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DD II Shrine

Virtual Reality Bytes
Episode written by Rich Mueller

     We open outside of a large bank that looks like a capitol building.  Inside, we see a man in a business suit sitting at a very large central computer and talking on a headset to what sounds like a customer attempting to access his bank account.  Suddenly, the computer starts making strange beeping noises, and the bank employee notifies security (via his headset) that the financial records of every bank in the world are gone.
     As the camera switches to outside the Shadow Dojo, we hear the Shadow Master laughing.
     Inside the Dragon Dojo, Kona is wearing a fancy suit and examining himself in front of a mirror.  We can hear the sounds of martial arts practice in the background.
     Kona walks into the nearby training room where we see Billy and Jimmy sparring with plain wooden sticks.  Jimmy stops sparring to stare at Kona when Billy about clobbers him with his stick.  However, Jimmy easily catches the stick with his left hand without taking his eyes off of Kona.  Billy then complains that Jimmy's defense was "not the preferred move."  The brothers then turn their attention to Kona.
     Billy and Jimmy approach their large Dragon Warrior and Jimmy attempts to schmooze Kona, asking him who his (presumed) date is.  Kona does not answer Jimmy's questions, despite remarks about being "fellow Dragons," and says goodnight to the Dragon Masters.  Billy expresses enthusiasm about Kona apparently having a "girlfriend," but Jimmy asks what about the two of them.  Billy hands Jimmy his stick and suggests more practice.
     Kona and his date are seen sitting at a low, Japanese-style table in a private room drinking tea together.  Kona mentions to his date that Jimmy was asking about her on his way out.  The young lady asks who Jimmy is.  Kona explains that Jimmy is his friend, and that Jimmy and his brother are masters at the Dragon Dojo where Kona trains.
     Kona's date asks if this is a "fighting dojo," and Kona tries to reply that they attempt to avoid fighting, but sometimes it is necessary to protect those you care about.  The young lady does not seem to agree with this, and says she is not a porcelain doll that needs protecting.  Besides, not all battles are won by fighting, she states.  Kona apologizes for possibly offending her, but she replies that it is alright.
     From inside the nearby kitchen, we see Sickle peaking in on Kona's conversation through a curtain separating the two rooms (much like the decorative curtains that are split vertically and section off the kitchen in Japanese restaurants).  Kona and his date are apparently at some sort of hotel/restaurant.  Ice Pick is holding one of the hostesses at knifepoint in the background of the kitchen.  Sickle tells the other hostess to go into the room and not say a word or else.  Ice Pick then points his knife at the second hostess, letting her know what the "or else" means.
     The hostess enters the room and hands the young lady a note just as Kona asks the woman how long she has been working at the consulate.  Kona's date then mentions that she has a phone call, and politely leaves the room.  However, as soon she does so, Kona hears a thud sound and runs into the kitchen only to see a hostess holding a beaten-up chef.  Kona's date is missing.
     Outside the building, we see Ice Pick and Sickle dragging the woman off against her will and saying that if she cooperates, no one will get hurt.  Kona shows up and tells the Shadows that is no way to treat a lady.  Sickle tries to attack Kona, but is quickly tossed aside.  The same goes for Ice Pick.
     Jawbreaker then appears and tackles Kona from behind, but Kona gets back on his feet and tosses Jawbreaker aside as well.  Kona's previously nice suit is fairly torn up by this point.  As Kona tries to ask "Sashiko" (his date) if she is alright, the Shadow Master emerges in his powered-up armor and shoots a terror disc at Kona.  A layer of clouds then completely encircles Kona and prevents him from seeing anything.  He complains "there is nothing" and asks "where is everyone?"  It seems Kona might be claustrophobic (or afraid of being alone - it's not clear in this scene).  The Shadow Master then kidnaps Sashiko, taking her into a nearby Shadow vehicle.
     Billy and Jimmy are underneath the Dragon Dojo wearing headsets at a large computer-like terminal (this terminal appears to be in the underground area where they work on the Dragon Cruiser.  I think we've seen it before in episodes from Season 1 such as River of Tears).  Billy says that someone has transferred all of the money out of every bank in the world.  Jimmy says it's probably that "Megabyte kid" who wanted to hack into the CIA.  Just then, Kona stumbles into the room, looking haggard and disoriented.  The brothers ask Kona what happened.
     Kona says the Shadow Master took Sashiko, and since he made Kona afraid (Kona's wording), he couldn't stop him.  Jimmy notes that he understands the effects of terror discs personally, and the three try to figure out why Sashiko was kidnapped.  Since Kona believes she is innocent, the only conclusion he draws is that Shadow Master is setting a trap for them.  Jimmy notes that they shouldn't disappoint then.
     The brothers take out their swords and transform into the Double Dragons.  They then blast Kona with energy from their swords, transforming him into his Dragon Warrior outfit.
     Outside of the Shadow Dojo, we see the Double Dragons, Kona, Blaster and Chop running inside at full speed.  As soon as they enter the dojo, a swarm of nameless "Blade" and higher-up Shadow Warriors attacks.  A large-scale fight takes place with a mixture of martial arts, firepower and cheesy one-liners.
     After the Dragons have thoroughly clobbered all the Shadows in the room, we see Ice Pick in another room saying "Uh oh, the mice are out of the trap."  Ice Pick then begins running to another area with the Dragons forcing open a door in hot pursuit of him.  Kona uses the energy blasters on his arms to trap Ice Pick and hold in mid-air (right in front of Kona's face).  Kona then tells Ice Pick to take him to Sashiko.
     The Dragons blast open another door, and inside we see a bunch of virtual reality seats housing Sashiko, the Shadow Master (in his usual black outfit) and Sickle.  Kona is about to remove Sashiko's virtual reality headgear and get her out of there when Ice Pick tells him that's a bad idea.  She's in a cybernetic reality called "the information superhighway," and if she is removed, her mind will be lost there forever.
     Kona keeps repeating that Ice Pick must be lying, but Jimmy looks at him and asks, "What if he's not?"  Kona is then seen being carried outside of the Shadow Dojo by the Double Dragons.  The Dragons set him down and say not to worry, Chop and Blaster are still inside and will make sure nothing happens to Sashiko.  Jimmy says there has to be another way into that information freeway.  Billy asks Kona what his Chi master, Su Lien, would say.  Kona notes that Su Lien would say you can fight fire with fire, or with water.  Wisdom is knowing which one will work best.
     Billy and Kona are standing inside the chambers of Judge Rhodes (from the episode Judgment Day).  The judge takes a guess that "Deputy Lee" wants someone out of jail.  The judge then notes that he does owe Billy a favor (probably referring to the prior events of Judgment Day).
     Inside the Dragon Dojo, Jimmy is against the plan and is complaining about Megabyte (aka "Sean"), listing off some criminal activity he's allegedly been involved in.  Billy says that one of the accusations isn't true because Megabyte was in jail when the event took place, but Jimmy says hackers are lone wolves who can't be team players.  Kona says Sean can help them get into the information superhighway, but Jimmy is still reluctant.  He asks what is to stop the hacker from getting them in there and leaving them to dry.
     Billy, Jimmy and Kona meet up with Marian, Judge Rhodes and Megabyte in front of the dojo.  Jimmy expresses surprise at learning that Megabyte is a girl, and Megabyte asks Jimmy if he has a problem with that, calling him a muscle head.
     As the group (minus Judge Rhodes) walks inside the dojo, Jimmy reminds Megabyte how serious this is and how easily she could be back in jail.  Megabyte says that she doesn't want to be bored.
     The group walks inside another room where a very large computer is housed.  Megabyte expresses a ton of excitement over the computer's specs and says she's no longer bored.  Billy says they need her to get them into the information superhighway.  Jimmy tells Megabyte he doesn't trust her, and Megabyte notes that he doesn't have much of a choice, calling him a pretty boy.  Jimmy blushes at the remark.
     The brothers and Kona are hooked up to virtual reality headsets and connected to the information superhighway while Megabyte sits at the computer.  The Dragon Warriors are next seen standing on a floating platform in the superhighway.  Streams of strange-looking objects (such as crystals and yellow rivers outlined with black lines) are seen continuously passing by.  Jimmy touches a crystal as it passes by, and Megabyte's avatar appears (just her face in a single, transparent color), telling Jimmy to be careful.  Those crystals contain information and messing with them causes a glitch, potentially in their own computer.  If they disrupt too much information, they could get lost there.
     Megabyte then says that she will find the Shadow Master by locating his "modem screen."  She tells the group to carefully step onto a nearby stream.  Jimmy and Megabyte exchange some more insults, but Jimmy about falls into a whirlpool of spiraling streams.  As he clings to the edge of the vortex, Megabyte tells him to fight it while she tries something.  She then blows a large crystal toward Jimmy, and he uses it jump off of and onto a nearby stream.  Billy then grabs Jimmy off the stream and pulls him onto another floating platform.
     Jimmy has a change of heart after this event and attempts to apologize to Megabyte in his own way, but Megabyte tells him not to go all mushy on her because the worst is yet to come.  Billy asks Megabyte why they have to do all this traveling when the Shadow Dojo is just across town.  Megabyte replies that the Shadow Master and his hostage aren't at the Shadow Dojo; they're at the "Tokyo-San Francisco Nexus."  She then says that she has a shortcut for them to use to get there.
     The Dragon Warriors ride a chest-high stream all the way to the Shadow Master's fortress.  We see the Shadow Master standing on top of the fortress in his typical black outfit.  However, he's wearing some sort of strange headset with green cords coming out of it.  The Shadow Master then throws an orb at the Dragon Warriors.  The orb lands on the ground and cords (or cables of some sort) sprout, attaching themselves to the Dragons.  The Dragons turn transparent, similar to how Megabyte looks, and they begin fading away.  Megabyte says that they have been hit with a computer virus that is de-resing them (as in, "de-resolving" them, according to Billy).  She doesn't know how to fix it.  The Shadow Master then hurls an orb at Megabyte's avatar, which jams her connection, causing her to disappear.
     As the Dragons continue to fade into nothingness, Billy tells Jimmy to grab his sword.  The brothers then transform themselves and Kona, stopping the fading process and reversing it completely.  The brothers blast a hole in the fortress and run inside to see the Shadow Master holding Sashiko on a flying platform high above them.  The Shadow Master covers Sashiko's mouth with one of the cords from his helmet and tells her not spoil the surprise.
     A bunch of nameless Shadow Warrior cyborgs appear (in a polygonal, video-game-like form) and attack the Dragons.  The Dragons fight back and manage to demolish the cyborgs.  Kona wonders how they will be able to get up to the Shadow Master, and Jimmy says that their mind is their only limit.  Jimmy stretches his arms upward like Superman and begins flying toward the Shadow Master.  However, a polygonal Sickle appears through a wall and intercepts Jimmy, knocking him to the ground. 
     Jimmy manages to cut a hole in the floor beneath Sickle, causing him to fall below.  However, two polygonal Shadow Warriors grab Jimmy from behind.  Just then, Billy appears and pulls the cyborgs off Jimmy.  The three Dragon Warriors then fly upward, blast some sort of shield surrounding the Shadow Master's platform, and land on the platform itself.  Sashiko's mouth is still being covered by one of the cords from the Shadow Master's helmet.
     The Shadow Master tells the "black fortress" to "initiate Dragon destruct sequence," and a hole appears in one of the nearby walls, creating a strong vacuum that begins pulling the Dragons in.  As Billy and Jimmy begin falling into the vortex (Kona is still clinging to the edge of the vortex), Sashiko somehow gets loose from the cord covering her mouth and tells the black fortress to "freeze Dragon destruct program."  Billy, Jimmy and Kona then fly out of the stopped vortex and land back on the platform.
     The Shadow Master tells Sashiko she will not interfere again, but Sashiko says she plans to arrest him.  Shadow Master laughs at this and grows in size.  The Dragon Masters then proceed to fly around and attack the Shadow Master's helmet, chopping the cords and blasting the helmet part itself.  Soon, the helmet disappears.  Sashiko tells the fortress to interface "delta vector programs," and the fortress begins crumbling (though it doesn't completely fall apart).  The Shadow Master then flies away on a broken piece of the ground.
     Billy looks at some sort of large stream traveling vertically through the fortress and notes that those are the world bank files.  Jimmy says that he thought Sean had stolen them before.  Sashiko says that she is an undercover Interpol agent and that the Shadow Master found out.  As the crumbling of the fortress continues, Sashiko says "omega systems up, execute," and teleports everyone out of the superhighway.
     Billy, Jimmy and Kona awaken in the Dragon Dojo where Megabyte notes that the missing bank files have reappeared.  Kona expresses worry and asks where Sashiko is.  Just then, Sashiko walks in the room with Chop and Blaster.  Kona asks her why she didn't tell him she works for Interpol, and she asks why he didn't tell her he was a Double Dragon.  Billy says that Kona learned not to judge a book by its cover and looks at Jimmy.
     Jimmy asks "Megamouth" if she'd like to get something to eat, and she says to "muscle head" that his suggestion sounds good.
     Epilogue Message: Billy, Jimmy, Kona, Sashiko and Sean are inside the computer room in the Dragon Dojo where they had hooked themselves up to the virtual reality headsets.  All of them note not to judge people by the way they look or what you think they've done before.
    
     Dojo Master's review: This episode started out fairly good with an interesting focus on Kona's personal life and a large-scale brawl, but quickly got lost in another mundane virtual reality theme.  We've had, what, three of those already in less than one and a half seasons?  While Sashiko being an undercover agent was kind of neat, Sean was a bit underutilized and was simply used to get the Dragons into the "information superhighway."  She was then quickly discarded so that the brothers could transform without her knowing their secret superhero personas (even though Sashiko calls Kona a "Double Dragon" right in front of Sean).  Oh, and it's interesting that in a foreign realm - which Billy and Jimmy are traversing only with the help of a computer expert - they manage to save themselves from certain digital doom by falling back on magical Dragon powers.  I'm not exactly sure what to think about that.  At least the name-calling between Jimmy and Sean was entertaining.

Rating: C+