Chapter 10 - Final Judgement

Rose was shocked at what had happened; she failed to reach the exit in time. Jake and the others were equally shocked.
“Rose,” Councilor Klude spoke grimly, “I am sorry, but you have failed to exit the trial dimension before sunset,” Rose and Jake shared the same look of worry on their faces as the portal behind Rose closed. A tear began to form in Rose’s eye, believing that she failed to pass the trial. Suddenly, killing the depressing mood, a witch-like cackle was heard echoing across the area. Then, a violet portal appeared behind Rose and Fu; emerging from it were Chang, Bananas B, Tiburon (his hook reattached with tape) and his shark men, the Kelpie, and Vicky.
“So, despite it all, YOU FAIL TO PASS THE TRIAL!” She finished with a sinister cackle, joined in by the respective evil laughs of Vicky, Bananas B, Kelpie, Tiburon, and the shark men. The councilors looked at each other with straight faces and raised eyebrows.
“We never said that she failed the trial,” Omina stated, causing the evil laughter to altogether halt. Everyone was surprised by that.
“Say what?”
“Say wha’?”
“Ssay what?”
“Say WHAT?”
“?Que Que?”
“Say whuh?”
“Say HUH?”
“Say what now?”/“Excuse me?” Jake and Rose finished in unison.
“You see,” Klude started, “it wasn’t a test on how fast she could get through it, but on what she would do to surpass the obstacles.” Rose’s spirits were being lifted.
“The serpent was a test of assessing reason for a problem and finding a solution,” Omina added.
“The forest was a test on knowing what to strike and when,” Andam continued.
“The city was a test on avoiding unnecessary conflict,” Klude joined in.
“While the mountain was a test on avoiding a less obvious trap.” Omina stated.
“But over all, the main idea of the challenges was to not take anything in face value. A basic fundamental of any legitimate dragon, which is also expected of a knight of the dragon order.”
“Well, what can I say? I’m pretty open minded,” Rose stated before turning to face Jake, “Besides, if it wasn’t for Jake in my past reality, I’d still be taking the things in face value.” Jake blushed at the comment. Meanwhile Chang’s rage was at the boiling point.
“In fact,” Andam continued, “Your interference actually gave her ‘extra credit’,” At that point, Chang snapped.
“This is UNACCEPTABLE!!” Chang roared as she transformed into her dragon form, “I will not have this..this.. HUMAN into our RANKS!” She flew at Rose at full speed, but was intercepted by Jake, who assumed his dragon form, and used his tail to whip Chang away to the ground. When she got up, she saw Jake in front of Rose, growling. “Stand aside, American Dragon, this is between me and the dragon-slayer.”
“EX-dragon slayer,” Rose corrected, “or is it ‘never-been’ dragon-slayer? Ugh, my head hurts just thinking about it,”
“Welcome to the party,”Spud said jokingly.
“SILENCE!!” Chang demanded before turning her attention back to Jake. “As I was saying...”
“Correct me if I’m wrong,” Jake interrupted, “but unless I miss my guess, you don’t have a say over me anymore,”
“He’s right,” Klude added as he took his dragon form, “So you have two options, Turn yourself in quietly...or face the rest of us.” The other councilors transformed into their dragon forms, as did Sun, Lao Shi, and Haley.
“I’m flattered by what you’re doing,” Rose whispered to Jake, “but I can still take these guys,”
“That’s okay, Rose,” Jake replied, “you don’t have to prove yourself now.”

Feeling intimidated, the others thought of different excuses as to bail out.
“Uhh, I just remembered, we have that thing to do... in that place that’s, uhhh.... not here,” Tiburon said as he backed off. The other shark people overlapped each other with statements of agreement as they all backed away.
“Uh, yeah... there’s this comic-convention being held in not here,” Vicky lied as she backed away slowly, “So, uh...yeah, I’m just gonna....” She finished it by running off screaming. Chang looked at Kelpie in a way that asked if he was going to stay.
“Hey, I’ve sunk my teeth into more than enough morsels to take on a group of dragons!” The Kelpie snarled as he morphed into a stone golem.

Just then, a flashing, green energy vortex appeared right above and behind Chang and the Kelpie. Leaping out of it, attempting to make an entrance, was the puppet creature, who came in upper-body first, then retracted it’s lower body from the vortex by pulling the wires that kept them attached; following it was the clown creature, slithering out of the vortex, it’s smile all that was seen at first, followed by it’s eyes, the black stripes and makeup, then the rest of it as it rose to it’s feet laughing. Finally, the scarecrow creature’s pole flew out and hit the ground, sticking into it, followed by the scarecrow leaping out and landing on top of it, striking a martial-arts style balancing pose.
“Oh look,” Fu started, “Chang brought in her reinforcements,” Kelpie, Chang and Bananas B were all equally confused.
“Did...you invite them?”Bananas asked Kelpie.
“I thought you invited them.” Kelpie pointed as Chang.
“Hold on,” Haley interrupted, “if those three were the ones that attacked us, then they can’t be working with Chang, otherwise they wouldn’t have had to ambush us to get in.” There was a brief silence when everyone thought about it.
“I see her point,” Susan said.
“Who cares!” Bananas B exclaimed, “As long as they be on our side, then I ain’t complainin’”
“Aehy, abotu ahtt,” The scarecrow creature said as he stepped down from his pole. He took a deep breath and exhaled heavily, releasing a swamp-green cloud of gas that engulfed Chang, Bananas, and the Kelpie. The three of them coughed, sputtered, hacked, and wheezed as they choked on the gas. Soon after, the coughing stopped, and falling from the cloud were Chang, Bananas, and the Kelpie in his original form, but their bodies looked shriveled up, as if someone sucked them skinny with a bike-pump. Still wheezing, Chang tried ti get up, but barely has the strength to so much as blink. The scarecrow creature took big steps to approach Chang. It picked her up by the back of her neck and said, “Eoruy’ ckluy ahtt I dnot’ aehv a aestt for adgnors, and ahtt I lnoy aet ehnw def,” Chang could only wheeze a scream as the scarecrow tossed her up for the clown to grab; he did the same with Bananas B and the Kelpie. The clown stretched it’s arm at least 20 feet behind it before violently throwing the three in the direction of the Hong Kong Harbor. Both it and the scarecrow chuckled menacingly as they turned to face everyone else.
“I don’t think that they were on Chang’s side,” Jonathan stated as the three approached. He and the other humans started to back away while the dragons, Fu, and Rose stood their ground.
“Dragon council, ATTACK!!”Klude declared as the three leapt in to battle the three. Unfortunately, the clown used it’s vertigo-laugh to knock the councilors to the ground, followed by the puppet firing a glowing net at each of the councilors. Once contact was made, the councilors were forcibly reverted to their human forms.
“Sphinx hair!” Andam exclaimed as he struggled to get out. Unfortunately, whenever a councilor would struggle to escape, the net would get tighter.
“Ist’ on esu, adgnor ccilnou,” the scarecrow creature stated as he walked up to the councilors, “ehost enst illw lnoy egt eghirtt eht emor ouy egglrstu. Bdeeiss, hist is jstu beeentw su adn eht ehnrtu. ” the scarecrow stood itself back up to face everyone else, “EFIR!!” The creature demanded. At command, the puppet creature fired more nets, this time capturing Jake’s parents, Trixie, Spud, Sun Park, Fu Dog, and Haley, leaving out Jake and Rose. “Eth der adgnor illw jstu be eehtr as a bnusu.” it finished as it pulled it’s staff out of the ground, this time transforming it into an energy scythe.
“Any idea what he just said?” Rose asked as she pulled another staff out of her satchel.
“No idea,” Jake replied, extending his claws. There was a momentary stare-down, Jake and Rose switching gazes between the puppet and the scarecrow. It lasted long enough for them to realize that they were one shy. “Hey, weren’t there three of you guys?” Jake asked, noticing the absence of the clown. Rose answered his question by back-fisting the space behind them, and successfully getting a yelp of pain. The clown faded back into visibility, rubbing it’s hurt nose. “Thanks Rose,”
“No Prob,” Rose shrugged as leapt into the air and delivered a flurry of kicks straight to the clown’s face, successfully rendering him senseless; Jake finished it off by doing a spin-tail-whip to it’s chin, knocking it’s head skyward before it fell to the ground out cold. They both finished it by tying the clown up in a series of knots like a distorted balloon animal.“Okay, who’s next?” Rose rhetorically asked, giving them the staff-twirl-taunt.
“MUTILATE!”
“VANDALIZE!” The puppet and the scarecrow charged at Rose and Jake respectively. The puppet unhinged it’s secondary set of wrists and swung them like small maces while the scarecrow swiped it’s scythe/pole across the ground.
“You take the ugly one, I’ll take the one with bad breath!” Jake declared as charged for the scarecrow, leaving Rose with the puppet.

The puppet swung it’s lower hands at Rose, but she used her two staffs to catch them by the cables and wrap them up like spaghetti, and then she flung it high up against the side of a large rock wall, creating a loud crack leaving an impression. Following that, Rose threw the same staffs at the puppet’s sides, keeping it’s arms crossed and it’s body stuck to the wall.
“Well, marionettes ARE meant to hang,” Rose said wittily as she used her wings to fly over to face the freaky figure, to her own dismay. The puppet creature used it’s hand-like feet to grab Rose’s upper wings, then it opened it’s mouth to let out a pair of metal whip-like cables; it used those very cables to shred Rose’s wings, causing her to scream in pain, and fall to the ground.

Jake, who was currently struggling to keep the scarecrow’s scythe out of his own face, overhead the loud scream.
“ROSE!” He exclaimed, redirecting his attention, only to get kicked in her direction by the scarecrow creature’s foot. He was hurdled at least halfway to Rose’s location before he hit the ground face down. As he tried to get back up, the scarecrow creature leapt into the air and landed on top of Jake’s back.
“Aww, eht adgnors’ aehrt is his acdiinostt,” it said as it reared it’s scythe over it’s head, “allow em to deemry ahtt.” it finished. Before it could swing it’s weapon, Jake used his tail to grab the creature by the neck, pick in up, and slam it to the ground. With that out of the way, Jake flew to Rose to see if she was okay.

- the others

Fu was using his canine teeth to try and free everyone, starting with himself.
“Come on Fu doggy-dog!” Trixie commanded in a frustrated tone, “Hurry it up!” she grunted.
“I’m trying here!” Fu reacted with the netting between his teeth. Jonathan was just worried on how his son and Rose would get out of this one.

-back to the battle

Jake got to Rose, hoisted her arm over his shoulder, and helped her up.
“You okay?” He asked as he helped Rose get to her feet.
“Aside from having my wings sliced off and falling from a height, dandy.” Rose answered. They both turned their attention to the puppet, who got itself off of the wall, and climbed down to the ground. It faced Jake and Rose, untangled the wires from the staffs, and used it’s buzz-saw mouth to shred the staffs into nothing but shrapnel.
“VANDALIZE!” the puppet creature extended all of it’s claws, whirred the buzz-saws in it’s mouth, drew the metal stabbing weapons from the hatches on it’s hands, and extended some of the metal wiring from it’s wrists and began to charge, swinging as spinning each weapon.
“Oh, the heck wit’ it.” Jake said before taking a deep breath for a fire-breath. He let out a large torrent of fire on the puppet, making it scream and flail from the heat of the fire. The blast went on for a second before Jake stopped. Hopping to see a pile of ash, Jake was surprised to see that the puppet was still in tact; no burn marks on it’s bark, no singes on it’s clothes, and no searing in it’s hair, but the metal in it’s mouth, nose, eye, hands and feet were glowing red hot. Jake and Rose stared awestruck and mouths agape, during which the stubs of Rose’s wings fell off.

“Huh, guess he’s the kind of wood that doesn’t burn,” Spud said jokingly.

The puppet looked at Jake and Rose, parted it’s bottom Jaw at the chin like a mandible, moved them aside, and lowered it’s buzz-saws, all red-hot and revving.
“This could be bad,” Rose said as she reached for her satchel. Then, the puppet creature slung one of it’s red-hot buzz-saws at Jake and Rose like a yo-yo. They leapt in opposite sideways directions as to avoid the blade, and let it hit the ground between them. When the puppet pulled the blade back, both Jake and Rose saw the heat mark it left in the ground, as well as the fact that it wasn’t as deep as they would have thought. Rose turned to see the blade just before it was completely drawn back into the bundle, and noticed that it looked like something ground out the serrated edges. Then she got the idea. “Jake!” she called out as she pulled a pair of energy knives from her satchel, spun one in each hand, and then pointed them at the puppet, “Keep you’re dragon fire on him!”
“Why?!” Jake replied, “I don’t think he’s gonna burn!”
“Who said anything about burning him like wood?” Rose answered. After a look at the puppet’s metal nose, noticing that it looked a little curved downward as if it were beginning to melt, Jake got the idea. He took another deep breath, and shot a heavy current of fire at the puppet. The puppet was fighting the force of the fire with it’s claws at the ready, knowing that he would eventually run out of breath. Unfortunately for it, Jake’s fire kept coming, and it’s metal body parts were beginning to melt. It’s teeth were beginning to melt together, it’s nose was dripping and running, the buzz-saws were melting and dripping down it’s body, it’s metal digits were melting, it’s metal eye was oozing out of it’s socket, and inside it’s body all of the melted hidden weapons were oozing to the bottom, making it heavier and heavier. By the time Jake ran out of breath, the puppet creature was crawling across the ground in a puddle of it’s own red-hot metal. “Perfect,” Rose said as she turned a dial on her energy dagger. She fired a ray from her dagger, which flash-froze the puppet’s hot metal, thus immobilizing it.

“Wow, she’s good.” Haley said.

“Sweet!” Jake exclaimed after he caught his breath. “Okay, so that’s two down, and one to...”
“MUTILATE!!” Jake and Rose turned their attention skyward to see that the scarecrow was coming down at them with the energy scythe over it’s head.
“Oh crud!” Jake and Rose exclaimed at the same time as they saw it. It was coming down to attack Rose, but she was able to leap out of it’s landing path. It then swung it’s scythe at Rose’s feet, but she simply jumped up to dodge it, then delivered a round-house straight to it’s face, causing it to stumble backwards. It then used a free hand to hold open the mouth seams of it’s mask to let out it’s side tongue in an attempt to grab Rose, but was stopped when Jake flew over and used his tail to grab the scarecrow creature by the neck, and toss it in the direction opposite of Rose’s.
“Let that be a warning!” Jake exclaimed, “Keep your tongue away from my girl!” an awkward silence followed. “Wait, that didn’t come out right.” the scarecrow got back up and ran over, dragging it’s energy scythe across the ground. Rose gave Jake one of her daggers, and then they both charged at the creature to attack. The scarecrow tried to slice Rose with it’s weapon, but Jake used his dagger to block it at the blade, allowing for Rose to deliver a devastating kick to it’s face to knock it back. Then the creature recuperated and then tried to slice Jake, but then Rose used her dagger to block the scythe’s blade, allowing Jake to use a tail-spin-uppercut-strike to knock the scarecrow upward in the chin, incidentally knocking it off of the ground slightly, allowing for Rose to give it a swift kick in the stomach to send in flying backwards. Basically, every time one would block an attack, the other would deliver an attack on the scarecrow, then switch off.

“Wow,” Trixie started, “Those two really work well together for a pair who haven’t seen each other in heck-if-I-know-how-long.”
“Yup, totally,” Spud replied.

The Scarecrow was once again knock to the ground back first.
“Y’know, kickin’ yo but like dis gets borin’ afta the third cylce!” Jake Chuckled wittily. The scarecrow got back to it’s feet and made a blood vessel bulge in anger.
“AHTT IS IT!!” It shouted, “I AM DENO FGILNOO ADNORU HITW OUY ABSTR!!” it took a breath deep enough to puff up it’s chest, then it exhaled it’s cloud of swamp-green gas at Jake and Rose. Jake reacted quickly by using his own dragon breath to counter the creature’s breath. What neither of them expected was that the scarecrow creature’s breath was flammable. The flames from Jake’s breath traveled across the cloud of gas to the scarecrow’s face before it completely exploded. When the explosion occurred, Jake quickly flew Rose to a safe distance from the blast, considering that the explosion was similar to lighting a gas pump on fire; the scarecrow, however, was shot fifteen feet into the air from the burst, and landed two yards from where it was originally standing.

“You okay?” Jake asked Rose, whom he was carrying in his arms.
“Okay, and you?” Rose replied. Jake landed and let Rose back onto the ground. They heard the scarecrow moaning in pain, and turned their visual attention to it. It was lying back first on the ground; it was currently dazed from the explosion. It’s weapon nowhere in sight.
“Ehy,” It started as it lifted itself at least an inch off of the ground, “Ahs aennoy eens my...?” it saw the scythe falling down at it from above, spinning as it fell, “....oh” what all that it had time to mutter before it landed... in it’s right eye... blade first.

It’s screams of pain echoed all the way up and down the hills; Everyone who was seeing it cringed in pain and tried to look away.
“Ohhh, that’s gotta hurt.” Spud said, closing his eyes and facing away in an attempt to not look at the unpleasant sight. After a short while of screaming, the scarecrow vanished in a flash of green lightning, as did the puppet and the clown. Everyone was as perplexed by what had happened. “Hey where’d they go?” Spud asked.
“Don’t know...” Rose started.
“Don’t care,” Jake finished as they both made their way to everyone wrapped in the nets. Jake used his claws to free his parents, Lao Shi, Fu Dog, and Trixie, while Rose used her dagger to free Haley, Sun, and Spud. Then they both freed the three councilors.
“I would’ve gotten out eventually,” Fu said as he tossed the net off of himself.


“Thank you, both of you,” Klude said humbly to Jake and Rose as he and the other councilors got back up. “And Rose, as the other councilors and I were saying before, you pass the dragon council knighting trials.” Jake, Rose, as well as everyone else there cheered in delight and excitement. Rose just glomped a hug on Jake from the side, giggling with joy; Jake smiled, reverted to his human form and hugged her back.

“And there you have it, folks.” Lana T Bell announced, still there long enough to have caught the hole thing. “The first dragoknight on known record, a clash with the unknown, and...” Lana and her cameraman turned to see Andam glaring at them from behind. “.... a major citation from the dragon council.” She signaled the cameraman to stop rolling, which he did.

“Your knighting ceremony shall begin in one and a half hours,” Klude announced, “You’ll be knighted at the isle Draco, arriving by the portal at the convention center,”
“And worry not, it won’t be a formal-dress affair,” Omina added, “But do try to look decent anyway.” Omina finished as she and the other three councilors walked off, taking the news fairies with them.

Rose took a deep sigh of relief and purposely fell backward onto the ground.
“You okay?” Jake asked.
“Just...beat,” She answered, putting her hands behind her head.
“I’d imagine so,” Jake added, laying down next to her, except his head was facing in the opposite direction, although hey were still face level. They looked at each other with soft smiles. A short silence passed before someone spoke up.
“Uhh, I think that they want some time alone,” Fu suggested. Everyone nodded and backed away politely. Lao Shi, however, stood there for a moment, but only because something about the nets struck him as familiar. “Uh, gramps,” Fu whispered, “I said they wanted alone time.” Lao Shi managed to snap back to reality and respond.
“My apologies, Fu Dog.” He whispered back, “But there is something familiar about the way that the nets are woven.”
“Big deal,” Fu whispered back, “you see one net weaving, you see ‘em all.” He finished before walking off. Lao Shi was concerned, but didn’t want to concern Jake or Rose, so he followed Fu. Meanwhile, Jake had Rose’s hand in his, and was tenderly kissing the back of it, Rose softly giggling to it.

-Later that evening, at the Isle Draco

Dragons from all over were seated in bleachers that stretched from the entrance at the island shore to a large circle in front of steps of the central hall. And oriental fanfare was being played alongside an elfin drum-line. Between the bleachers was a velvet carpet that started at an open portal, and ended at a trio of podiums centered in a large, golden circle on the ground. Jake, Trixie, Spud, Lao Shi, Haley, Sun, Fu Dog, Susan, and Jonathan were all seated in a VIP section, literally hovering above everyone else. Appearing in front of the podiums in a small purple teleportation cloud was an elf.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the dragon council!” the elf announced before disappearing again. The councilors flew from the main halls in their dragon forms, and theatrically flew in fancy spiral-like patterns at least 30 feet above their respective podiums. They reverted to human form, and landed smack-dab on their feet behind each podium. Everyone cheered at the spectacle, then stopped when the three councilors put up their hands as a gesture to request silence from both the audience, and the fanfare.
“Welcome dragons, one and all,” Andam announced, “we have gathered you all here to witness a rare event, the knighting of a human into the dragon order,” He directed everyone’s attention to the portal at the opposite end of the long carpet. Stepping out of the portal was Rose, wearing her uniform. She felt nervous about being there, being marked a dragon slayer on an island full of dragons, but she was comfortable because she knew that Jake was there.
“Rose, come forward.” Klude politely ordered. Rose humbly, and calmly approached the councilors with dignity.
“You may kneel,” Omina requested. Rose got on one knee and put her head down politely.
“Rose,” Klude began as he and the other two councilors each lifted their right hands, which started to glow, “You have proven yourself both against the Dark Dragon at the millennium temple, and today in the knighting trial. You have proven yourself worthy of an honor we thought that we would never bestow upon any human. Thus, we do hereby dub thee....” The councilors held their right hands at Rose, and caused the golden ground beneath her to create a spiraling energy chrysalis around her. Everyone stared in awe at what was happening. After a while, the chrysalis faded, allowing Rose to emerge from it, this time with new accessories. “.... Lady Rose. alias, Dragonfli” Klude finished.

Rose was awestuck by her new appearance. She still had on her outfit, but now she sported oriental-esque armored plating on her shoulders, her thighs, chest, back and her upper and lower arms; She also had facial armor that covered the lower half of her face (eyes still visible) , metal protection on the bottoms of her boots, as well as her weapon satchel; to top it all off, the armor on her back had four special gems that allowed Rose to conjure golden energy wings with red markings. Everyone on the island cheered, especially Jake.
“You may now rise,” Andam said politely. She did as he said, and then bowed in respect. The cheering continued as a display of fireworks commenced in honor of the new Dragoknight.

- the Skies of Hong Kong, not too long later.

Rose was flying through the sky using her knew wings, enjoying her new power. Jake was following a short distance behind in dragon form. It didn’t take long for Rose to notice that she had company.
“Oh, Jake!” She started, coming to a halt so that Jake could catch up. “I didn’t know I was being followed.”
“It’s okay,” Jake replied as he caught up. “I just...wanted to congratulate you personally...”
“Again?” Rose rhetorically inquired with her hands at her hips and a raised eyebrow.
“I also wanted to say...” Jake took a deep breath and exhaled before continuing, “... I’m sorry,” Rose was surprised.
“Sorry? About what?” she asked.
“About pulling you back into this,” Jake answered, “I gave up everything that we had, our entire history together, just so you could have a happy, normal life, and then I come in out of nowhere and pull you from it!” He hung his head and sighed, “I’m no better than the Huntsman.” Rose was just astonished by Jake’s attitude towards himself.
“Jake, don’t ever compare yourself to him like that,” Rose responded, putting one of her hand’s on his shoulder and using the other to lift his head by the chin so that they could meet eye-level. “You’re better than that by miles,” Jake’s spirit was lifting a bit. “You gave me the life that the Huntscaln took from me, and at a personal expense. That’s the sweetest thing any guy could do.” Jake put on a soft grin. “And, I know his is going to sound corny, but my life wasn’t entirely perfect.” There was a brief quiet moment.
“Why...?” Jake asked curiously.
“Because I never met you.” Rose answered. Jake gave a loving smile as a tear almost came to his eye. “And if anyone should be apologizing, it should be me,” Rose said softly and sadly as she de-conjured her facial armor, and with a tear dropping from her eye. “I tell you that I’d never forget you, next thing you know I get my parents to call the cops on you for...”
“Shh,” Jake interrupted, putting his finger on her lips. “Let’s not think about that,” Jake said as he reverted to human form, keeping his wings and tail to maintain flight and balance. Jake put his hands on Rose’s cheeks while Rose put her hands on his cheeks; they then slowly and softly pulled each other in for a long, soft kiss. They were in so much bliss, that they didn’t care if they were in plain sight for anyone to see.

-Hotel room balcony.

“Awww,” Haley said as she was spying on her brother and his girlfriend through the zoom lense on a video camera, “This is just to beautiful to use against him,” She put down the camera before she continued talking, “although I’ve never noticed how much taller she is than him. That must be awkward on her behalf."

-another Room in another hotel

“Ugh, sickening.” Jake and Rose were being spied on through a telescope by a sash-masked, raven-haired Japanese woman amidst her twenties. She put the telescope down and forced the curtain to the window she was looking through. She and a man with long black hair, an overcoat, goggles, and a metal mask within her age-group were in a poorly lit room. The man she was with was preforming a type of surgical procedure on the scarecrow creature’s face where the scythe hit it. The man’s left hand held a flashlight to the incision area to see what he was doing., while he used his right hand to... actually, there was no right hand, just a bundle of small mechanical digits operating small tools.
“I apologize for my minions’ failure,” The man said through a voice changer in his mask, “Just say the word and Huntsgirl’s apartment has a ‘mysterious’ gas-leak.”
“I never asked for an apology,” The woman said as she turned her gaze to her associate her one visible eye gleaming in an intimidating way, reflecting what little light there was in the room. “Your minions did just what I wanted them to do.” She turned to see that the clown was trying to work itself out of it’s own knots, while an android was trying to chisel out the puppet from it’s own melted metal.
“And that was?” the man asked as he put the finishing touches on the scarecrow’s new robotic eye and sealed the incision.
“To test her,” The woman answered, “To see if she could pose a threat. The bad news is that she passed.” The scarecrow regained consciousness in time to hear what the Japanese woman had said, and was obviously angered that he was only sent after Rose so he could be her punching bag, but was in no shape to attack.
“I ahlls deoruv ahtt chitw at eht first accehn I egt.” The scarecrow quietly threatened.
“Knowing her, you’d have a better chance of surviving a shower of battery acid,” The man told the creature, referring to the woman. “So what do we do know that she passes as a threat?” he asked the woman.
“Simple,” the woman answered, “use her in our plan.”
“How?” the man inquired.
“Some weapons are better left in enemy hands,” She replied, “That way, the blow is more devastating when it is turned against them.”
“ I doubt that she’ll be willing to join us.” The man stated as he got up. The android that was attempting to chisel out the puppet gave up and walked over to the man. The man’s mechanical tools retracted into his wrist as the android transformed into a mechanical right hand. The mechanical hand then reattached itself to the man’s mechanical arm at the wrist.
“Worry not about her joining us,” The woman continued as she pulled out a velvet satchel. “All shall be revealed in due time.” She pulled a glowing crystal orb from the satchel and began to chuckle softly, and menacingly.

-“End credit Gag”-

Jake, Rose, Trixie, and Spud were all in the Hot tub; Rose in a blue Bikini, and the others in their traditional swimsuits, while Jake was now sporting his own rice-grain necklace similar to Rose’s, but with blue water instead of magenta .
“Here’s to my honey, the dragon order’s new, if not only ever, knight!” Jake announced as he raised his smoothie glass. Everyone else raised their smoothies and clanked the glasses before sipping out of them.
“So, does anyone here feel like we forgot something?” Spud asked after he finished sipping.
“If it’s about explaining to Jonathan how Jake knows Rose, I’ve got it covered!” Fu called out from the other room.
“No not that, but something else. Something I can’t quite put my finger on...”
“Now that he mentions it, yeah.” Rose added, “But what?”
-Victoria Peak Hunts-lair

#89 and #88 were still hanging by the rafters, desperately calling out for help alternatively.
“HELP! HELP US!”
“SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP US!”
“WE’VE BEEN HERE SINCE I-DON’T-KNOW-HOW-LONG-IT’S-BEEN!”
“I’M HUNGRY”
“I CAN’T FEEL ANY OF MY LIMBS!”
“I’M GETTIN’ DELIRIOUS!” There was a brief pause.
“Really?” #89 asked.
“Yeah,” #88 answered, “I can see a tiny green platypus in a hat starin’ at me like it’s gonna eat me!” there was another awkward silence.
“You’re crazy, dude.” #89 finished.
--

The End

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