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DD II Shrine

Undertown
Episode written by Doug Booth

     Billy and Jimmy are on the rooftop of the Dragon Dojo practicing a slow kata with their swords as the sun rises over Metro City.  Suddenly, Billy's dragon birthmark begins glowing, causing him to ask, "What's going on?"  Both of the twins' birthmarks emerge from their chests and hover toward the edge of the roof.  The birthmarks then direct the brothers' attention toward a manhole cover in the nearby alley.
     A mutant with dreadlocks emerges from the manhole and begins running from generic "Blade" Shadow Warriors.  The mutant has a distinctive Jamaican accent and cat-like facial features.  As this mutant runs through the streets, he bumps into a normal Metro City citizen and begs for help because "the Shadows be upon I and I."  However, the Metro City citizen is disturbed by the mutant's appearance, and likely confused by his manner of speech, so he pushes him aside and runs away.
     Three Shadow Warriors converge upon the mutant, but Billy and Jimmy round the corner on a Dragon Cycle.  Billy and Jimmy quickly dispatch the Shadow Warriors, who run off.
     Back at the Dragon Dojo, we find out that the mutant's name is Daj.  However, Michael is showing quite the attitude toward Daj, claiming that everyone knows mutants are Shadow spies.  Both Billy and Jimmy lecture Michael, reminding him of what the Oldest Dragon says about judging people by their face.  The twins and Daj leave the Dojo to escort Daj home.  But when they leave, Michael shows that he still doesn't trust Daj, claiming that the brothers are making a big mistake, and that he can't let that happen.
     Daj and the brothers go down into the sewers through the nearby manhole.  Daj explains that the electromagnetic field radiating from the EMF plant's power lines are what are causing the mutations, and that the people above hate mutants because of their appearance.  Jimmy explains that not everyone hates them, but Daj says enough do for it not to be safe for them to live above.
     The three then emerge in front of a large waterfront city called Undertown.  It resembles a stereotypical bayou with several floating docks.  Daj explains that in Undertown, everyone has to fight for survival, so that is why they began to trust a man named Ice Pick.
     Ice Pick is seen standing on a large hovercraft in front of a crowd of mutants.  He's giving a speech and asking if the mutants are sick of being treated badly and living in darkness.  A projector on the hovercraft displays images as Ice Pick orates.  He says that if they go to work for the Shadow Master in his underground factory, he can change the mutants into normal-looking people. (The projector shows a mutant walking into the Black Flame and then emerging as a normal-looking, blue-collar construction worker in a tank top with a hard hat).  Ice Pick asks who's with him, and the mutants cheer, walking onto the hovercraft.
     The scene cuts back to Daj.  He is standing about waist-deep in water when a female mutant named Erika rides up on a jet-ski-type watercraft.  Daj and the brothers are then seen inside a building where an unidentified mutant is seen sitting at a table and using his hands to transfer energy into something called a "sun globe."  Erika explains that the EMF mutations also give them special abilities.
     Erika asks Daj why he isn't seeking a new self in the Black Flame.  But Daj explains that it's all a lie meant to get him to work for free.  Erika then says that is what Daj's father feared, and that his father went looking for him in the Shadow Master's factory.  Daj then exclaims that his father will be trapped with all of the others.  However, Billy and Jimmy are seen putting on trench coats and covering their faces with scarves, with Billy telling Daj, "unless Ice Pick recruits a couple of workers he didn't bargain for."
     Back at Ice Pick's hovercraft, Michael is seen standing about waist-deep in water and hiding behind some reeds.  He's secretly watching mutants board the vessel when he spots Billy and Jimmy in their disguises (he notices their red and blue boots).  Michael believes that Daj has somehow tricked the brothers into working for the Shadow Master.  As the hovercraft begins to leave, Michael swims up to the hovercraft and secretly boards it while giving a nod to a prior episode by saying "Chop's swimming lessons really paid off."
     The hovercraft arrives in front of the Undertown factory and a large gate opens for the vessel to drive through.  Before it passes through the gate, however, Michael jumps off.  But the gate quickly closes behind the hovercraft, leaving Michael stuck outside.  He has to find another way in now.
     Once the hovercraft docks at the factory, Ice Pick yells at everyone to hurry up and get off.  He then tells a very large and muscular mutant foreman to get the collars ready.  The foreman tells the mutants that the collars he's about to give them will shield them from the EMF field.  A random mutant then walks through a metal detector-shaped device that attaches a collar around his neck.  The foreman then says that if they try to leave before they've been transformed, they'll be in for an unpleasant surprise.  He then presses a remote control that activates the collar and shocks the mutant, dropping him to the ground in pain.  The mutants are horrified at the sight of this and Jimmy is infuriated.  He wants to immediately attack, but Billy tells him not yet.  They have to find Daj's father first.
     The foreman apologizes and says it's to make sure everyone knows the rules, but it's a small price to pay for being transformed.  Ice Pick chuckles and says to himself that it's a way make sure no one ever escapes.  The brothers and all of the mutants are quickly pushed through the machine, which places collars on all of them.
     Inside the factory, Daj's father is seen working on an assembly line by placing objects inside of cardboard boxes (these will later be explained to be the RPM drug in another episode).  Daj's father talks to the foreman and says that he came to find his son, Daj.  The foreman simply says that if he works hard he'll soon be joining him.  However, Daj's father becomes angry and says the transformation promise is a lie.  He demands to know what happened to his son. 
     The foreman becomes angry and grabs Daj's father, tossing him to the floor.  He tells the guards to get rid of the troublemaker, but Daj's father runs away, climbing a ladder.  From the ladder, Daj's father tells all of the mutants on the assembly line that the transformation promise is a lie meant to turn them into slave labor.  The foreman says to ignore this man because he'll rob them of their dreams.
     The foreman then activates the collar on Daj's father, which incapacitates him and causes him to fall off the ladder.  A Shadow Warrior catches him as he falls and drags him away.  Jimmy looks at Billy and asks if now is the time.  Billy says yes.
     The brothers run behind some cover and try to transform into the Double Dragons.  However, the collars begin shocking them and Jimmy notes that the devices are blocking their Dragon power.  The Shadow Warriors then spot the bothers and tackle them to the floor.  The foreman says to take their weapons away, but Jimmy simply says to go ahead and try.  As a "Blade" Shadow Warrior reaches for Jimmy's sword, it blasts him with Dragon energy and sends him flying.  This gives the brothers the opportunity to get back on their feet and counterattack.
     As the brothers begin fighting off Shadow Warriors, Billy says to get Daj's father out of there while he slows the guards down.  Jimmy then grabs Daj's father and jumps on an a moving assembly line.  Billy then jumps up on a catwalk and knocks the nearby ladder down so no one can reach him.  As Jimmy tries to get the guards' attention off Billy, Ice Pick throws his dagger into a control terminal which shuts down the moving assembly line, leaving Jimmy and Daj's father exposed.  The guards quickly tackle the two.  However, they can't find Billy, who's still hiding in the vicinity.  Billy runs away with his collar still shocking him.  Ice Pick tells the guards to find Billy, and he directs a mutant to take Jimmy's sword and lock it in the vault.  He then laughs at Jimmy and says he's got a gardening surprise for him.
     Jimmy is seen being escorted onto a catwalk in a central garbage disposal area.  A mutant places Jimmy's sword in a nearby compartment and Daj's father asks the foreman how he can do this to his own people.  The foreman evidently believes Ice Pick's lies since he tells Daj's father that he's helping the mutants be transformed so that they can live above, just like Daj.  But Jimmy explains that Daj wasn't transformed.  He escaped because the factory is evil.  The foreman asks Ice Pick if he has been lied to, and Ice Pick says of course he lied to him.  But he has a good life.  The foreman then laughs and says yes he does.  He'll choose power over transformation any day.
     Ice Pick tells the foreman to activate the garbage disposal, which he does.  Conveyor belts then begin dropping garbage into a central pit containing a very large mutated Venus Fly Trap.  Ice Pick tells Jimmy that the Shadow Master will be arriving in person to witness him being fed to the plant.  Jimmy tells Ice Pick that he and his brother will find a way out, and Ice Pick thanks Jimmy for reminding him about Billy.  Ice Pick then walks over to a nearby console and increases the pain setting the brothers' collars, shocking them both.  Billy is then seen spying on Ice Pick from a catwalk above the garbage disposal area.  His collar quickly drops him to the ground, as does Jimmy's. 
     Billy notes that the Oldest Dragon says pain is like a river.  If you try to hold it back it will drown you.  You must flow with it so it leads you to your destination.  Billy then pulls out his sword and begins practicing a slow kata, similar to the one in the beginning of the episode.  The collar then explodes, freeing Billy.  Ice Pick mistakenly believes that he just blew up Billy, but Jimmy knows better.  Billy is seen running off.
     Outside the factory, Michael is still trying to find a way in when he spots Billy.  Billy spots Michael as well, but then he notices two large crocodiles heading toward Michael.  Billy jumps into the water and tries to fight off one of the crocodiles, but the other one goes for Michael.  Just then, Daj pulls up on a jet ski and commands the crocodiles to stop attacking his friends.  This appears to be Daj's mutant power - the ability to communicate with and command animals.
     Back inside one of the buildings, Billy is recuperating and drinking some herbal tea provided by Erika.  Michael is still showing his ignorance and bad attitude, saying "If you mutants hurt my friend..."  Billy interrupts Michael and explains that these people just saved them, but Michael is still acting badly.  He asks Daj and Erika why they talk weird, and Daj asks Michael the same question.  Billy says to give Michael some time.  Billy says he needs to find a way back into the factory, and Daj says he can get them back in the same way he got out.  Daj then looks at Michael and asks if the trusts him.
     Billy, Daj and Michael are then seen pulling up to the factory on Daj's jet ski.  Daj takes them through a tunnel that leads to a group of sick and ailing mutants.  Daj hands them some water and tells Billy and Michael that this is what Ice Pick brings to mutants.  Billy says it's time to shut this place down, but Daj says leave it to him, and his hands begin glowing showing that he's commanding some animals.
     Back in the garbage disposal area, the Shadow Master is watching as Jimmy and Daj's father are being lowered from a rope directly into the Venus Fly Trap's pit.  Suddenly, a pack of crocodiles knocks down a steel door and chases some guards away.  Billy, Daj and Michael run in with Michael praising Daj and saying how that was amazing.
     Billy tries to climb a ladder to help Jimmy, but he is blasted by the Shadow Master and falls into the fly trap pit.  He quickly climbs out just to be attacked by Ice Pick.  Billy deflects Ice Pick's attack and does a jump kick, knocking him back.  Jimmy then tells Billy that the console next to him controls the collars and holds his sword.  Billy smashes the console, which opens up the nearby compartment holding Jimmy's sword.  Billy runs out with Jimmy's sword and the Shadow Master tries to blast him.  However, smoke emerging from the console room interrupts the Shadow Master's attack.  The Shadow Master then blasts the rope holding Jimmy and Daj's father, causing them to fall onto the Venus Fly Trap.
     Billy cuts the two loose and hands Jimmy his sword.  As Billy tells Daj's father to escape, the plant grabs the brothers.  The brothers then touch touch their swords and begin to transform when the plant swallows them.  However, a glowing horizontal cut emerges from the center of the plant, which then explodes, spewing plant juice all over the Shadow Master.  The brothers are then seen standing on the plant's remains yelling "We are Double Dragons!"
     Billy and Jimmy jump onto the platform where the Shadow Master is standing, but the Shadow Master blasts Billy off the catwalk.  Billy digs his sword into the catwalk's supports, stopping his descent.  He then jumps back onto the catwalk and rejoins his brother, firing back at the Shadow Master.  The Shadow Master twirls his weapon, deflecting the energy blast.  However, the deflected blast hits a support structure and the factory begins collapsing.  The Shadow Master calls Ice Pick an unmitigated fool as he disappears along with Ice Pick and the foreman behind a cloud of smoke.
     The Double Dragons and everyone else are then seen escaping the collapsing factory on the hovercraft.  Jimmy invites Daj's father to live above ground, but Daj's father says they're not ready to face the prejudices and challenges of the people above.  He also drops a subtle to hint about an upcoming episode by saying he still doesn't know what they were packing there in the factory (it was RPM).  Michael invites Daj to live above ground as well, but Daj declines, saying that he belongs here as well.  However, he says he's not opposed to visiting.  The Double Dragons then hold up their swords and say "By the power of the Dragon!"
     Epilogue Message: Billy is standing with Daj, Michael, and the unnamed sun-globe mutant.  Billy explains that prejudice starts with the twin enemies: fear and ignorance.  Michael then explains that he didn't trust Daj because he looked so different.  He then says that he had to look below the surface.

     Dojo Master's review: This was a pretty good episode for season two.  It's a straightforward infiltration plot that works well with this series.  Mutants had already been established in the first season, but they were never really explained and were just treated as freaks and criminals.  While the moral teachings of the episode were expectedly cheesy, I enjoyed the little things such as the connections to other episodes, and how Billy uses a Dragon lesson to overcome his shock collar.  This episode was followed up directly by "RPM," where it is explained that the Shadow Master has invented a new drug that gives people freakish strength and an equally freakish addiction.

Rating: A-