Nuo is in the kitchen cooking some new ingredients for Pigsy's Noodles shop to get more customers to go and buy. Let's just say she decided to help Pigsy since he's the only one who can cook while Mk does the deliveries and Tang being Tang eating noodles without even buying it. Plus, she got nothing else to do besides staying in Mk's apartment and taking care of Chiang. She and Pigsy hit it off as they both have love for cooking. She's right now showing him the recipes Boun's book. The one of her favorite foods she loves the most is the Tom yum. The soup that brought all of Kumandra together. Pigsy watches in awe as Nuo throws the ingredients into the pot that's boiling.

"Shrimp paste from Tail, lemongrass from Talon, bamboo shoots from Spine, chiles from Fang, and palm sugar from Heart."

"Whoa."

Nuo starts mixing them together with a wooden spoon and once she's sure it's done, she takes a scoop of it and sips it. Her eyes glimmered at the right taste. She passes the spoon to Pigsy and he scoops the soup from the pot and tastes it. His eyes widens as he places his hand where his heart is.

"It's so... full of love. It even had a taste of... unity."

"Yep. Got it from a friend of mine."

Nuo looks at the stuff in the kitchen until her eyes lands on the noodles. Getting the idea, she carefully scoops up the noodles and dumps them into the pot before mixing them. Pigsy noticed it.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying something new to see if it tastes good with noodles."

"That's... a great idea!"

Once she's sure she's done, her and Pigsy scoops up the food from the pot and places it into each bowls. They pulled out their chopsticks and looked at each other with a determined nod before they both tried out the noodles with Thai soup. With one slurp, their eyes widen, and they imagined themselves flying in the galaxy full of noodles and other food for a moment until they're back in reality. Their expressions are full of bliss.

"Wow! This is so much good with them together! I gotta add that to my recipe and the special order!" Pigsy said excitedly.

"Yeah!" Nuo agreed, feeling just as excited as he is at the wondrous new taste.

Tang peeks over, smelling something good. His eyes glimmered at the new cooking.

"Can I try as well?"

Nuo and Pigsy glare at him.

"If you can pay at least."

"Uh... sorry, I don't have my money with me." Tang said with a nervous smile.

"Then no!" Pigsy shouted.

Tang pouted that he didn't get to try the Thai soup noodles as Pigsy and Nuo finished their meal before getting started on cooking the noodles the customers ordered online as Nuo helps him out since she knows how to cook, much to his relief. She suddenly heard a tired groan and turned around. Nuo flinched to see Mk looking all tired. His eyes have bags under them, and his hair is messed up in different places.

"Whoa, Mk! Are you okay?" she asked the poor boy.

"Yyyyup!~ Doing great! Never been better." he said with a tired smile.

Nuo frowned, not believing him for a moment. Mk then sighed and explained about him delivering noodles all day, partying all night with Mei, and painting Sandy's boats, which Nuo questioned why Sandy's boat needs to be repainted every time.

"Mk, you're overworking yourself too much. You need to rest. Take a break. You worked hard enough."

Mk shook his head.

"N-No, no. I'm good. I can still help out. I keep my promises."

"But Mk, why don't you say no and just be honest with them? They would understand. You can't let them take advantage of you like that."

"Nope. I made my choice. I don't want to let my friends down."

She sighed, knowing he's too stubborn to listen.

"Fine, but if you're willing to work yourself up to it, have some noodles to bring up your energy. It's mine and Pigsy's new recipe called Tom yum."

Nuo pours the noodles into the bowl and passes it to him. Mk takes a good whiff of it and his mouth waters. He takes the chopsticks and starts slurping the noodles. His eyes widens and he immediately starts digging in.

"So delicious!!" he said with his mouth full.

Nuo smiles that he likes it. Tang pouts in jealousy that he gets to have the good stuff. Nuo notices and sighs and pours out the noddles into the bowl before passing it towards Tang. He gasps and starts digging into it. He hummed at the new taste of the noodles and gave her a grateful smile. She gives him a look of 'you owe me'. He understands and nods before going back to eating his noodles. Once Mk is done eating, he left the shop and wave her goodbye.

"Thanks for the noodles, Nuo!"

Nuo waves back before sighing. She goes back to work as she cooks some more noodles while adding some dressings. Eventually, she's on her break as Pigsy suggested and is right now on a walk into town as she looks around the shop and stuff. Her eyes lands on a certain dress that made her smile and walk inside. As soon as she's done shopping, her arms are full of bags with a new change of her clothes as she wears a Tie-Dye Button-Front Poplin Dress.

A well-dressed man gives her a nod with a polite smile. Nuo puts her nose up, fully ignoring him. Suddenly Nuo stops. She's about to pass the shop she was thrown out of. Nuo takes a breath and enters the shop. The moment she steps through the door, Nuo's courage leaves her. The saleswoman is waiting on a customer, looking at the outfit they picked.

"Isn't this lovely? I think it would look wonderful on you."

Nuo musters her courage. She takes a deep breath and starts forward.

"Would you like to try it on?" Saleswoman asked.

"'Scuse me." Nuo cleared her throat.

Both the saleswoman and her customer look up. The saleswoman smiles pleasantly.

"Yes?"

"Do you remember me?"

"No, I'm sorry, I don't."

"I was in here yesterday."

Nuo slowly shows her intimidating dragon eyes with a hint of growl. The recognition starts to dawn in the saleswoman's eyes with a same fear rising out of her. Nuo's courage begins to return.

"Yeah. That's right. It's me. I want you to know something. You made me feel terrible. I wasn't dressed right, and you said I didn't belong here. Well, I do. You're the one that was wrong, not me. And I want to tell you something else. I'm never gonna shop here again as long as I live."

And with that, Nuo turns and walks out. The saleswoman is stunned. A beat. The customer thrusts the dress into the saleswoman's arm as if offended by Nuo's speech and leaves the store also. She was about to head to Mk's apartment when she felt something. Her senses are tingling, and she had a familiar feeling as she started walking towards the alley. There she finds another shard of the dragon gem as it glows. Nuo smiles and pulls out a small glass bottle jar necklace as it showed shards of the dragon gem as they glow brightly as well.

"Jackpot."

Nuo quickly hides her necklace inside her dress and goes to grab it only to be stopped by something from the shadows as they held her body. Quickly and gracefully dropping her shopping bags to the side where it won't get dirty and damaged, she turns on the two shadow monkeys that held her. Punching one in the gut, hitting the other in the chin. She pulls out the sword she kept with her to protect herself from the hunters and others as one of the shadows hits her. The sword is knocked from her hands, stabs against the garbage bin. Nuo summons a clone of herself after noticing more shadow monkeys coming out.

Each hitting an opponent - Nuo a jab and elbow - Clone Nuo throws one to the gut, one to the jaw. Two different styles. Then they both get hit. And both slam back into the wall next to each other. Just as the shadow monkey goes to punch them again, Nuo dives, rolls, comes up kicking with water from the water bottle she also kept with her in case something like this were to happen.
Nuo is grabbed by one of the other shadow monkeys, but she escapes and begins kicking ass, using the water whip
to block and wrap another shadow monkey's arms -- blocking, kicking, and punching everything in sight -- all the while using mists to block off their visions. Clone Nuo uses the water whip Nuo did to block and trap one of the shadow monkey's punches.

In the middle of fighting, Clone Nuo was hit from behind so hard it causes her to disappear leaving Nuo to deal with the rest. Nuo takes back her sword and starts swinging and stabbing each one of the shadow monkeys while using super strength to punch and kicks them off. What she didn't notice is the one that summons the shadow monkeys is watching her closely. She tries to use her newfound powers, the more the clones of shadow monkey comes and attacks. Nuo was just about to do one more trick up her sleeve when they managed to knock the water bottle out of her grasp. It fell against the ground and the shadow monkey stomps on it. She was about to fight back when something moves underneath her and she notices a little too late as the shadow monkeys appear and dog piles her. Nuo struggles to get them off of her and was about to transform into a dragon when someone spoke.

"Wow."

Nuo flinches at the new deep voice and looks around for any source of that person while being held down by the shadow monkeys.

"I was really curious to find out who was interfering with my plan. Who knew it was a cutie like you?"

With as much strength as she could, she manages to blast the shadow monkeys off of her as they disappear into smoke, and gets into her fighting stance. She looks a little tired from the fight but is willing to fight back.

"Who's there?"

She looks up only to be met by a falling red cloak and covering her. Nuo struggles to get the cloak off of her face.

"Wait, what?!"

Nuo then manages to lift the cloak off of her face for her to see who did it.

"What are you-"

She was cut off as she was grabbed by the chin and pulled into... a kiss?! Her eyes widened in shock as she stood frozen in her spot, not knowing what to do or what is going on. The person pulled away with a smirk on their face and the light shined over their face to reveal a monkey who had a same appearance as Monkey King, but he has black dark fur covering his body and tail. He has a feathered red marking across yellow eyes and thick bushy black eyebrows. He picked up the cloak that was dropped to the ground and wrapped it around his neck like a scarf before flipping it to his back as a cape.

"I'm Macaque. The Six-Eared Macaque."

He licks his lips.

"You taste delicious, by the way."

Nuo's face turned pink for a moment at the sudden kiss.

"Why?"

Later, her face turned red with a hint of anger as she grows a tick mark on her head. Macaque sees that and smirks in amusement.

"Why did this guy just kiss me out of nowhere?!"

"Don't you have anything to say? Or was my kiss just that good?"

He places a finger on her lips, making her flinch.

"Want another?"

Nuo feels herself about to explode as she gritted her teeth for a moment before yelling.

"Why would I want another?!"

She goes to kick him when he quickly jumped away from her and landed on top of the roof.

"Aww, did I make you angry? Boy, you are fun." he cooed.

"Stop teasing me! None of this is fun!"

"As much as I would love to spend more time with you, I'm going to be taking this with me."

Macaque pulled out the shard of the dragon gem, making her gasp and look around to find it gone while she was in the battle with the shadow monkeys.

"I'll see you again soon, Anhe."

He gives her a wink before disappearing into the shadow portal beneath him. Nuo growled at his smugness.

"What is with that guy?! Grr!! When I find him, I'll tear him into shreds!!"

Suddenly, her phone rang, and she picked it up to see Mk calling her. Nuo answered it and held it up to her ear.

"Yes, Mk?"

"Nuo! I need your help! Long story short, I might have created a lot of clones of myself, and everything is in chaos! Please come soon!"

Nuo sighed, not surprised he would do such a thing.

"Let me guess, mystic monkey business."

She could hear him chuckling nervously.

"Yeah..."

"Alright. I'll be there soon."

With that, she hung up before transforming into a dragon and picking up the shopping bags with her teeth and grabbing her sword and quickly and stealthily start running over the buildings to avoid being seen as she heads towards Mk's apartment. She then stopped and placed the bags inside the place before transforming back into a human and whistled to Chiang. Chiang runs over and stands tall. Nuo hops onto her back.

"Let's go find Mk and help him."

Chiang nods and jumps through the window and lands on fours before running off towards Sandy's boat as she catches onto Mk's scent. Once they head up to the boat, Nuo flinches to see how messed up the boat is as they're covered in different colored paint. They heard manic laughter and looked over to see Art Clone Mk covered with paint as he paints over his face.

"Yes! Yes! The art is seeping into my pores! Filling in my very soul!"

They heard Sandy's voice and turned to see Sandy all tied up, hanging. Art Clone Mk slowly approaches Sandy menacingly.

"Just need... one more coat."

Just as he goes to paint Sandy, Nuo signals Chiang to stop him now and she did. Chiang roars and pounces on top of Art Clone Mk. Art Clone Mk shrieks at the sight of the big cat with Nuo glaring down at him.

"I don't know who you are, but you're definitely not the Mk I know!"

"And the real Mk is right here!"

Suddenly, Art Clone Mk disappears into a gold smoke, revealing hairs of Mk which Chiang jumps away from that with a disgusted look. Nuo turns to Mk and groans in disgust to see him half bald.

"Mk, your..."

"I know, I know, and thanks for coming."

Nuo nods and helps Sandy down before untying him.

"Hey, Mk, mystic monkey business?" Sandy asked.

Mk taps his fingers together sheepishly while glancing away.

"Yeah..."

"So, how many of those things did you make?"

"Uh... I think that's the last one." Mk said, rubbing the back of his head.

Nuo crossed her arms with a not impressed look along with Chiang.

"Really?"

Suddenly, his eyes widen in realization.

"Oh, wait!"

Mk gestures Nuo and Chiang to follow him as they rush off towards Anti-Gravity Arcade. Inside, the two bodyguards are standing beside the doors when they were knocked down by Mk, Nuo, and Chiang as they busted through the doors.

"Alright, Party Clone, where is she?"

Party Clone Mk peers over them with a grin.

"Oh, ho ho ho! OG Mk in the house, yo!"

"I don't even know what that means!" Mk snapped.

"Where is Mei?" Nuo demanded.

With a laugh, the clone pressed the button and the wall opened up to reveal a giant version of the claw machine full of giant plushies with hanging as a prize.

"Hey, Mk, mystic monkey business? You're really bad at making clones by the way." Mei called, looking and sounding exhausted.

Mk points his staff at Party Clone Mk with Nuo holding out her water bottle, ready to water bend with Chiang growling.

"Hand her over you! M-Me? We?" Mk said, a little unsure of how to address his clone of himself.

"Cool yo jets, OG. You three want to get to me, you gotta get through my boys!"

Party Clone Mk pressed another button and in instant, they're surrounded by multiple clones of Mk, and they are a lot.

"Why did you make so many Mk's, Mk?!" Mei called out in shock.

"You and I are so gonna talk about you taking responsibility!!" Nuo shouted, glaring at Mk who gulps.

"Oops, my finger slipped!" Party Clone Mk called out, pressing another button that made something open up to reveal a fiery glow under Mei, which made her yell.

"Mei!!" Mk and Nuo called out.

Party Clone Mk laughed.

"Get 'em boys."

With that, the clone attacked them.

"Shoot!" Nuo cried before hopping onto Chiang and grabbed Mk as they started running out of the clones' reach.

"Mei! Hang on, we're coming!" Nuo yelled, seeing Mei was slowly being lowered to the fire pit below her.

Mk spins his staff around before launching it towards the glass, successfully impaling it. Nuo jumps off of Chiang and slams her foot against the staff, impaling it more until the glass crack before shattering, releasing everything that's been inside. Mei began to fall but Nuo kicked the staff further and saved Mei. Mk and Chiang landed inside with Nuo and Mei. They later shared a laugh of relief, but it was short lived as the clones of Mk appeared, dog piling them and filing up the claw machine.

Party Clone Mk laughed, thinking they're done for until the laughter died down quickly when a giant golden seal appeared, smacking the clones out as they burst into hair strands. Mk, Nuo, Mei, and Chiang landed in front of the shocked Party Clone Mk.

"One to go!" Mei said, pointing at it.

Party Clone Mk waved his arms around.

"W-W-Wait! Mei! How do you know I'm not the real Mk? There's two of us at this porty!"

"Why don't you take a good look at yourself before saying something stupid?" Nuo suggested, deadpanning.

Party Clone Mk looked down at himself, realizing his mistake as he's wearing a tiger print jacket and pink shutter glasses.

"Ah, shoot! I played myself."

Mk and Mei deadpanned at his stupidity before Mk performed a move one last time and smacked it on Party Clone's head, showing a golden seal. Party Clone Mk looked away with a small drop of tear.

"Never forget the music."

He then burst into small strands of hair.

"Nice work, baldy." Mei joked, patting his back.

Nuo snickered at it.

"I'm sorry, guys. What was I thinking?" Mk said, looking down.

"Don't worry. I gotcha buddy." Mei said, holding fistfuls of Mk's hair.

She placed one fistful on his head, which it slides down a bit.

"Is it noticeable?" Mk asked.

"Not at all, my boy." Mei said in a fake old man's voice, stroking a beard of Mk's hair she puts on herself.

"Pfft! Gross! Don't stroke it!" Mk cried with a smile as Nuo and Mei both laughed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later on, at night at Mk's apartment, Nuo was lying down on the couch stroking Chiang as Mk sighed and flopped backwards onto his bed. Mei is reading a comic book.

"You got the day off?" Mei asked.

"Yeah, Pigsy cut me some slack. After I cleaned up all that hair and paid him back for all the food." Mk said, wincing.

"So, did you learn your lesson?" Nuo asked, scratching Chiang's chin, who purrs.

"You know it!"

Mk sees something on TV.

"Oh! Monkey King marathon, turn it up!"

A hand holds a remote control and points it at the TV before turning the volume up.

"Oh, thanks."

Mei and Nuo's head shot up, thinking it wasn't them that turn up the volume of the TV and looked over to see two Mks. They shared a glance before looking back and glaring at the boys, auras around them glowing green and blue. Two Mks showed their nervous expressions after seeing the girls mad. Crashes and yells were heard from the apartment.

"MK!!!!!"