I thought it'd be an awesome idea to do a one-shot where Max hangs with his best friends; Kovu, Borko and Kaila. LoneWolf, I hope you like it.
Cub Buddies
by: Terrell James
It was a typical sunny day at the Valley of Peace and Max was sitting outside in the front of the house, just a little bored out of his mind and adding to the boredom frenzy is Sage coming out of the house and he sat down on the ground and Max said, "I'm bored."
"So go read a book." Sage said, with a scowl.
Max turned to Sage with a very 'are you kidding' expression on his face and he said, "I've read many books for hours."
"So go read another one." Sage said, getting irritated.
Max felt like Sage isn't helping any and he just sighed heavily as he kept sitting down and just then, he sees Kovu, Kaila and Borko come in the front porch and Max was happy as ever to see them and he said, "Hi, guys. What brings you here?"
"We were just about to head to the Jade Palace to just hang out and do a little bit of training. Wanna come?" asked Kovu.
"Anything to keep you out of my tail would be nice." Sage said, with a scowl.
Max mocked Sage's scowl back and he turned to the others and said, "I'd love to go."
It didn't take long until all four cubs made their way to the steps of the palace and Kovu made it to the top and said, "I win!"
Borko came behind him and he exclaimed, "You always win."
Max and Kaila came right behind them and saw Kovu and Borko in a little bickering match over who made it first and they turned to each other and Kaila broke it up and she said, "Does it really matter who came in first?"
"Yes." Borko and Kovu replied, in unison.
She rolled her eyes at these two bickering like little kids and she came to Kovu and said, "I think both of you won. Let's just leave it at that."
Later on, Kovu and Max went over to see what Takami's up to and surprisingly enough, he's in his room, just sleeping a little bit and Kovu started to have something in his mind that screams 'prank' and Max looked at him and whispered, "You're not thinking what I'm thinking, are you?"
"Wanna bet, Max? I always do this to Takami every time and I get away with it." Kovu said, with a mischevious smirk on his face.
"Well, what is it?" asked Max.
While Takami was sleeping, Kovu quietly removed Takami's sandals from his feet and Max scoops a paw full of ice cream and placed it on Takami's paw and Kovu went ahead and wiggles a feather on his nose and Takami snorted and just placed the ice cream on his face, which resulted in both of them laughing silently thinking he's got it.
Evidently, the two hid under his bed, sensing that Takami just woke up and as they saw Takami's feet touch the ground, they could hear him say, "Where are my shoes?"
Max quickly put the shoes back where they were and as Takami puts them on, he felt this cold wet surface on the inside and as he looked to see what it is, it turns out to be ice cream and that made both cubs laugh out loud and when Takami looks under the bed and saw Kovu and Max, he groans in embarassment and said, "I should've known."
As Kovu and Max got out from under the bed, they both snickered after seeing Takami's face covered with ice cream and all Takami could do is just give him a stern look on his face and Max said, "We didn't mean to laugh..."
"...but we're going to." Kovu said, bursting out laughing.
Takami laughs sarcastically as he wiped the ice cream off of his face and cleaned his sandals and said, "Very funny, guys. You two can't stop pranking me, can you?"
"What do you expect? We love to play a few harmless tricks." Kovu answered.
Takami rolled his eyes at that and said, "You've been hanging around Kiba too much."
Max comes to Takami and he said, "Our pranks aren't all that bad, Takami."
Takami just gives Max the stare and replied to him, "I seem to recall one moment where you, Kovu and Borko stole my underwear while I was bathing and I had to run around to chase you guys through the palace."
"Oh, yeah...that was funny." Max said, recalling that moment.
"Especially when Po accidently saw your butt cheeks. Hilarious." Kovu said, with a snicker.
Takami responds with a stern growl and he said, "That little prank almost got me in trouble. Shifu was outraged at me and I almost got punished by Tigress. Not to mention, it was embarassing that Layla had to see me naked."
Kovu recalled that moment vaguely and he said, "Oh yeah...she gave me, Max and Borko a very long lecture after that. Well, what are the chances of that not happening again?"
"Zero. Just don't do any pranks that involve me." Takami added.
Later that day, all four cubs were in the training hall with Takami, Tigress, Po, Monkey and Kiba to do some extra training and Kiba chose to train with Max, which caused a little bit of annoyance and envy in Tigress, even after winning the junior kung-fu tournament weeks ago and she questioned, "Why would you want to train with Kiba again?"
Max was very quick to defend Kiba and he answered, "Because he's cooler and much more interesting to work with. Plus, he's the best trainer than you'll ever be, so there."
Soon after, Max stuck his tongue out at her and Tigress wanted to just rip his face off with her claws, but Takami immediately simmered this down and said, "Cool it, he didn't mean it."
Monkey started to get scared for Max for irritating Tigress like this, but he also knows that this little cub is not afraid to stand up to someone like her and isn't someone to mess with, even when he's so young and precocious. He clears his throat and whispered to Po, "I don't know who I'm scared of more; Tigress or Max."
Takami thought it was best to train both Kaila and Kovu to avoid any confrontations involving Tigress and Max and that leaves Po and Monkey to train Borko and Tigress just stood there and watched to see how it'll turn out, although she kept her eye on Max and Kiba's training.
Not long afterwards, Kiba started to do some sparring sessions with the white tiger cub and it was a very quick move to dodge and block the move and when Kiba leaped up in the air, Max did an aerial backflip and landed on the ground with a complete basic stance. Tigress looked at it in total shock that Max did it very perfectly and after a while, she soon realized the more he trained with Kiba...the more skilled he became.
That made Tigress snarl in deep envy because as much as she perfected her own basic stance, she could never excell it the way Max could do and despite that he's talented and exceeded a lot of expectations, not to mention defy those, she felt like Max is a threat to her skills and wanted to find ways to show him up, proving that she's still a better skilled fighter than him. But knowing Max, he's one tiger cub that can't be outsmarted.
Just then, Max attempted a lot of skills and amazing sparring moves that not even the most stoic master could do to an opponent or top it; he did some twist-flips, slid underneath the opponent, trick the opponent out and perhaps what he calls the signature Maximus move; the frozen handstand where Max stands on one hand, places his free hand in the air and his legs facing the horizontal direction and spins around, letting his feet do the kicking in the face and then does a huge backflip where he reaches the ceiling, swung his body around and held it up there for less than 20 seconds, blowing everyone else's minds and then got back down on the ground.
Kiba was deeply impressed and not to mention awestruck over Max's moves and that left a very surprising taste in the other's mouths and Kovu, Kaila and Borko cheered for Max and what he does and Kovu said, "You have got to show us that move."
"You're like...phenomenal!" Kaila cheered.
"I wish I can be as good as you." Borko added.
Max chuckled softly at this and he said, "Guys, it's no big deal. It just came out of me."
Po dusted himself off and made a very different opinion about Max's moves and said, "Just came out of you? It was like you're a mini-professional kung-fu master doing his own stuff! Dude, you could completely defeat opponents with moves like that...so quickly."
Monkey agreed with that as well and he said, "You'd give experienced masters a run for their money, kid."
Tigress couldn't handle hearing this anymore and even Takami complimented Max's moves the most and she felt enraged by this and she just said, "ENOUGH! That was just a lucky move. That's not real kung-fu."
Everyone gasped in shock after what they heard what Tigress said and Max looked up at her and said, "That's like calling the cat black. What's your deal, anyway?"
"Just remember that you cannot outsmart this tiger master. If you even plan to take over, I'll find ways to stop you." Tigress said, with a dangerous snarl.
Max looked a little confused by what she meant by that and said, "Nothing you say makes any sense...but I do sense a bit of insecurity."
Tigress twitched her eye by that comment and she got down on all fours and planned to attack Max, but what she wasn't ready for is how quickly Max can strike back as he incorporated all of those moves and used it against her and did an aerial kick to the jaw, face and slammed her down to the floor multiple times. Tigress refused to back down and resumed attacking him, but he instantly outsmarted her by attacking Takami instead and clawed him in the face.
"Seriously?!" Takami exclaimed.
Once Tigress realized that she clawed her own student, she got mortified by this and turns around and sees Max standing outside of the training equipment and she lets out a fury of blind rage and she continues to chase Max around, but the minute Max did a backflip to miss Tigress' grasp, she ended up breaking out of the door and placed her claws on Constable Hu instead, causing him to scream in pain and ended up falling down the steps and landed onto Master Shifu.
Once Takami, Kiba, Max, Kaila, Borko, Po and Monkey just saw what happened, they were jaw-dropped shock that Tigress clawed the Constable by accident and once Hu got himself up, they saw that Shifu being crushed hard and merely flattened up.
Tigress looked completely horrified that she did this and she said, "I am...so sorry."
Master Shifu quickly got himself up and looked up at Master Tigress and he said, "You've got some explaining to do."
Later that day, Takami brought in all four cubs for a group sparring session where they can excel their moves and how they do well as a group and Max and Kovu sparred like they neevr sparred before as Kovu kept his cool while Max brought in the fiery spirit with him and Kovu started to do some kicks and spins and Max went ahead and dodged all of Kovu's moves and blocked them in every single switch.
Kovu went ahead and did a leap and Max dodged it underneath him, causing him to dodge even more kicks and as they continued on, Takami can see that their teamwork shines the most and was impressed with how the two would focus so well. Next, the focus was on Borko and Kaila and Kaila sparred as hard as she could with Borko, but the Siberian tiger completely outdid himself really well as he brought in some fighting skills as he sparred back and Takami could see Borko's confidence boost up.
Borko dodged every single fire power Kaila brought in and he didn't know if he could handle it, but there was no time to think as he continued dodging throughout and he went ahead and kept sparring with Kaila and she was headstrong as well.
Soon enough, Takami gathered them together and he was deeply impressed with all of them and he said, "You guys did great! I think all four of you could make a great team."
"Thanks, Takami." the four cubs said.
Outside the courtyard
Borko, Max, Kaila and Kovu laid on the ground, looking up at the sky and just talking with each other about the entire day and Kovu explains the prank he and Max did with Takami and Kaila giggled at this and said, "Did you guys get away with it?"
"I wish. Takami heard us laughing." Kovu answered.
Kaila sighed at this and said, "Takami's hard to prank. I tried to pull a trick on him when I put a fake spider on his face while he was sleeping and he totally put a pillow on my face right as I put it on his face. That shows that he already knows what I'm doing and that it's impossible to prank him."
"Well, who's easier to prank?" asked Borko.
"Tamaki. There was one time that I switched his underwear to Takami's and once Tamaki wore it...he was dead-set mortified. He thought that he'd shrunk and he fought with Takami for stealing his underwear...little fact that I took Tamaki's underwear and put it in Takami's room. I was laughing so hard when that happened. And it would've stayed funny...if my mom hadn't have figured it out." Kaila added.
"You're not the only one that pranks older siblings. I took Sage's shampoo out of the bathroom and replaced it with Logan's and his fur ended up smelling like herbal flowers for a week and he was completely ticked at Logan. But that didn't end there...since Logan used Sage's shampoo, he smelled like fresh soap." Max explained.
Kovu and Borko started laughing at that and Borko said, "Bet they never knew it was you."
"Well...they did. Once they found out that my footprints were in each bathroom." Max answered.
Kovu looked at Max for a second and he said, "Hey, Maxi...you think it's true what Takami said; that you and I make a great team?"
"We're more like partners in crime." Max answered.
Kaila chuckled softly and looked at Kovu in the eye and said, "And then some."
"I'm glad that we're all friends." Borko said, with a smile.
Everyone agreed the same way and they continued on talking and laughing with each other, just enjoying life as friends.
Kinda random, but I had to put in some funny moments. So...whatcha think? Hope ya like!