| Court of the Yellow Robed Demon << Show Me the Monster >> Pitiful Creatures |
(Pigsy looks around in the chapter he's in.)
Pigsy: Tang? (He summons his rake.) Mei? MK?! Ah! Where are you guys?! (He sees a blue figure.) Sandy? Sandy, are you hurt?!
Sha Wujing: (Sobbing.) Oh, the Sandy is scared.
Pigsy: Oh, ain't nothing to be scared of, except these piles and piles and piles of skulls. (He laughs nervously.) This ain't good. Looks like Sandy's trapped in the body of his demon ancestor, Sha what's-his-name? (To Sha Wujing.) Let's get out of here before whatever left all those bones does the same to us.
Sha Wujing: It'd take a powerful warrior to defeat the monster who did that. Are you a powerful warrior, mister?
Pigsy: Yeah, sure, a big powerful warrior. Come on, let's get moving before... huh? (Skulls are blown past him as Sha Wujing takes his Crescent Staff.)
Sha Wujing: Finally, a worthy challenger for Sha Wujing of the Flowing Sands River!
Pigsy: Oh, nuts.
Sha Wujing: All these jabronis thought they could go one-on-one with the champ. That little pooper-scooper ain't gonna save you now. (He summons his arena.)
Echo: Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
(Sha Wujing leaps at Pigsy.)
(In his chapter, MK follows the Acolyte into the temple.)
MK: Hey, miss, you haven't seen my friends around, have you? Pig guy, glasses guy, sword-girl guy... (He gasps as he takes in the scene.) Whoa.
Acolyte: This is the Temple of the Tilted Moon and Three Stars, where those select few are trained and shaped to become powerful sages under the instruction of the wise Shifu Subodhi.
MK: Shifu Subodhi? Then this... this must be the place where Monkey King learned it all! All his abilities. (He imagines him as one of the students and then remembers the vision.) Monkey King. Where is Shifu Subodhi? I need to see him. Now!
Acolyte: I—
Student 1: You really think you're worthy of meeting the Master on your first day?
Student 2: No one has even seen the Shifu Subodhi in 50 years.
MK: Fifty years?! But I gotta see him now!
Student 2: Then just try, Headband. Between us, we've nearly learned 2 of the 72 transformations.
MK: Wow. Two, huh? Alright. Well, maybe I can give you some pointers on the other 70! (He has taken on the form of his gorilla and defeats all the students, and slides under a door by shrinking himself.) Success! (He is picked up by Master Subodhi.) Master Subodhi? (He becomes big again.) Man, it is so cool! Uh, it is an honor. I know this isn't gonna make sense, but I need to know how—
Shifu Subodhi: I know exactly what you need to know, MK the Monkie Kid. The questions is, do you?
(Pigsy is in the middle of a fight with Sha Wujing.)
Sha Wujing: Wee wee goes the little piggy! Lemme hear ya oink! You can't run away forever, piglet. The Sandy wants to see the monster.
Pigsy: I'm not a monster. And sure, our ancestors, they weren't great guys, but that ain't us, that ain't you.
Sha Wujing: Oh, enough yappin'. I wanna hear that monster inside squeal! Come on! Let him out! Fight the Sandy! (He punches Pigsy.)
Pigsy: No, I... won't.
Sha Wujing: Time for this piggy to go wee, wee, wee all the way home. (Pigsy dodges and grabs his rake, using it to block his punch.)
Pigsy: (He summons his powers.) You wanna see a monster? I can show you a monster! (Sha Wujing is thrown back by Pigsy's activated powers.)
Sha Wujing: Finally. A worthy opponent! (He charges back into battle.)
MK: Wait, you know who I am? But we're inside the scroll, in a memory.
Master Subodhi: I am the Great Master Subodhi. There is little I do not know.
MK: Oh. Okay, great! So you can help me find Monkey King, save my friends, and defeat the curse? Awesome. No giant world-ending calamities for the Monkie Kid. Just gonna be straight-shootin', fun-filled adventures by the beach. (He is bonked on the head.) Ow! Hey, what was that for?!
Master Subodhi: Stand straight and hush your tongue! You talk too much! This is not about the Monkey King. There is something more at play here. Something about you.
MK: What? Me? I'm just a regular noodle delivery boy.
Master Subodhi: Do you even believe that? The students I train spend lifetimes to possess a fraction of your power. Am I to believe Sun Wukong is the greatest master in history?
MK: I mean, maybe. He's pretty great. (Master Subodhi bonks him on the head again.) Ow!
Master Subodhi: Wrong! I am the greatest master in all of history. However, even I admit my mentorship is not the sole reason for Sun Wukong's absurdly fast learning, just as his is not reason for yours. Tell me of your childhood. Your parents.
MK: Oh, well... um... I...
Master Subodhi: You do not remember?
MK: No, I remember. It's just... (He has a flashback of his youth.) Pigsy.
Master Subodhi: And what else? (He digs deeper into his flashback.)
MK: The stone. Monkey King's stone. Please, take me there.
Master Subdohi: Very well. But only because you said please. (He transports them to Flower Fruit Mountain. MK almost vomits but sees a stone.)
MK: Yes! Thank you, Master! Monkey King?! Monkey King! Where is he? That's his stone, but it looks...
(He looks at the stone, before seeing another carved in the shape of a monkey from his flashback.)
(Pigsy is fighting Sha Wujing.)
Echo: Pig! Pig! Pig! Pig! Pig! Pig! Pig! Pig! Pig! Pig! (Pigsy defeats Sha Wujing.)
Sha Wujing: Now there's the monster. I knew you were holdin' out on me. Well, go on then. Go for the finishing move. (Pigsy prepares his rake but hesitates, remembering his ancestor, and drops his rake.)
Pigsy: No. No! Just 'cause we look a certain way, 'cause our monster ancestors were, well, monsters, none of that matters. I won't let his legacy define mine, and neither should you. You're the strongest, the biggest, the bluest guy I know, but all you've ever used those muscles for is to help people in need, your friends. That don't sound like a monster to me. (He extends his hand out to Sha Wujing who appears to take it, but then he grabs his wrist.)
Sha Wujing: What's a fight without a bit of drama, huh?
Pigsy: What?
Sha Wujing: You almost had the Sandy, but you were too weak to be who you truly are. I am a monster. That's what the world wants me to be, so that's what I'm gonna give 'em!
Echo: Finish him! Finish him! Finish him! Finish him!
(Sha Wujing picks up his crescent staff to deliver the final blow but Mo drops out from above and he drops his staff to catch Mo, who rubs and purrs against him. He gasps as memories are brought back and he transforms back into Sandy.)
Sandy: Mo! (Tang and Mei teleport in.)
Mei: Sandy?
Sandy: (He grabs them all in a hug.) I'm sorry, my old friend.
Pigsy: It's okay, Sandy. You're always there for us when we need you. The least we can do is be there for you when you need us.
Tang: Now that we've had our moment, we need to get moving!
Mei: It's Azure Lion. We have to find MK.
(MK is looking at the stone.)
MK: Monkey King should be here. This is the stone I've been seeing in my vision. Why isn't he here?
Master Subodhi: I have not brought you to your master. Although this was the stone from which Sun Wukong once sprung, it appears, over time, it was used to form another. A simple creature with no past, no family, and no name. There is a reason you are at the center of these stories. A reason you can harness the power of the Monkey King himself.
MK: So you're telling me I... am... the Monkey King!
Master Subodhi: (He bonks MK on the head.) Wrong! Without question, you were not born from the stone as he was. Who or what you are, even I do not know the answer. But of one thing I am certain. Fate has plans for you. Great plans or foul? Time will tell.
MK: I-I can't be. I'm just... I'm just MK.
Master Subodhi: The Monkie Kid? (The stone behind MK cracks and everything darkens as the protective curse catches up, causing Master Subodhi's voice to echo.) Time will tell. Time will tell. Your journey is just beginning. (His form melts away in the ink circling around MK. Then, ink streaks towards the area below the stone, taking on a new form.)
MK: What... No.
(MK panics as he realizes the curse is taking on the form of the monkey he saw in his vision.)