Jack asks the tank driver if they're going to Gaagol . . . he pretty much goes on about how he wants to defend the weak and be a hero, but this annoys the driver and he pushes the kid off the tank. Right as Jack lands on the ground, two Airstrikers buzz the caravan and start to attack. The caravan and the Airstrikers exchange fire, but eventually the guys on the ground chicken out when the planes blast the cliffs beside the road. Naturally, the commander gives his soldiers hell for abandoning their posts, but he proves to be just as much of a chicken when the Airstrikers blast his tank, as he dives back inside.
A soldier bails out of the chuck wagon, and we get our first glimpse of Mick and Willy. Mick is peeling potatoes, but when he sees the commotion outside and all the soldiers taking cover, he decides to take a little break. Willy is similarly unfazed by the attack, but he just keeps cooking the soldiers' dinner.
The scene goes back outside, where one of the soldiers says my fave quote of the ep: "I say, we should take King Renard and Queen Tatania, lock 'em in a room, and not let 'em out until they learn to play nice!" These soldiers happen to be Renard's, by the way . . .
Anyway, Jack yells at the
soldiers for not doing anything against the Airstrikers, but then one of
the Airstrikers decides to shoot at him . . .
<commercial break>
The show comes back; the Airstriker that was shooting at Jack misses, but he still dives for cover with the soldiers.
We cut to the chuck wagon again; Willy checks the bread he has baking, then goes outside to deal with the problem of the attack. He walks the whole way to the commander's tank, eating an apple on the way there. He climbs onto the tank, hangs onto the apple with his teeth, then puts an oven mitt on and grabs one of the guns from the tank. The Airstrikers try to blast him but he ducks and returns fire, shooting the landing gear off the two planes. They retreat and Willy replaces the gun, walking back to the chuck wagon just as nonchalant as ever . . . that is, until Mick tells him the bread is burning!
We head elsewhere for a bit, near a mine in King Renard's territory. The king's ship comes in for a landing, and Renard steps out. He enters the mine and down an elevator, eventually meeting up with a worker at the bottom of the shaft.
Renard demands, "Where is it?" The worker tells him they've left everything untouched, and notified him immediately. They continue further down the shaft, coming to an obviously manmade wall with a '9' on it. There's also a panel with a handprint on it, Renard presses this and opens the way into the chamber behind the wall. In the middle of the chamber is Xyber 9. Renard goes over to try and take it, but he gets fried and thrown backwards. The king orders everyone out of the chamber just as his Machina comm goes off . . . he says, "Tell him I've found it . . ."
We cut back to the caravan again, and Jack is dozing on top of the chuck wagon. He wakes up when he hears Willy coming to dump the garbage, jumping onto a ladder attached to the side of the vehicle to hide. Willy sees him but doesn't say anything, and when Jack climbs back up, he's pleasantly surprised that the big guy left him something to eat.
Jack eats his dinner and notes that the caravan is coming into a base for the night. A short while later, the soldiers are in the base, dancing with the girls there, getting their dinners and just plain relaxing. Jack wants to buy a candied apple but takes one glance at the gold he has and changes his mind.
Jack goes and sits down by the fire, where an old storyteller is starting his tale . . . now I'm gonna quote this in it's entirety because I think it's so neat; here goes . . .
"The winds of war blow foul of breath,For those last two lines, the old storyteller steps closer to Jack, but the lad tells him he's got the wrong guy. Jack takes off, with soldiers laughing at him as he goes.
a king and queen fight unto death.
But in their war, all is for naught.
Death and slavery, all they've bought!
For from below, an evil hand,
brings darkness now across the land.
A ray of hope, a young boy king,
Rally 'round him, all shall sing!!"
The commander from earlier is reading reports and doesn't notice the little horned pig about to steal his dinner. Well, the guy does catch the pig in the act, and grabs a burning branch from the fire to punish the animal. Jack's standing on the wall above, and jumps down to save the pig, kicking the commander backwards in the process. The flaming stick goes flying near some fuel barrels . . .
The commander yells to his guys to stop Jack, but the soldiers all take off as the fuel barrels are about to explode! The barrels go KABOOM and the commander's sent flying into the air, while Jack and the pig go looking for an escape route. He finally lands in a pig sty behind Jack. On climbing out, he makes the mistake of calling Jack 'boy' . . .
Jack growls, "Don't call me 'boy'!" and does a backflip onto a wooden thing leaning into the pig sty. It seesaws and whacks the commander, knocking him back into the mess. Jack takes off running, using all kinds of acrobatic skills to avoid or disable the soldiers in his wake. The storyteller is watching all this, whispering, "Can it really be?" while a tear trails down his cheek.
Meanwhile, the pig leads Jack to an old scout glider. The glider miraculously starts, and Jack flies away from the base, into the jungle nearby . . .
We go back to that mine shaft, Renard is still there. A rumbling starts, and Renard shatters the light he has with him. A digging device makes its way through the wall and disappears, followed by six Machina soldiers. They raise their guns to the ceiling as they're an honor guard, and Machestro steps out of the blackness, striding over to Renard.
Renard kneels before his master. Machestro accuses him of trying to take the Xyber himself. The king makes some excuses but they're for naught as Machestro zaps him anyway. (Man, Renard got fried by the Xyber, then by Machestro all in one ep . . . the dude must have a high pain tolerance . . .) The dark lord is furious, telling Renard to never cross him.
Back in the jungle, Jack stops the glider to let the pig go. The little bugger doesn't want to leave, so Jack names him Honk and brings him along. They see something in the shadows and move on a bit further.
The two of them discover an unusual structure in the forest, a tall shaft leading down into the Xyber chamber. Jack climbs it to get a better view but the top breaks and he goes falling into the shaft . . .
[commercial break]
Jack is still falling down the shaft . . . Renard and Machestro head towards the Xyber chamber. Jack's fall ends at the bottom of the shaft, letting sunlight into the chamber. The boy looks around for any threats, and finding none, turns his attention to the Xyber in the center of the room. He walks over to it, but before he can take it, Machestro and his Machina enter the room . . .
As the door opens, the sunlight hits Machestro, causing a painful reaction and he drops to his knees on the floor, turning away from the light. The Machina soldiers with him don't have this problem as they're wearing helmets, and they rush into the room to defend their master.
Having recovered a bit, Machestro gets back up, but not before a protective visor slides out from his helmet, shielding him from the light. Jack is dodging the soldiers, even making two of them crash into each other. He keeps avoiding their attacks for a while but eventually grabs the only weapon in the room: Xyber 9. Machestro isn't too happy about this, and orders his soldiers to back off as he doesn't want the Xyber damaged. Jack mistakes this as cowardice, challenging them all to fight.
About here, the Xyber reactivates and asks, "May I help you?" The natural reply from Jack? "Get me out of here!!" The Xyber is happy to oblige, blasting Jack back up through the shaft, and the chase is on!
Jack and Xyber land outside, close to where the glider is parked. Out of nowhere, the nearby hillside opens up, with Machina about to come out of the opening! Jack tries to get the glider started again but it stalls out. They're given a little more time as Anakonda kicks a rockslide down in front of the tunnel, making the soldiers crash their bikes. But even more nearby hills are opening up now, so Jack has to get out of there!
The glider STILL won't start, however, and Xyber asks to 'look under the hood'. Not having much to lose at this point, Jack lets the computer take a look. At this, Xyber tells Jack to plug him into the engine. The boy does so, and the Xyber gets the glider to start! They take off, Honk in tow, with the Machina in hot pursuit . . .
We switch to the Underworld then, and Machestro asks Renard how he's doing in finding Xyber 9 again. Renard's armies are searching the countryside as they speak, and Machestro demands that Jack be brought to him dead or alive. Renard notes that the dark lord's army awaits him, and we get a glimpse of just how huge the Machina army really is . . .
Meanwhile, Jack is still running from the Machina. He asks the Xyber what he is and the computer replies, "You may call me Xyber 9." Jack introduces himself as well, saying, "Welcome to my world!"