Jack and Anakonda (though you don't find out her name or that she's a girl until the end of this ep) are sort of play-fighting in the mud near the newly formed lake. They do that for a while, but then Jack wanders too close to the lake and a giant snake appears from almost nowhere. Jack probably would have been snake food, if not for Ana coming over and singing to the snake to get it to go away. It licks her face and slithers back into the lake, then she faces Jack and says, "Don't go near here, it's my brother's home."
Elsewhere, Queen Tatania is putting a Skyfighter through it's paces, while the techs that created it look on. The guys on the ground are sweating at the queen's bravado, as she takes the small fighter through several manuvers that weren't on the testing schdule. Tatania takes it into a steep dive and lands the plane, catching it on fire in the process.
The techs come over to check on Tatania and put the fire out as she exits the plane. Tatania compliments the techs on their work but tells them to raise the tip of the right wing three degrees. One of her army's vehicles rolls up, and the guy inside tells the queen that they've spotted Renard's main Pounder column approaching the Gaagol River Valley. Tatania tells him to tell the captain to prepare the Independence to cast off . . .
[commercial break]
The scene picks up back at Gaagol Dam, where they're going to announce the reward for our heroes. Roselyn's there watching the ceremony. The mayor tells them that they get the deed to the land above the valley. Mick isn't too happy about this and has a hissy fit, but Willy bops him on the head to shut him up.
One of the villagers spots something sticking up out of the water, and Jack and company take a look. Xyber says it's a Class 1-Alpha Preservation Depot, but Mick puts it in much simpler terms, "It's a vault!" They go down to check it out, with Willy opening the rusty latch. There's a place to put the Xyber, and Jack uses it but nothing happens. Xyber says the lock requires a passcode . . .
They go outside, where Mick is hauling the CLOD over to the vault. He says they'll need it as a watchdog until they find out what's in the vault.
Princess Roselyn shows up, wanting to open peaceful negotiations with the group for her father, King Renard. Mick starts at this, saying, "Yeah, I've seen their peaceful negotiations . . ."
Renard himself shows up, with that group of Pounders that Tatania's scouts spotted earlier. They surround the vault and our heroes! Roselyn says she'll try to talk to her father . . .
Renard asks her what she's doing there, and Roselyn says she could ask him the same thing. Jack's group hasn't done anything wrong, and she gave them her word there would be no attack. Renard pretty much shrugs this off, and orders the princess to go home to the capitol. He orders one of his guys to escort her there so she can't stick around.
As soon as she's gone, Renard orders the attack! "Nothing gets out of this valley alive . . ."
[commercial break]
The battle's about to start when Tatania's Skyfighters fly in and start blasting away at Renard's tanks. Some Hammerons drop out of a cloud bank, hitting Tatania's plane with weapons fire. She orders the Airstrikers to go after the Hammerons, which have trouble dealing with them.
Renard spots Tatania up there and orders his guys to blast her outta the sky. She eventually gets clipped by the hail of fire and her plane goes down. She's still strapped into the burning plane and fuel is heading towards the fire. Jack runs over and cuts the queen free with a triangular blade he pulls from his pocket. Tatania tells him to save himself, but he rescues her anyway . . .
The plane blows up, but they're safely away from it. Tatania takes off her helmet and introduces herself, thanking the boy and saying she wants to return the favor. Jack tells her to take care of Renard's attack and they'll be even. Tatania says she'll see what she can do and calls in the Independence, her HUGE capitol ship. The Independence swoops in, raining hellfire on the tanks!! Renard is forced to retreat. The Machina comm crawls up to his ear again, and Machestro zaps him through it for the failure . . .
It's nightfall now, and Tatania offers protection from Renard in exchange for Jack standing up to him later on. The boy agrees and they have a deal. Tatania's comm goes off; Renard is attacking villages in the north. She leaves, saying she's needed elsewhere, and the Independence takes off . . .
It's a bit later, most everyone is asleep except for Ikira and the Xyber. Ikira asks the Xyber why he's there, and says that in ancient times, the Xybers did anyone's bidding, for good or evil. Xyber tells Ikira that all of mankind's hope was placed in him, and for that reason he was given free will. Ikira seemed a bit shocked at this . . . Before their conversation can continue, Ikira senses something weird and wakes everyone up. A rumbling starts; the Machina have arrived!
Machestro himself is there, and he orders Jack to give him the Xyber. Jack seems uncertain, but the dark lord promises he'll let them all live. Jack refuses to give the Xyber up, and Machestro makes a grab for it, only to be stopped by Ikira's blades.
Machestro is surprised that Ikira still lives. Ikira hisses, "In spite of your best efforts, my lord Machestro . . ." Machestro sics his soldiers on Ikira, then steps towards Jack.
Honk goes charging at Machestro's leg to defend Jack but only manages to go rolling backwards. Jack gets out that triangular blade again. Three blades pop out of the corners and he throws it at Machestro. The Machina overlord's ready for it, though, and blasts it out of the air. Jack's rather spooked at this and takes off running! Battle #2 of the ep is on . . .
Ikira gets loose from the three Machina holding him and joins the fight. Ana jumps for her bat, and a Machina almost gets a target lock on them, but Mick and Willy blast him out of the sky. Jack's still running from Machestro . . . the dark lord zaps him from a distance and Jack goes tumbling to the ground . . .
[commercial break]
Xyber tries to wake Jack up . . . Jack gets to his feet and makes his way to the edge of the lake, where he drops to his knees. Xyber tells Jack that he should just give him to Machestro . . .
Machestro comes over and is about to zap Jack again, when the giant snake appears and attacks! The snake tries to eat Machestro in one snap of it's huge jaws, but the dark lord dodges and runs behind the snake. He starts hitting it with energy bolts and orders his soldiers to kill it. Anakonda flies over to save the snake, taking out a few Machina on the way, but her and her bat get shot down by Machestro and land in the lake. Jack's not one to stand for this, and puts the Xyber into the CLOD, getting the bot operational. He pilots the CLOD to knock the Machina still on their Tunnel Runners out of the sky. Machestro orders the retreat and runs off, followed by his soldiers . . .
Ikira's managed to knock 16 Machina on their asses . . . he does a victory pose with his swords as they've been thoroughly defeated and lets them go.
Jack picks up Ana and her bat with the CLOD and gets them to dry land. Jack hops down after he's parked the bot, dropping to the ground in pain. Ikira helps him up, as Ana gets rid of her disguise. "Hey, he's a girl!"
She says since Jack saved her brother's life (the snake), they get to trade true names. Her's is Akitoalar'Kitesomate . . . Jack says it's too long and gives her the name 'Anakonda'. She says she likes it . . .
The next morning, Tatania comes back, saying Renard's attack was a ruse to draw her away so they'd be open to attack. Ikira says they got lucky and that they need to find a way into the vault. Jack doesn't want to leave, he thought they had a home there. He gets out a key strung around his neck; it was the key to his family's house. He says the house is gone and so's his family, only to discover he has something of a new family in the group . . .
Tatania says she'll protect the valley while they're gone, and gives Jack a Skyfighter. After a bit of training, Jack's flying it through the sky . . .