if she has it plus I’m pretty sure you can find a good use for it,” Lilith said with a smile. “Go, take it and cure my son.”

Sandy smiled before putting the book up and picking up Daisy before heading for the city.

Back at the noodle shop, Sandy made the tea right away and gave it to MK. While this was happening Tang checked over Daisy's injuries, during which the vixen woke up. She had lost a lot of blood but would be ok, nevertheless.

MK takes a sip of the tea, all of them looking at him expectantly. "Well, are you still in pain?" Mei asked curiously.

MK laughs triumphantly. "Ha! This tea really works! I'm cured. Thanks, Sandy, you’re the best!" MK said, turning to the gentle giant.

"Anytime kid, although I couldn't have done it without Daisy and Oakley," Sandy said, patting Daisy on her head from where she lay.

“I still don’t understand why Spider Queen wanted the Crimson Jimson Weed?" Tang asked. The others nodded in agreement.

Mei gasped, "You think she ate cursed meatballs too?"

“Oh man, I could so go for more of those right now,” MK said, causing all of them to stare at him while the adults groaned and Mei threw her cup at him, hitting the Monkey Demon square in the head.

“He deserved that,” Daisy said with a laugh, watching him get up off the ground.

"So Sandy, you sure that Huntsman wasn’t flirting with you?" Mei asked with a devious smile.

"MEI!!" Pigsy and Tang scolded the jade dragon as the blue demon was getting a pretty shade of red in the background.

"What?! He says things like, 'Or are those big muscles just for show,' and I'm not supposed to think that was him low-key flirting?!" The female teen cackled.

“I don’t think people who flirt with others slam them into rocks or make them snap enough that they show the scary parts of them, Mei,” Daisy said.

“Macaque and Wukong do,” Mei said with a smile.

“She’s not wrong there. I’ve seen Papa snap and go full Shadow Demon on Baba before,” MK said, looking down at his cup and remembering that day, it wasn’t pretty.

Sandy looks down at his book opening it to the page where the petal of the Crimson Jimson Weed flower was taped. He then started thinking about Huntsman.

Meanwhile, back in the Spider Queen’s lair. The child looks at the petal in disappointment. "Is this all you managed to retrieve?" She asked.

Huntsman replied nervously "Uh... Yes, M'Lady!"

"No matter. This should suffice. That will be all Huntsman,” the child dismissed him.

Huntsman pulled out a small tea bag from his jacket pocket as he looked at it. Sandy must have slipped this into his pocket.

"Was there something else?" She asked, making Huntsman quickly hide the tea bag away.

"Uh, nothing. Uh, well I was, uh, haha." He fumbled his words before asking, “Why am I doing all this for you?"

"You're only asking this now?" The child had a confused and annoyed look on her face. "Because that is your role to play in this game,” LBD said, looking back at the hologram mech.

"For the Queen..?" Huntsman asked but she didn't reply and then Huntsman walked away, leaving LBD alone.

Chapter Text

Spider Queen gasped and snapped out of her thoughts. She growled in anger as she thought about the 'little girl', who knocked her away effortlessly. A stray hair falls from her crown and onto her face and she quickly tucked it back in.

She turns to Goliath, who is busy sealing up the sewer entrance. "Seal it! Faster!" She demanded. "I don't want anyone gettin' through!”

"I'm goin' 'bout as fast as I can here!" The giant spider grunts, finally managing to shift the sewer grate into place.

"My Queen," Syntax chimed in, standing from a crouching position. "We can begin collecting the materials, the update is ready," He informed, holding out a wrist, one of his watch-like gadgets casting a small hologram.

The Spider Queen sighs. "Good, good! I'm not gonna let that little girly play me!" She concludes in confidence. "I am the Queen! If she wants a fight, I'll give her one," she growls, walking towards the edge of the ledge that led to a sharp descent downwards. She smiles at the wrecked Spider Mech from New Year's, planning a scheme in her head.

Huntsman, still skeptical from his last encounter with Sandy, looked up at his Queen with hesitation. The Spider Demoness sensed his staring and glanced down at him.

"You got something to share?" The Spider Demoness growled and raised one of her robotic legs threateningly above Huntsman.

Huntsman shouts in surprise. "N-No! It's just- The girl, She's just, uh- maybe we should just?" He trails off, stuttering before sighing.

"Nothing...It's nothing, my Queen," He hums softly. Syntax is stiffened with nervousness, sweat dropping at his colleague. 

Spider Queen lowers her leg, the sharp edge partially digging into the stone floor. "Do it!" She orders the hybrid.

Syntax stammers for a moment, nearly falling over. He pinwheels his arms, quickly regaining balance. "Ohh- Right!" He chuckled nervously, quickly pressing a few buttons on a gadget around his forearm.

Spider Bots begin to tear free from their bright green eggs, falling to the ground, and going up to the surface.

Somewhere on the rooftop, MK calls the team for something important. Everyone arrived in their pajamas and tired. "Alright kid, care to explain why you got us here at," Pigsy grumbled as he checked his watch. "3:00 in the morning?" He looked slightly angrily.

“Yeah and where’s Daisy and the twins?” Tang asked, looking around for the vixen and twin demons.

“I’m right here and the twins are asleep back at the mountain after MK dragged them out to help him with this yesterday,” Daisy said from her spot on one of the roof ledges, she was lying down with her head in her paws and eyes closed.

MK stood with his back to them, a look of excitement on his face. "I have gathered you all here because I have unlocked my next mystic monkey power!" He announced.

"Really?! What is it, what is it, what is it!?" Mei begged.

"Teleportation? Cloud summoning? Flying!?" Tang asked excitedly.

“No, can already do that, and no because neither of his parents can fly, they use their shadow magic, cloud summoning powers, or Power Foxes,” Daisy said from her spot, not opening her eyes at all.

"It's better than any of that! I've begun to learn the Monkey King's 72 transformations!" He said.

Tang gasped, his inner fanboy coming out. "You mean the ancient art of transformation, not even the wisest masters, have been able to figure out!?" Tang shouted excitedly, smiling widely. "The ancient art that lets you transform into anything!? Becoming an eagle, a tiger, or a gorilla!? You have to show me this power!" He grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him excitedly.

Daisy opened one of her eyes and frowned at this.

"Tang stop it!" Pigsy scolded his husband.

"You got it!" MK yelled as Tang let go of him.

There was a poof of yellow smoke, everyone coughed waving the stuff away. When it cleared up everyone looked down at the most cutest thing in the world.

"Squeal!"

Standing there was a red panda version of MK.

"Oh....my...GOSH!" Mei yelled, hearts in her eyes.

"You're so cute!" Mei squealed, picking him up in her arms. "You were right! This is awesome!"

"Uh kid, This is more like less of a power and more of you goofing off," Pigsy stated. MK hopped out of Mei's arms and transformed back into a human. "Okay, so I still have a lot to learn but it's good so far."

"Uh, MK...what is on your head?" Sandy asked, squinting his eyes for a closer glance. MK looks confused and feels at the top of his head.

Sure enough, there was something there.

"Eeek! Red panda ears!" MK flailed his arms, panicking.

“That’s not supposed to happen,” Daisy said, now fully awake. Mei tried to get MK to calm down but to no avail.

"Um, I think you need to keep practicing on that," Tang commented with a sweat-dropped expression.

“MK stop panicking and take a deep breath,” Daisy yelled.

The boy did as he was told and the ears disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Suddenly there was the sound of laughter around them. “That was the most pathetic thing I've ever seen!”

“Who's there?” Daisy yelled, standing, her tail sparking.

“Clam down, Sparkly,” the voice called.

Daisy’s tail went out and a look of horror appeared on her face. “No, it can’t be…”

“Daisy, who is it?” MK asked before a lightning bolt struck the roof, laughter filled the air as the dust settled and revealed a fox with neon yellow eyes. His body, head, and the beginning of his tail are a storm gray color while his legs and the end of his tail are dark yellow with rain and lightning-like designs. He had Yellow Roses in front of his ears and was the same size as a normal Power fox.

“The name’s Storm, the Lightning Power Fox,” the fox, now known as Storm, said before looking over at Daisy.

“Hello my pretty sparkle,” Storm said as he started nuzzling her. She growled and stepped back. “I’m not your anything! What are you doing here Storm? My necklace didn’t go off so you shouldn't be here.”

Most of the petals on Daisy’s necklace were dull by now except for four; the yellow, light brown, midnight purple, and whitish-blue ones.

“Well it’s only fair since you got to see Oakley,” Storm said with a smirk.

“What does that have to do with it? The necklace is there to call the Power Foxes when we need them. The only reason Oakley’s petal was used was because he helped Sandy get the flower to cure MK,” Daisy yelled.

Storm scoffed, “Sure whatever, and look sweetie, my petal is now used up.”

They looked at the necklace and saw that the yellow one was now dull.

Daisy growled, “Don’t call me sweetie, you son of a-” She was cut off by the sound of something cutting through metal.

They lean over the edge of the roof, they see spider drones using a laser to cut through the Pigsy's noodles sign on the side of the building and make off with it.

"My sign!" Pigsy cried out, saddened that his restaurant sign was gone. "Come back here!"

"Seriously? Spiders! When will this nightmare end!?" MK whimpered.

Storm scoffed once more at the Monkey Demon’s panic, Daisy glared at him.

MK then snapped out of it and hissed. "Get back here with that!" MK shouted, quickly shrinking himself and following the tiny robots in the sewers.

“Aren't you gonna go with him?” Tang yelled at Storm.

“Why should I?” Storm asked, bored.

“MK, wait for me,” Daisy yelled as she turned to yellow mist and followed him.

“Honey Sparks, wait for me,” Strom yelled as he turned into thunderclouds and followed Daisy.

The others stared in confusion at what just happened.

They silently followed them into the Silken Web Cave. MK stood on top of the pipes with the two foxes, still in mist and cloud form covering him, as they watched multiple drones discard metal and building what looked like a giant spider mech, like from when she took over the city on New Year's.

"No, Spider Queen again!?" MK muttered.

Suddenly she entered the room from the shadows. "What do you mean there's not enough material yet!?" She demanded at Syntax, with Goliath and Huntsman beside him.

"It's just-" Syntax tries to explain, rubbing the back of his head. "Without the venom, there's no way we can build as quickly as the last time!" He tries to reason. "The spider bots, my queen, they just need more time to—"

" I DON'T HAVE MORE TIME! " She hollered, getting into his face. "Don't you understand? This is it. This is the time we've got!"

"Y-yes but..."

"Get it done!" She ordered.

MK gasps in realization. "Spider Queen is rebuilding her Mech! Oh, no, no, no. This is bad. This is very bad!" He shuffled along the pipe as the demons talked, then he lost his footing and collapsed.

"Ow that hurt," He groaned, rubbing his behind. He looked up to see the Spider Demons glaring menacingly at him, all green eyes glowing.

"Uh, hi...?" He grinned nervously, sweating a bit.

"Monkie Boy! You're the reason I'm in this mess!" Spider Queen yelled at him.

"What the hell did I do!?" 

"Everything! I'm gonna tear you apart!" She shouted as she and the other Spider Demons charged towards him.

Yellow mist covered him as Daisy reformed in front of him, turning into her Power Form and growling at the demons.

However golden smoke covered them causing the spiders to stumble back, shocked by this sudden power. "Wha-What is this!?" Spider Queen questioned.

"Haha-haha! Behold the power of 72 transformations!" He cheered. As the smoke cleared, he looked at himself hoping he turned into something useful.

But it didn't.

He looked at himself to see he turned into some kind of Red Panda Demon; with red panda ears again and...literal red panda for hands.

Daisy, over to the side, just sighed and facepalmed but got angry as Strom’s laughter echoed in the cave.

"No! No! No! Come on, change back!" He huffed in frustration, summoning his staff with the red panda hands making it impossible to hold it correctly. "I'm still working out the kinks, how about we fight when I have hands? Kay' byeeeeeee!" He scurried away into one of the sewer tunnels.

Daisy slammed her paws into the ground, causing lighting to shoot up out of the ground before running off after MK. Storm followed, still in his cloud form.

"Catch him and bring him to me!" Spider Queen ordered her minions as the Spider Demons quickly chased after him.

Once they passed, MK grinned and laughed quietly to himself as he had shrunk down into a small spider. "Phew, that was close." He sighed in relief before looking at his spider body, making him gag in disgust.

"Ew ew ew! This is so gross!" He whined as he lowered himself onto the ground to find a place to hide before realizing that Daisy and Strom weren’t with him.

It took a while for Daisy to realize that MK was in fact not in front of her. “MK? MK where are you?”

“Probably shrunk himself and got caught in a spider’s web and is now being eaten by the spider,” Strom said as he turned back into his fox form and landed next to Daisy.

Daisy growled, “Why would you say such a thing? If he dies it’s on both our heads!”

Storm scoffed, “Sparkle why do you care so much about that coward? Isn’t it annoying always having to save his weak ass?”

Daisy then tackled him to the ground and shoved her paw onto his throat, making him cough a bit, “Take that back, you worthless piece of shit! I don’t know why the High Queen still keeps you around but I hope that she soon gets rid of you after this stunt you pulled. I have never once regretted her picking me to watch over her son. How dare you call him a coward, how dare you call him weak! He's braver than you’ll ever be.” Lighting cracked around her.

They then heard a scream. “MK!” Daisy yelled as she jumped off the fox. She then stopped and turned to him, “If you’re gonna help then come on but if you aren't then leave.”

“Hm, fine then,” Storm said before disappearing in a flash of lightning.

Meanwhile, the Lady Bone Demon was using her powers to create her own mech to defeat the Monkie Kid. Her hair briefly turned white and she heard the voice of Spider Queen echoing the room. "Bring her to me...!"

Lady Bone Demon sighed in exasperation, she figured that sorry excuse for a queen would no longer become useful. "It would seem the queen's usefulness is drawing to an end."

The Mayor and the figure with glowing blue eyes and a heavy cloak appears behind her.

"Time to remove the unnecessary pieces from the game."

The Mayor smiled and bowed. "As you wish, my lady." He replied, the Mayor engulfing himself in light blue flames. The other figure nodded before a shadow portal appeared under him and he dropped down into it.

"Blast! There's just not enough material. Not enough time," Syntax says to himself, he then pulls out his watch and starts typing away.

"Oooh, what a lovely contraption you're building!"

Syntax gasped and slowly turned. He couldn't see the mayor behind him since he was right in front of him.

"But unfortunately you're quite correct," An icy cold hand crushing the other's windpipe. Syntax gagged, trying to free himself.

"There is no time," The Mayor beamed his blinding smile.

Syntax’s screams can be heard echoing through the tunnels. Goliath and Huntsman heard it.

"What was that!?" Goliath asked, terrified.

"I don't know big guy," Huntsman gulped in fear. "But it didn't sound good."

Behind them a shadow portal opened up and the cloaked figure stepped out. He smirked, his eyes glowing brightly.

Back in the cave, MK lowered himself back onto the ground seeing that the coast was clear for now. He changed back to normal and landed on his feet. "Okay, new rule. I'm never turning into a spider ever again," He shivered.

He shook his head, patting his cheeks. "Okay, time to destroy the spider mech." He summoned his staff from his ear and stood in front of the mech, he lifted it above his head.

Just then the arachnid ruler entered the lair, witnessing the mortal about to destroy the mech. "Wait, No!" The Spider Queen cried.

But it was too late as MK smashed the mech in half, roaring in anger, she pinned him by the neck against a rock as the smoke and dust cleared to reveal the destroyed spider mech.

Tears formed in her venomous green eyes before it turned to rage. She glared at the teenager, "You... ruined everything! It's all over because of..."

"Her," MK finished, his brown eyes widening in realization. "You were making that to fight her, weren't you? The Lady Bone Demon."

"The Lady Bone Demon? So it is her," She mumbled to herself, looking away mad yet terrified. She let go of MK, letting him fall to the ground. "Well if she wants to-"

"Yeah I know, she scares me too," MK cut in, grasping his throat. 

"I ain't scared!" Spider Queen looked surprised before shaking it off, glaring at the mortal. "I'm the queen!"

"Please wait, I can help. M-Maybe If we work together we can-" MK tried to reason with her however Spider Queen laughed coldly.

"Hahahaha, I don't need help from a child! I will rule this world. And no ancient bone witch is going to stop me!" She aims her robotic leg at MK. He shields himself out of instinct. Then all of a sudden gold smoke surrounded him. As the smoke cleared, a large gorilla hand stopped the leg in its tracks.

"What is this!?"

"Yes! I'm finally getting the hang of this!" MK cheered, pulling the leg and sending her flying far away before charging at her, though he stopped when he saw the fear and sadness in the Queen's eyes.

Spider Queen coughs up dust and collects herself before angrily shouting, "This...ain't over. I will rule, I am the-"

“Enough with that already!" A voice called. They looked over to see Daisy walking into the room. "Look, I don't know exactly how you lost your throne, and frankly I don't give a damn! You talk about how you want to be respected but this clearly ain't it!!" Daisy yelled angrily towards the Spider Demoness.

"I was meant to rule. I...I would have been a good queen," Spider Queen whimpered as she slowly tried to push herself up. "I was just a pawn in the game. Like you."

MK sighed as he finally calmed down, turning back to normal and kneeling down in front of her. "We all were...but it's not too late," he told her.

She scoffed, shaking her head. "Haven't you figured it out yet boy? There's no running from what she is."

Suddenly they all heard whispering from the closed grate. They all looked over at it in fear. A large blast of wind blew into the room as ice destroyed the grate. Daisy covered MK with her body.

"I'm afraid that Spider Queen is right."

The two turned as the wind stopped, Lady Bone Demon grinning widely as her hair glowed white and blew as if the wind hadn’t stopped blowing before quickly falling and fading back to black.

"Destiny will always catch up to us."

"You! I should have taken you out the second you walked into my lair!" The Spider Queen growls at her. She looked over her shoulder at MK and Daisy. "Fox, take the boy and run. NOW!"

"Wait! I can help you-" MK yelled before Daisy tossed him up and he landed on her back. She then took off running.

“Wait, Daisy! Stop we can-” MK said trying to get the vixen to stop but stopped himself as he saw her face. She was crying, she was crying for Spider Queen.

The queen's screams echoed through the caverns followed by blue light as the two were blown out of the sweater.

The explosion woke up the gang who was fast asleep on the roof, waiting for MK and Daisy. They looked over the side of the building to see the two laid out in the street.

“MK what happened?” Pigsy yelled down to them.

MK got up and turned to them with a saddened expression, tears in his eyes. “The Spider Queen sacrificed herself to save us.”

In Lilith’s prison, she stood watching Storm's interactions with her son and his fight with Daisy on repeat. The other Power Foxes stood behind her with the green fox, all watching with worried looks.

Behind her, there was a bright light as Storm took shape. He trotted with his head held high, towards the others. “Alright, I’m here, what is it that we all need to be here for?”

The others shot him either an angered look or a worried look.

“First,” Lilith started in a cold but calm voice, “I want you to explain this.”

Lilith moved her hand to the side and the screen in front of her moved with it and showed what she had been watching, it ending on the part where he left.

Strom scoffed, “It’s just me doing the job you sent me on plus some more.”

Oakley growled at him, knowing he was referring to him trying to woo Daisy.

“Is that so?” Lilith asked. “Well out of all the Power Foxes I’ve sent you did the worst job I’ve seen so far and I only have three Power Foxes left to send out and one of them isn’t even leaving the island.”

“It’s not my fault that the prince is so weak he needs his mommy to protect him,” Storm said with an eye roll.

The other foxes looked at him in shock and anger.

“What did you just say?” Lilith asked in a cold and dark voice, the screen disappearing.

“It is true, if he wasn’t so weak you wouldn’t have to send us to prot-Ahh!” Strom started before being tackled to the ground by a large goldish-white fox twice his size, its golden eyes glowing dangerously.

“You should have stopped when you had the chance,” Lilith growled. “How dare you say that about my son, your Prince! Daisy was right, I should have destroyed you years ago and replaced you!”

Storm was shaking in fear as the powerful queen stood over him, her teeth bared and fur fluffed out.

Lilith then stopped and stepped back, turning back into her demon form, “You’re not even worth it.” She snapped her fan open and walked away to the other Power Foxes.

“Rainstorm, Umbra, Jet, Oakley, how goes your pack’s recovery?”

“Thanks to shadow magic around the island my pack is fully recovered, my Queen,” Umbra declared with pride.

“Mine and Jet’s pack are still recovering but are getting better,” Rainstorm said before looking over at Oakley with a sad smile.

“Mine still needs time,” Oakley said, his tail hanging low.

Storm scoffed at that. Lilith whipped her head at him and glared at him. He fell into a submissive position on the floor.

“This is all good news and Oakley, of course, your pack may have more time, if you would like they may come and recover in this room since my nature magic is flowing around the room.”

Oakley smiled and nodded.

“Rainstorm, Jet, keep up the recovery. Umbra gather your pack and watch over my son and when the Bone Bitch shows her face, help them get away. Rockslide, once she has done her part, follow them and make sure they get here safely.”

“Right I’ll gather my pack and-”

“No, only you,” Lilith said, cutting him off.

“What? Why?”

“Umbra’s pack will be able to stay out of sight because they can hide in shadows but your pack can only do that with rocks and we don’t know how they will get here so it’s better if you just follow them. Do you understand?”

Rickslide nodded, hanging his head.

“The rest of you, make sure your pack is ready.”

The foxes nodded and started to walk away.

“Oh and Storm?” Lilith called, her eyes glowing gold.

Storm’s ear fell flat, “Um yes, my Lady?”

“If you ever pull a stunt like that again or say anything like that again I will follow through with my promise and I’ll let Daisy be the one to get rid of you, seeing as she’s the one that wants you gone the most.”

Chapter Text

The group had decided to do their training in the desert outside the city, just to make sure they didn't cause any more damage.

In the airship Pigsy was cooking lunch, Sandy and Tang were working on lifting weights, and Daisy was at the ledge with Yin, Jin, Ba, and Beng watching MK and Mei doing some training on the ground.

Laughter echoed across the sandy valley as the young Monkey Demon got launched into the air by Mei's dragon, which opened its jaws in an attempt to swallow MK. Luckily enough, said male was quick on his feet and extended the staff to keep said jaws open, before making a daring escape...by face-planting into the dirt.

Spitting out sand with a groan, the dark-furred simian looked up at his opponent, Ao Ji's descendant laughing triumphantly as she pointed her blade at MK, "Monkie Kid, so it's come to this!! Mwahahahaha!"

However, Mei gasps as she loses sight of her friend, searching frantically in order to not let him get the drop on her.

Little did she know that the young hero had used the opportunity to shrink himself down and bolt straight towards Mei, using the staff to vault himself through her legs and right behind her, before growing himself to a massive size, and body-slamming the poor Dragon Demon.

"Ack!" Mei wheezed, the weight of MK's size immediately expelling any air she had in her lungs. "G-get off ya' big lug!"

Laughing, the simian teen returned to his normal size and collapsed into the sand next to Mei.

"Alright kids break it up, lunch is ready so get moving!" Pigsy called out to them. "Alright, Dadsy!" MK called out transforming into a hawk and carried her back to the airship.

Sipping on the iced tea that Sandy had been kind enough to make for them, MK, Mei, Daisy, the twins, Ba, and Beng all sat in a circle.

“Did you see what I did?” MK asked them, with an excited look in his eyes.

“Oh yay. I think my favorite part was when you almost flattened your friend,” Beng said with a laugh.

"You've totally got the hang of this Mystic Monkey Business!" Mei spoke up with a confident look.

"Aw, thanks Mei," MK blushed, slightly embarrassed by her praise.

"Monkie Kid," the Dragon Demon started as she started off on one of her long 'Compliment Rants,' as the gang called it. "Master of Staff, King of Clones, Pro of being Big and Smol, Soon to be Red Boy's Queen! Hero of the Universe! Hero of being smart enough to move the training sessions out to the desert so we wouldn't potentially harm the city!"

MK's face flushed as he choked on his tea. "W-Wait, what was that third to last part!?" He stuttered.

Mei laughed at her bestie's reaction. "C'mon, we all know you love Red Son," she said in a teasing manner.

"He’s not my boyfriend and we only went on one date!" MK whined, flailing his arms. The others laughed at his reaction.

Suddenly a blast of eerie blue lighting shot up from the ground as the group ran over to the airship's railing to see what was wrong and Sandy, Tang, and Pigsy ran out of the kitchen due to the noise.

"What's going on?" Tang asked, confused.

Then a sudden jolt of the ship caused them all to cry out in surprise, immediately going to stabilize themselves as an eerie blue and white Spider Mech burst forth from under the sand, its glowing red eyes fixating upon the group.

"MK is that...." Mei trailed off.

"It’s her, The Lady Bone Demon," MK growled whilst Pigsy, Sandy and Tang gasped in horror.

MK grits his teeth, summons his staff, and goes to confront the spider mech only to be stopped by Pigsy.  "MK wait, you can't just- KID!!" Pigsy called out as MK leaped high into the air and towards the white Spider Mech.

He made a golden flaming fist to where the red eye was, but instead, a giant blue seal appeared as MK went through and the gold symbols began to appear in a circle.

'What the?' the teen thought in confusion until he and the mech were thrown away from the airship. The mech landed on top of him.

"MK!!" Everyone exclaimed in worry.

A golden light flashed and the spider mech was torn into pieces as a giant MK burst out, but then the same seal appeared below him along with more symbols in the circle causing MK to shrink back to normal as he fell to his knees and felt the sudden cold rush into his body.

"We meet again, MK the Monkie Kid,” a familiar echoed as a blue glow appeared behind her.

MK froze as a familiar chill ran up his spine and he slowly turned around to see LBD standing a few meters from him as she gave him a chilling smile.

"A kid? MK isn't she the little girl you said that was—"

"Yeah, that's her," MK gulped, cutting Mei off. 

"YOU!! You leave my best friend alone you BITCH!!" Came Mei's enraged voice, startling the others. The Dragon Demon leaping off of the airship.

“Mei, wait! DON’T!” Both Daisy and MK yelled as she summoned forth her dragon, its mouth charging up an attack, only to fail when LBD easily sent her slamming back into the metal shell of Sandy's ship with a flick of her wrist, the rest of the gang soon following.

"Noo!!" MK cried out in horror.

"You've done well MK...mastered so many powers..." The boy's pleading fell on deaf ears as LBD's host's hair changed from black to white, light blue ghosts hovering around her with eerie cackles. "It seems you're ready to meet your destiny."

Pigsy grunts. "Yeah, Yeah destiny "shmesity" You saw how fast the kid dismantled your little bone toy right?" Pigsy said before letting out a cry of pain as the Bone Witch increased her magic's weight upon him

"Pigsy!" Tang cried out for his husband. MK turned back to the bone woman, tears running down his face like a waterfall. "Stop it! Please stop!"

"That was part of the plan, I do apologize for what comes next." Her malicious laughter filled the air as they swirled around the remains of the mech, collecting every last piece and reforging it into something much more sinister...a mech of bones and ice-cold magic, wrapped up in glowing white chains.

"My attacks...every time I attack...I grow weaker, while you-"

"Become even more powerful than before!" LBD cackled as shards of ice burst forth from the sand below, aiming for MK in an attempt to skewer him, but a shadow portal appeared below him.

“What? He can use shadow magic?” LBD cried out.

“Think again,” Daisy yelled. They all looked at her and saw her necklace glowing before a spiral of light appeared on it, stopping on the midnight purple gem petal.

Just then multiple shadow portals opened up under the airship as Shadow Elemental Foxes jumped out of them. Out of the biggest portal came a familiar vixen with shadow-like fur and Black Barlow Columbine flowers in front of her ears.

Zalaph with MK on his back stepped out next to her.

“Well, well, well it seems a new piece has entered the game,” LBD said with a smirk.

“Just entered? No our Lady has been playing your game since it first began,” Umbra said with a laugh.

“Then she is a terrible player,” LBD said before shooting the tail of the mech toward them. They all jumped out of the way but Zalaph and MK weren’t so lucky.

“Zalaph! Young Prince!” Umbra yelled out for them before she and the others were frozen in ice.

MK cries out in pain as he feels a stabbing pain on his left side.

"You do understand, from the start you never had what it took to defeat me, all your power could do is make me stronger!" LBD said, appearing in her true form.

MK snarled as the teen's pure and unrestrained rage began to surface, a growl that made the gang all freeze rippled from the young hero's throat.

"I'm not going to let you win...you hear me?" The teen snarled. "I'm...not...going to...let you...WIN!!!!"

A wave of magic shot the airship back, freeing the others from LBD’s magic. They ran to the railing, watching with a worried look.

MK started to turn into his Kaiju Form, Zalaph managed to shadow teleport away and to his mate.

"How cute," the white demoness cooed. "The monkey is playing the hero."

An earth-shattering roar shook the ground as it let out a blast of energy at the mech, aiming to hit LBD as it did so, both attacks hitting but doing nothing but further powering the vile creature.

"Now I will undo the memories of this world," LBD said with a smile.

The teen cried as he felt himself being forcibly shifted back to normal. He looked over at the staff and made a move to reach out to it but ice started to crawl up it.

"Do not relent your fate little monkey, you can rest knowing that you served your purpose, destiny has found you."

All of a sudden there was a bright light. When it cleared, the Monkey King was standing in front of his cub while the Shadow Prince was on his knees checking to see if his son was alright.

"Sorry, we’re so late, cub," Macaque's deep voice sounded sorrowful, worried, but most of all...enraged. He kissed him on the forehead before letting out a calming purr, "Your Baba and I just got a bit caught up."

"You two cannot stop my destiny!" The Bone Demon screeched, bringing the staff towards her.

Wukong's eye twitched at the sight of his staff, he turned to see MK not in the best state of mind.

Before the two could react, ice trapped all three of them in place. “No, no, NO!” MK yelled before a large beam of green light was released.

“What is this?” LBD called out as she stepped back.

The ice around them broke to reveal MK but he was different, on his head were brown fox ears with red tips and a brown fox tail next to his monkey tail that also had a red and white tip, making it look like a hibiscus. The orange hibiscus Daisy had brought back appeared in front of him and turned into a flower crown with other hibiscus flowers that were red, yellow, and orange.

There was a flash of purple making them look over at Umbra, her whole body glowing along with the other foxes. The ice broke on them as well as she started to float in the air.

All the other Elemental Foxes became shadows and surrounded the airship and the Royal Family.

Umbra let out a bark before all of them disappeared in a flash of purple light.

Leaving the city at the mercy of the Lady Bone Demon…

Chapter Text

In a desert far away from the city there was a flash of light as two spheres of shadow magic appeared with a large vixen in the middle.

She turned her head to the largest and let out another bark as the shadows disappeared, turning back into foxes to reveal the airship.

The others on the ship looked up at Umbra in awe.

“This magic, it’s not hers,” Daisy said.

“What do you mean it’s not hers? She’s using it isn’t she?” Pigsy asked.

“Yes, but this is like a power bust! Someone is giving her more power but it’s not the queen because she can’t use her magic while she’s stoned so it must be…” Daisy looked over at the other, smaller, sphere.

Umbra also looked at it as it started to float over to the airship. Once it was on the ship the shadows disappeared, turning back into Zalaph and two other foxes.

There was MK, his fox features gone, and the two older Monkey Demons. MK’s eyes still glowed green but once they stopped he jumped up, his crown turning back into one flower that floated in place.

“MK!” Daisy, Pigsy, Tang, Mei, and Sandy yelled as they rushed forward.

“Wukong! Macaque!” Ba and Beng cried as they ran towards the group as well.

"No!" MK cried before trying to leap off the airship but was instantly held down by the Beng.

"Kiddo! Calm down, snap out of it!" Beng said through grunts, struggling to hold him still. MK thrashed around, growling.

“Wildflower,” came a calm voice in the breeze. MK stopped as the smell of lilies filled the air.

They all looked over at the floating flower which was now giving off a soft glow.

“Mom?” MK asked as Beng let go of him. He raced over to the flower. He held his hands up to it.

Suddenly his necklace, which had his family crest on it, started to glow. Both MK and the flower were bathed in a bright light.

When it cleared the flower was gone but underneath it was a fox. This fox had orange fur with different colored hibiscus all over his body and in front of his ears. He has two tails, a fox tail and a monkey tail, which has a red hibiscus on the end of it. The end of his fox tail is yellow with the fur puffed out and has the pattern of the inside of a yellow hibiscus with hibiscus stamens and pistils sticking out the end, making it look like they’re is a yellow hibiscus on the end of his tail.

“Th-that’s a Nature Fox!” Daisy cried.

“A what?” Mei asked.

“What isn’t a Nature Fox one of the fox types that’s a part of Mom’s fox pack?” MK asked.

Daisy nodded.

“When I first asked you about them you told me they weren’t important but I think it’s time you do tell me about them,” MK said to her.

She sighed, “Nature Foxes are very rare and are only found in the Stellar Realm and here in the Celestial Realm there are only six known Nature Foxes before Lilith disappeared. I’ve never seen this one at all,” Daisy said looking back at the new fox. In the Stellar Realm, Nature Foxes are only for the royal family, no one else can have them though it’s not like they are something that can be found out in the wild. When they bond to someone they gain the same powers as them but also the reason why the royal family has them is when their owner falls in love so do they, if their owner is having or expecting a child then the bonded fox will be as well. Nature Foxes can’t be made but thanks to Lilith’s developed power she can make them. When she came to this world she brought with her her Nature Fox, Tiger Lily. The first time she tried to create Nature Foxes she created two that were based off of her future mates, Sunflower and Moonflower.”

“My parents,” a weak voice said behind them

They all turned around to see that the fox had woken up.

“What did you just say?” Daisy asked, her voice shaking.

“Tiger Lily, Sunflower, and Moonflower are my parents. I am bonded to Prince Qi Xiaotian, the son of Fox Queen Lilith, my father’s bond,” the fox said as he stood up. They could now see that he had yellowish-green eyes.

They all stared in awe before it was broken by the sound of Daisy slapping herself. “Of course, MK has a Nature Fox. How can I be so dumb as to not realize that.”

“Um, so what’s your name?” MK asked, trying to move on.

“Hibiscus. As you can see from my flowers,” Hibiscus said with a smirk.

“It’s nice to meet you but what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be stoned with Mom?” MK asked.

“Yeah, the other Nature Foxes are currently stoned aren’t they?” Daisy asked.

“Honestly I don’t know. Last thing I remember was being in the stoned prison and playing with my moms and then everything went dark.”

“Stoned prison?” Macaque questioned.

“It’s not what it sounds like but because while our bodies are stoned our mines aren’t. The spell the High Queen used connected all our minds to one big place,” Daisy explained.

“However now that the Elemental Foxes are freed there’s a symbol on the floor of the room where the stoned bodies are that allows the Power Foxes to enter the place to speak to the Queen,” Hibiscus continued.

He then turned to MK, “I’ve grown up in that place, I was a cub when your mother took you to the city. I couldn’t grow up until you grew up because of our bond but watching you live your life was so cool,” Hibiscus said with stars in his eyes.

“Uh thanks, um hey do you know where the secret island mom is on is?” MK asked.

Hibiscus looked down in thought while the others stared at him in hope.

“Nope!” Hibiscus said looking back up with an innocent smile. “But the queen always talked about how there was a clue or something to help in the letter you gave you when you were a baby.”

“Letter?” MK asked, thinking back before Daisy cleared her throat making the teen look over at her.

A glowing white ball formed at the tip of her tail and flecked it in his direction. MK caught the ball and when it simmered down there was a letter in his hand.

MK opened it and pulled out a letter along with a hairpin. On it was a vine that went up the sharp part. On the end was a charm that had a bouquet of flowers; an Asiatic Lily, a bushel of Blue Star flowers, a White Alba Coerulea Oculata, a bushel of Red Perennial flowers, a Dandelion, a Yellow Rose, a White Lotus, a Purple Columbine, a Dark Purple Calla Lily, a Light Blue Calla Lily, a Black Barlow Columbine, and a bushel of White Star flowers.

MK then opened the letter and read it out loud.

Dear Wildflower

It will be hard watching you grow up without me but I know this is the only way to keep you safe. Within this letter is a hairpin that will lead you to me. However, once you step foot on the island there will be obstacles for you to face in order to get to me but I hope that by the time you go looking for me, you will have both your fathers with you.

With love, 

Your mom, Lily

“So this pin is supposed to help us? How?” Mei asked with a frown.

Just as she said it the pin started to glow before floating in the air. It then started to spin around before slowing down and pointing in the direction of the east.

They all stared in that direction. Wukong then clapped, gaining their attention. “Great it looks like you guys have something to do while me and Macaque go get the weapon to defeat Lady Bone Demon.”

“WHAT!?” Everyone shouted at him.

“Peaches, did you seriously just volunteer me to go on a mission instead of finding my wife who I haven't seen in over 1000 years?” Macaque yelled at him.

Wukong winched at the volume. “But we need to get that weapon!”

“We’ll get it after we find Lily and besides the only reason we were even able to defeat the Bone Witch in the first place was because of Lily so she’ll be a big key player in helping us defeat LBD,” Macaque said.

“Yeah and we want to help you get it,” Mei said with a smirk.

"What? No! You're not going, we’re going!" Wukong declared.

MK stared in shock "Wait, what? I can help, we all can," MK said.

Wukong slowly stood up "Look, here's the problem, you guys have this thing called mortality so..."

Mei huffed, crossing her arms. "Uhh, not looking so immortal yourself, Mr. King," Mei said, pointing at the battered and wounded monkey.

"She's right, you know," Macaque said. “We need to gather our strength back and this may be a good way to do so.”

"We can do this, we're stronger together," MK said with a determined look on her face.

Wukong let out a sigh of defeat. "Okay, fine," Wukong said and everyone cheered.

"It ain't gonna be easy, it's going to be really, really dangerous," Macaque said. “Both finding Lily and getting the weapon.”

“And it looks like we’re going on a journey to the East," Wukong said, smiling at the pin.