Scorched

Reforged

2

Wukong breathed until he could fully ignore the pain, plastering on a convincing smile as Mei began to wake up. "Hey kid, time to wake up from your nap. I fixed the problem."

Mei lifts herself from the bench she was laying on and looks over at Monkey King and his scrunched face that seems to be in pain "You okay there monkey king?" She questions tilting her head in concern.

"Must look bad if you asking me that twice now hug?" Wukong asked. "I'm fine kid. Just used a little too much energy and got some of your dragon fire by accident." Wukong waved Mei's concern. "Let's get back to the rest of the gang," Wukong assured her.

Gives Wukong a concerned look. She wants to push further but decides against it. "Okay," Mei says with a forced smile as she follows Wukong out of the room and into the one the rest of the gang.

"You're back! Did you get what you needed out of Mei Monkey King?" Mk asked his mentor.

"I did Bud. Took a little more out of me than I thought. Delicate work like that ain't much of my strong suit. Always was the bash and brawl while thinking on my feet type." Wukong jokes.

Suddenly the train was ripped open from the outside as a person emerged from the pink flames. "Sun Wukong!" Nezha demanded through gritted teeth as he glared down at the golden monkey. Though as Nezha goes to approach, Tang jumps in front of Nezha and begins his dignified fangirling over the lotus prince, annoying Nezha immensely.

"Nezha, still mad about your temple being empty, Little Brother?" Wukong sheepishly questioned the angered celestial after getting Tang and the rest of the group to a safe spot away from any potential harm.

Nezha scoffs, ignoring the 'little brother' comment. "Do you even realize what you're doing wrong?" Nezha yells. "You're going to get us all killed if you reignite the Samadhi Fire!" Nezha's voice is laced with anger but the people who know them well can hear the fear underneath.

"It's the only way to defeat Lady Bone Demon Nezha! Who do you think she will aim her weapon at after the Mortal realm is nothing but ice? Heaven and the Diya would be next on her list!" Wukong pointed out while keeping his instincts at bay. 'Protect protect proTECT CUBS!' his eyes flashing demonic red for a moment before he refocused coming up with a plan on the spot to buy time. 'Sorry Little Brother,' Wukong thought as Nezha pulled out his spear in a flurry of lotus petals. Wukong flashed right into Nezha's space and punched the celestial hard enough to punt him out of the train car and a few hundred miles away without hurting him. "Mk take the rings and head for the ritual sight but don't do anything until I get there alright?!" Wukong ordered pulling a few hairs from his head to make fake copies of the rings the teenager was holding.

"But what about Nezha?!" Mk asked in shock.

"I'll keep him busy!" Wukong answered, jumping into the air and summoning his golden cloud catching sight of the pink flames from Nezha's wheels that were following him. 'Come Little Brother. Follow the goose while the ducks get away.' Wukong thought, pushing his cloud to go faster. 'Let's put on a performance that Plums would be proud of.'

Nezha follows Wukong out of the train and sees he has the rings unaware of his trick. "WUKONG!" He screams as he chases after the monkey and goes in for an attack with his staff.

"Missed me!" Wukong snickered, dodging the attack.

Nezha growls under his breath in frustration. He always hated how Wukong treated everything like a game like nothing was important no matter how dire the situation was. "You're nothing but a fool Wukong," he said as he continued to attack the king. "This is why the rings should've been entrusted to me and me alone!" Nezha screams as he shoots pink pellets at Wukong.