The Hunter and the Dragon
If you tried a week ago, or even yesterday, to tell Maxim that he would be here now, saying these things, he would have either been laughing in your face or been slapping it. As it was he could hardly believe it was happening now himself, so he could hardly fault his teammates for their faces being slack with shock and confusion (rather than Guy's mind-control program, which Maxim had just snapped them out of) as he asked them "More importantly, Do you all remember the battle between Zanpaza and the Buranki Oubu?"
None of the others looked like they knew what he was talking about an impression that was confirmed when Ignat asked Maxim, "We were fighting a Buranki?"
"Yes, but with your consciousnesses sealed off by Guy, in order to draw out Zanpaza's powers, as well as my own, to the fullest," Maxim answered as he sat with his back to them, unable to look them in the eyes as he revealed to his team just how badly he betrayed them, "But in reality, not only did it not draw out those powers, but I was defeated by Kazuki Azuma's Oubu. Which means, if the limbs lack functioning minds, the heart can't demonstrate its full power either." Then, steeling himself for their response, Maxim stood and turned around to face them as he said, "I need all of you, with your minds intact. I finally realized that."
Given how badly he had treated them all, including his own sisters, not to mention his reveal that he'd allowed Guy to turn them into mindless slaves to his will, Maxim half expected them to tell him to go to hell and walk away, perhaps slapping him in the face as they did so. Instead, after a moment of stunned silence, they all looked surprisingly happy, his sisters wiping tears from their eyes. Even Dersu, who almost never showed any emotion, had a shy smile on his face.
When Diana's sneeze brought to his attention how cool it was starting to get, Maxim told them, "We need to move before the sun sets." Almost immediately afterwards Lyudmilla, followed by Schvedochka, ran past him towards the stairs winding up the wooded hill as she said, "Elder Brother, I see someone! I'll ask them the way to the city!"
Maxim could not recall the last time he had seen her so happy and carefree, so the only response he could think of was, "Right... Be careful, Lyu."
"I will!" Lyu assured him in a bubbly tone as she bounded up the stairs.
As he walked towards the mice...the boys whose bubuki serve as Zanpaza's legs, Maxim found himself surprised once more when Dersu unexpectedly said, "Thank you." Rather confused by this, as he didn't think he did anything that deserved thanks, Maxim asked Dersu, "Why thank me?"
"I never dreamed the day would come that you'd call me by name," Dersu admitted shyly. Just as Dersu's shy confession began to warm the corners of his neglected heart the sensation was almost immediately doused by a sense of terrible danger: something large was rushing through the woods towards them. It wasn't large enough to be a buranki, but it certainly was too large to be human. Could it be someone's bubuki, coming to strike them down while their guard was down and they were vulnerable?
Just as he was bringing his heart to bear and about to warn the others, Maxim heard a loud rapport and his senses, heightened by a rush of adrenaline, made the world look as though it was moving in slow motion. What he saw, however, almost convinced him that he was dreaming (or, perhaps more appropriately, having a nightmare.) Dersu's Rinzu barrier, which had been deployed automatically in response to an attack, was being shattered by a single bullet angling towards his heart. As frightening and heartbreaking as this image was, Maxim found his eyes drawn to the other object penetrating Dersu's barrier from his left side: the arm of a creature that looks remarkably like a panda. If the fact that this "panda" was wearing shorts and shoes on its hind legs, which it appeared to be running on, wasn't enough to convince Maxim that this was just a dream, then the fact that it was able to pass through the still intact portion of the barrier without any harm to either one certainly would do the trick. As the bullet is about to pierce Dersu's chest, a smaller barrier forms before the panda-like creature's palm, which it uses to punch the bullet away just as it bodily tackles Dersu to the ground.
Just when Maxim thought this dream couldn't get any stranger, the panda pushed itself up off Dersu and, looking down at him, asked him, "Hey, you alright kid?"
Dersu, who must have been stunned by what just happened (not to mention winded from being flattened by a huge panda), could only stare blankly as he said, "Uhh..."
Before Dersu, or anyone else for that matter, could come up with something intelligible to say, Anbu (who must have thought his master was under attack) flew at the panda's unprotected back. However, the panda reacted with unnatural speed, flipping over and catching Anbu's blade between both of its palms (which were once again glowing), and even though the panda was forced to the ground by Anbu's ferocious attack it was unable to overcome the panda's strength and cause it any harm. Despite the life and death struggle it was currently under, the panda sounded strangely excited as it exclaimed, "Is this a living spear? That is awesome!"
"Anbu, no! Stop! Stand down!" Dersu hollered at it as he rolled back onto his feet. Anbu hesitated for a moment, looking confused, then when it flew back to Dersu's side Dersu asked, "Are you okay, Mr. Panda?"
"Name's Po, and I'm just fine," the panda told him as it stood back up on its hind legs and dusted itself with its front ones, "How about you...uhh?"
"I'm Dersu," Dersu responded gratefully, "Dersu Nizhny, and I'm okay. You saved me just now, didn't you Po?"
Po shrugged the shoulders of his front legs (which Maxim was starting to think of as his arms) as he said nonchalantly, "It's what I do."
"You...talked," Maxim remarked feeling rather dumbfounded.
"Of course," Po said matter-of-factly as he turned in Maxim's direction, "How else am I supposed to find out if this Dersu kid is hurt or not?"
"But...you're a panda," Maxim added.
"Yeah? And you're a scrawny, hairless ape," Po retorted with a shrug, "So what?"
"I'm...what!?" Maxim asked, feeling rather insulted.
"I mean I have seen some rather strange things since becoming the Dragon Warrior," Po continued, "but you hairless apes are by far the funniest looking things yet since we went and shaved Monkey while he was sleeping."
"That wasn't funny, Po," Maxim heard a new voice say, and Maxim turned to see a golden snub-nose monkey wearing wrist bracers and reddish-brown pants emerge from the bamboo. "It took months for my fur to grow back!" the monkey complained, "Do you have any idea just how cold it got at night?"
"You gotta admit that it was kinda funny, Monkey," Maxim heard yet another voice say with a chuckle, and he saw it was a small praying mantis on the monkey's shoulder that spoke, "I mean you looked absolutely ridiculous."
"Aww, I thought he looked kinda cute with his fur short," a green viper snake with tiny lotus flowers on her head and white beads on the narrow part of her tail said as she emerged from the bamboo line, "Kinda like a huge, cuddly teddy bear."
"Guys, this is no time to be joking around here," Maxim heard yet someone else chide them all, and he felt his heart stop when he saw a tigress (wearing a yellow hanfu with red vine patterns and black pants) accompanied by a crane (wearing purple trousers and a conical reed hat) join them in the clearing. "The attacker is still out there, after all."
The panda looked rather serious when he saw the tigress, and even though he kept his eyes locked with her when another shot rang out he had no problem deflecting it with a glowing backhand as he responded, "Yeah, I know. I spotted a cave in some hills not far from here, Tigress. You and the others can take these hairless apes there and secure the entrance with a chi barrier so the attacker can't shoot them from the outside."
"We are not ap..." Maxim started to angrily retort before Diana asked, "Wait! What about Lyu!?"
"Lyu?" Tigress asked her.
"Lyudmilla, my sister," Diana explained, her voice cracking from anxiety, "She left a bit ago to try and find the way back to the city and hasn't returned yet. We can't leave without her!"
"What's she look like?" Po asked.
"Lyu, my twin, looks like me, only her dress is longer and she has a black skullcap on her head. And her Bubuki, Schvedochka, is a scythe." Diane told him, her voice still tight with anxiety.
Po nodded in understanding as he said, "Crane?"
"I'm on it, Po," Crane told Po just as he flapped his huge, white wings and took off into the sky.
"Crane will find your sister and bring her back to you guys while I hunt down this hunter and make sure he can't hurt you guys anymore," Po assured Diana with a smile.
"Thank you," Diana said gratefully as she dabbed tears from her eyes.
"Wait!" Maxim called out before the panda could turn to leave, "I'm coming with you."
"No," Po told him adamantly, "You need to stay with the others."
"No, panda, this is my team!" Maxim yelled back at him, starting to feel angry again, "This guy tried to kill us! He has to pay!"
"And you have to do it because you're their leader, is that it?" Po asked him calmly.
"Yes, exactly," Maxim confirmed with a nod.
"But that's exactly why you need to stick with them," Po explained in that same calm tone, "Your team needs you."
"But...!" Maxim started to protest, but Po interrupted him with a raised hand as he asked, "You saw how easily the hunter's weapon penetrated your friend's defenses, didn't you?" When Maxim nodded yes, Po continued, "Say I did let you come and this hunter attacks again before we find him. Could you live with yourself if one or more of your friends died because you weren't around to protect them?"
Maxim started to open his mouth before he shut it again, realizing the truth of Po's words. "You need to put the needs of your team before your desire for vengeance," Po continued, "That's your responsibility as their leader."
"I...yes, I understand," Maxim acknowledged, never dreaming in a million years that he'd be taking leadership advice from a talking panda.
Just as the panda started to turn to go, Tigress spoke up in a voice as gentle as a purr, "Po, you be careful out there yourself, okay? These kids aren't the only group that needs their leader."
"Don't worry, Tigress, I'll be fine," Po assured her with a laugh and a smile, "It'll take more than one measly hunter to bring down the mighty Dragon Warrior!"
As Po raced back into the forest, Maxim thought he heard Tigress mutter something about that being what worried her. Then she straightened up and the steel reentered her voice as she called out, "All right, everyone, let's move! The sooner we can get under cover the better." Then Tigress and her group took off in the opposite direction, with Maxim's team following close behind. Maxim himself only hesitated for one moment, staring in the direction that Po vanished, before he hurried after the others.
"Say that again?" Guy asked through clenched teeth, doing his best to reign in his anger and keep in mind that old saying 'don't shoot the messenger'. It wasn't her fault that the news she was bringing him was less than satisfactory. Besides, this wasn't any old messenger but rather his rather dependable secretary who goes by the name of Double: to take out his anger on her wouldn't do either of them any favors. Still, the urge to take something and smash it over her head was very strong as Double said again, "The initial attack failed, sir. The target is still alive."
"I don't understand," Guy said after taking a deep breath to keep from screaming it, "Were you unable to reestablish contact? Is the program not functioning properly?"
"No, I was able to establish contact with no problems and the program is still working," Double told him, "Judas attacked Maxim's team as ordered. However, both shots targeting Dersu were deflected away harmlessly."
"Impossible!" Guy exploded, his anger leaking out in that one moment before he got it under control again, "I did the calculations myself, there's no way that boy's Rinzu should have had any real effect against an attack that powerful, especially with no forewarning."
"It didn't, sir. Your calculations were correct on that regard," Double explained, "What deflected those shots and saved Maxim's team was..."
"Was what, Double?" Guy asked her, Double's hesitation making his short fuse even shorter.
"...it was...a panda, sir," Double finally managed to get out, the look on her face making it clear that she could hardly believe it herself.
"A...panda?" Guy repeated, feeling just as confused as Double looked and for good reason. Pandas are native to mainland China, not Taiwan, and being critically endangered they would be most likely found in a zoo or a protected habitat rather than the wild. Of course it was possible that one had escaped from a zoo during the recent buranki battle and Guy simply hadn't heard about it, but the odds of that same animal wandering over to where Maxim's group was at that moment were astronomical to say the least. "You mean that it was hit by the shot instead of Dersu?"
As soon as the words were out of his mouth he knew that was impossible. Not only would the flesh and bone of the panda not be enough to prevent Dersu from being struck a fatal blow, but the animal would have been killed with the first shot, and yet Double said that both shots were deflected. "I'm afraid not, sir," Double answered him, her response much like he expected, "According to the visual data, it appears that it formed Rinzu barriers around its paws and...um, punched the bullets away."
"The panda...punched...Double, are you...?" Guy started to ask before he trailed off, the question left unasked. Of course she wouldn't be. Part of what made Double so dependable as his secretary was that she always carried out his orders (or relayed them to who they were intended for) without fail and she never, ever, made jokes. If she says that's what happened then it was the truth, but it was still too impossible to believe. Then a disturbing thought occurred to him. "A bubuki?" Guy asked.
"I saw no sign of a bubuki on or around the panda, nor did it look like there were any other bubuki in the area other than those belonging to Maxim's group," Double answered with a shake of her head, "Of course it's possible that it may have been concealed under its fur."
Guy sighed and massaged his temples as he considered this conundrum. He was vaguely familiar with how bears and like animals attacked. They bit, bashed and mauled with their heavy, clawed paws, they might even pounce on their prey with their full and considerable weight: they don't punch! Then again, he's heard of bears being taught to balance on balls and even to dance on their hind legs, so it wasn't so far-fetched to imagine a panda being taught to punch like a human. However, even if that's what actually happened, and if it managed to react fast and accurately enough to punch a sniper bullet out of the air, it is a fact that bubuki only choose humans to be their masters. Of course he was experimenting with ways to remove human bubuki users out of the equation, a step in his plan to rid Earth of buranki altogether, but the best he'd been able to manage at this point was to suppress the consciousnesses of the human users within their bubuki, leaving them open to control. Even though he knew of no others, however, Guy wasn't fool enough to believe that he was the only one trying to accomplish this. Then again the thought that someone had managed to progress further than him, that they were able to get a bubuki to accept a non-human master, Guy found that to be extremely troubling. "What is Judas' status?" he asked Double
"Maxim and his team are being moved to a more defensible position, so Judas entered into pursuit," Double reported, "However, it looks like the panda is attempting to intercept. Should I give the order to evade it?"
Guy gave that some some thought. As much as he'd like to set a proper trap, to capture the panda alive so he could learn how his unknown rival managed to accomplish what he had not, this creature had proven too dangerous a wild card to be allowed to roam free during such an important operation. "No, Double," Guy answered her, "Contact Judas, make capture of the panda priority one. Alive if possible, dead if need be, but it's to be stopped. Once the panda's no longer a threat, Judas may resume the original mission at that time."
"Understood, sir" Double acknowledged as she returned her focus on the monitor, and Guy moved to look over her shoulder, watching as the crosshairs on the monitor focused on the panda running swiftly through the bamboo.
As he ran towards where he was certain the shots were coming from, Po heard Tigress' voice in his head saying, "We got Maxim and his friends into the cave, Po, and we're getting the barrier set up now."
"Glad to hear it, Tigress," Po replied. So, too, was he glad that, while practicing their Chi manipulation together, they discovered that they could use it to mentally communicate with each other. Certainly makes missions like this, where they have to split up for some reason, much easier to pull off. "You have any problems getting there?"
"We heard a few shots go off on our way here and while we got these kids inside, but none of them seemed to come close to hitting us. Not sure why," Tigress reported.
"It may be because our attacker seems to have shifted his focus to me," Po explained as he slapped a couple more shots out of the air.
After a weighty pause Po heard Tigress ask in concern, "Are you okay there, Po? You need me to join you?"
Po laughed as he assured her, "Are you kidding? Compared with Lord Shen's cannonballs, these little pellets are nothing." Po was grateful that the Chi communication was entirely mental in nature, that Tigress couldn't hear the toll defending himself from these attacks while trying to make his way to their source. Not that Po was exactly lying to her, however: weight wise, these pellets couldn't compare to Lord Shen's cannonballs. However, the cannonballs only bloodied and bruised him, and they might have crushed him to death had his Kung Fu not been so strong. On the other hand these pellets were more like arrows than Shen's bludgeoning cannonballs, and their tiny size and incredible speed made them nearly impossible to see in this dying light and incredibly difficult to track. Fortunately for him, these pellets seem to be propelled by a form of Chi similar to that which the Dersu kid used to try and defend himself from them, giving Po a way to feel them as they flew at him (though the dark taint on them made him feel slightly ill when he sensed them.) If they had been propelled by Shen's gunpowder Po might have been in trouble, as a single shot slipping through his defenses could have been the end of him. "It's much more important that you continue helping the others protect those guys. This attacker seems to be the only one so I should be able to handle him by myself, but if this guy sees more of us out here he might feel bold enough to go back to trying to kill that boy."
"I understand, Po," Po heard Tigress respond reluctantly, "Just watch yourself, okay?"
"Always," Po assured her before shifting his focus to Crane and asked, "How are you doing up there, Crane? Any sign of the girl's sister?"
"Haven't spotted anything anything yet, not for miles," Po heard Crane answer in his head, his voice just as clear as Tigress', "Whoever this attacker is, they seem so determined to get you that they've scared everything else off. Hasn't even taken one single shot at me yet."
"Guess I'm just lucky like that," Po remarked, thinking about the different enemies that had sought him out since he became the Dragon Warrior: Tai Lung, Lord Shen, and Kai among others. There were times when he wondered how his life could have been different if he had been a little less stubborn in his determination to see the Furious Five that day, simply following the path his adoptive father had laid out for him of running the noodle shop. Not that he dwelled on it too much or even regretted it, not by a long shot. He loved protecting the Valley, loved Kung Fu, and it gave him the chance to meet and even become friends with his idols the Furious Five (including Tigress). Still, at moments like this, when his actions or his destiny inadvertently brought more trouble into his friends' laps than what would have befallen them otherwise, Po couldn't help but wonder what might have been if he'd followed a different road.
Once his idle musings were done, he realized something Crane had mentioned seemed off. It wasn't surprising that attacks like that of this shooter would have frightened off most non-combatants, this Lyu girl was described as being armed with a scythe, so Po doubted that she was the type to run off if her friends could possibly be in trouble. Even if she had forgot herself and fled, Crane still should have been able to spot her (or, gods forbid, her corpse) with his Chi-enhanced vision unless she managed to sprout wings and fly away. Then, as a disturbing possibility occurred to Po, he called out to Crane and asked, "Hey, Crane? Do you think you could swing back around and spot where the shooter is at, see if he might be holding this Lyu girl hostage to try and lure her friends out in the open?"
"Good thinking, Po!" Crane complimented him, sounding impressed, "I'm on it." Po took the moment while waiting for Crane's report to stop and catch his breath. He might have gotten better at it, and it didn't take quite as long to catch his second wind as it used to, but climbing still wasn't his favorite sport. It didn't take long, however, before he heard Crane in his head saying in an uncertain voice, "Uh, Po...?"
"Let me guess," Po said with a sigh, "the girl isn't the shooter's hostage."
"Uh, no," Crane replied with surprise "It doesn't look that way, Po."
Po had expected this answer, but it was still hard to hear after having involved everyone in this. Talking a deep breath to steel himself as well as regain some of his expended energy, Po ascended the remaining distance of the hill (foregoing the stairs out of principle) till he reached the crest. Once there he saw, across the lightly-wooded clearing, a girl whose description and unique accompanying weapon identified her as Lyu. Po saw no sign of where the shooter was hiding, but he realized that there was no need to look when the girl squeezed a trigger hidden on the secondary handle of the scythe, which was braced on top of her shoulder, and a shot flew out the end pointed in his direction. Po started to try to duck out of the way, but when he felt the shot curve to follow him he went and knocked it away instead.
Apparently emboldened by seeing him mere yards before her, Lyu began advancing towards him, shots being fired from her scythe Schvedochka at a much faster rate. Forced to defend himself or else be shot, the first thought that crossed Po's mind was how Lyu's friends neglected to mention that her scythe was also a gun. Was this all a trap, the "attack" on the kid Dersu just a ruse, bait to lure him and the Furious Five in? Just as he was ready to contact Tigress to warn her Po realized that possibility was extremely unlikely. For one thing Po was certain that the attack targeting Dersu was real, that if he hadn't shown up when he did that kid would have been killed, and he doubted that these unusual apes would be ruthless enough to attack each other with lethal force just to get him. Even if he was wrong about what they were capable of, the likelihood of it being a trap was still practically nonexistent. A trap like that requires extensive planning and precise timing, yet nobody could have predicted that Po and his friends would have shown up in this place (not even Po himself), but then what did this mean? Did the girl have a falling out with her teammates that was severe enough to make her want to kill them, to kill her own sister? The thought made Po feel sad, but he couldn't let this girl settle her disagreement with her teammates in this way.
Just as he was ready to lay the smackdown on her, however, Lyu had gotten close enough to Po for him to see something that gave him pause. Though she was looking right at him, it appeared to Po that Lyu wasn't really seeing him. As a matter of fact Lyu's expression reminded Po of the time he went on a late night snack raid and nearly accidentally knocked Crane over, who had been sleepwalking that night. This revelation brought an astonishing new possibility to Po's attention: could someone or something be forcing be forcing her to turn on her friends? Was she under an evil spell or possessed by a malevolent spirit? That would certainly explain the dark and nasty-feeling undertone to Lyu's Chi that differentiated it from her teammate Dersu's. If that was the case then there was no way he could bring himself to hurt her, not when she wasn't in control of her actions, but then how would he be able to stop her?
Thinking of that dark Chi made him think about the scrolls Master Oogway had left behind, specially the ones containing his advanced Chi techniques. Po remembered that one of those apparently was used to purge another's soul from outside corruption, so in theory he could use it to help the girl. However, the last time he attempted to use one of the techniques he found, the results proved to be...well, it was a total disaster actually. With so much at stake, did he dare to try something so advanced again?
"Po? Can you hear me?" Po heard Crane ask in concern, breaking into his concentration, "Are you okay? Do you need me to help?"
Po looked up and saw that Crane had gotten rather low. Fortunately Lyu (or rather the dark presence controlling her and her weapon) didn't notice him yet. However, if he got any lower then he would surely be spotted, and Po wasn't sure if he could defend against such a weapon while landing. That helped him decide. It wasn't a question of if he could perform the technique. For the sake of Lyu and her sister, for their friends and his, for Tigress...Po had to do it!
"No, Crane, stay up there," Po told him as he deflected Lyu's shots with one hand and channeled the entirety of his Chi into his other, "I've got this."
"Po, you're not about to do something crazy now, are you?" Crane asked him warily.
Po smirked as he responded, "It's only 'crazy' until it works, Crane."
"No, Po, I'm pretty sure it would still be considered crazy afterwards," Crane disagreed as, with a laugh of exhilaration, Po rushed directly towards Lyu. Although she seemed surprised by this sudden action it wasn't long before she met his charge head-on, firing as she went. With his concentration divided between tracking the shots and the channeling of his Chi, Po was no longer able to defend himself perfectly, and he felt the burning sensation of a couple of shots grazing his right cheek and left shoulder. Po refused to let it break his concentration, however, and he pushed the pain out of his mind as he caught one of the pellets out of the air and flung it back at Lyu, distracting her long enough to launch himself high into the air. Unable to change her aim that quickly, Lyu shifted her grip on her scythe, apparently intending to cut Po down with its blade, but before she could Po plummeted back down towards her and slammed his orb of concentrated Chi directly into her forehead.
Po felt rather disoriented when he came to. Just a moment ago he was in a darkening bamboo forest, fighting for his life and that of the young lady he was fighting against. Now, however, it was beyond bright. The "sky" above him and the "ground" beneath his feet both appeared pure white, and he couldn't tell where one ended and the other began. There wasn't even any shadows to give him a sense of the light's position, nor was he even certain that he was actually standing on the ground. He felt a pressure under his feet, to be certain, but the sense of gravity here was all wrong. For a moment he was afraid that he had messed up the technique too badly and was dead now: Tigress would kill him if that was the case. Po then recalled the time he traveled to the Spirit Realm, where he fought Kai and where Master Oogway gave him his staff, and he realized that this was someplace else. Was it possible...did he send himself into the girl's mind? He had thought that the hairless apes looked somewhat intelligent, but this place was looking rather empty. Then again, the girl did seem rather out of it when she was attacking him. Was the barren appearance of this place the result of whatever was controlling her?
Po got the sensation of something moving behind him, the first indication of something other than himself in this void, and he turned to look. There he saw the girl and her weapon dangling lifelessly by thin strands of what looked like red chi energy. Above them, looking like a cross between an octopus and an angry storm cloud, was a strange smoky entity, and a light pulsed at its center as a female voice echoed around him saying, "Warning, unknown foreign presence has been detected. Eliminate the infection and resume the mission."
" 'Unknown foreign presence'? Me? I am Po, the Dragon Warrior! Master of Chi, scourge of evil, friend of children and the elder-hey!" Po was interrupted and forced to dodge when the dark chi creature attempted to spear him with one of its smoky tendrils, tonelessly chanting "Eliminate! Eliminate!" as it did so. Annoyed at first by the interruption, Po then recalled how he didn't care for Kai's long-winded introduction, and he smirked as he said, "You're absolutely right. Enough chit-chat, let's fight!" Po then rushed at the creature, which reacted by trying to spear him again. When he tried to smack the tendril down as he dodged it, however, his hand sunk into it instead and the pain he felt (strongly reminiscent of when he plunged his hand into a brazier of hot coals during training) made him howl and jerk his hand back. As he blew on his hand to soothe it, another tendril attempted to impale him, and Po winced and braced himself as he went to block it. However, there was no pain this time. Instead, Po saw the tendril explode into a cloud of smoke, and when he looked at his hand he saw that he's instinctively formed a chi barrier on it while blocking.
"Whoah!" Po remarked in amazement, then he tried to form one on his other hand and found he was able to much easier in this place than back in the physical realm, "This is awesome!" As the tendril he'd destroyed started to reform, several others attempted to attack Po, but he was able to destroy each one with a series of chi-enhanced blows. "Now that's more like it!" Po cheered, "Prepare to feel the thunder, it's time for a chi smackdown! Hyaah!"
The attacks came much faster now, but even though they assailed him from all directions they still were no match for the strength of his Kung Fu. However, despite this it soon became apparent that this fight would not be easy. He was able to destroy the tendrils as they attacked, but while he dealt with the others the ones he smashed reformed and rejoined the assault. What's more was that he saw no sign that he was causing it any lasting damage, that it was feeling any pain. He didn't even know if it gets tired, but he knew that he did. He wondered what would happen to him in the physical realm should he fall here, but he couldn't afford to find out. If he didn't find a way to stop this thing quickly then it would make this girl kill her friends, maybe his too. Po couldn't allow that, but it was hard to think of to prevent it by himself, and that annoying, repetitious chanting of "Eliminate" wasn't helping matters either.
The thought of the chanting brought his attention to the creature, to the core that pulsed with each repetition of the chanting. Po noticed that no matter how many tendrils attacked, what direction they came from or how they assailed him, they always crossed in front of the core, as if shielding it from a direct attack. If that's not a weak point, Po thought to himself, I don't know what is! Po focused a great deal of his remaining strength into creating a chi shield before him as he charged towards it. As expected, the attacks doubled in intensity. However, Po wouldn't expend any effort to fend off the attacks, allowing the shield to take the full brunt of the assault. It wouldn't last long against this punishment, maybe not even long enough to the core, but it didn't need to.
It was hard to judge distances in this place, but Po was sure he was pretty close when the dark being launched a final assault against him: a knot of more tendrils than he could possibly count aimed directly in his path, so tightly packed that there was no way he could continue his charge cleanly. With his shield so greatly weakened an assault like this would smash through it easily, and even if he had enough energy to reinforce it he would have nothing left once he reached the girl and her captor. Instead he lept high in the air, the arc of the jump taking him out of the tendrils' path. Some of them slammed into the ground where he was moments ago, but the others curved around to aim at Po's back as gravity reasserted itself on him once more, Po channeling his remaining energy for one final strike as he fell like a hammer towards the center of the dark mass, physically driving his chi into the flashing core just before he himself would've been skewered many times over.
For a moment nothing happened, the chanting silenced, the tendrils still and not moving. Then, like strings of firecrackers, the tendrils exploded into smoke from the tips inward towards the core , which itself vaporized with a pop and a shower of colorful sparks. As the creature was obliterated the strands of red chi energy energy binding the girl and her weapon to it dissolved, allowing them both to drop to the ground. Once they were released Lyu and her weapon began to stir and color slowly returned to the featureless void, taking on the appearance of appearance of a grassy countryside.
This is more like it, Po thought to himself, feeling more comfortable in this environment and wondering why the dark chi creature would prefer the washed out landscape. As he looked towards the sky he saw something strange: where the dark chi creature was there was now what appeared to be a tear in the sky through which he could see someplace else. it wasn't the forest where he had just fought the girl, either, but rather it seemed to be inside some building and Po thought he could see a couple of unfamiliar hairless apes' faces there as well. The girl looked as though she would be up in just a couple of minutes, but Po felt like he couldn't wait as the tear was closing fast and he was curious about what was on the other side. Leaping back up to it, Po managed to get one hand in the tear just in time, then he wedged his other hand in and began to pull it open again.
"Get her back! Get her back!" Guy screamed, his eyes locked on the monitor that for the last few minutes had been filled with error messages that Double had been trying to work past. Now, however, it was only showing static and none of Double's efforts showed any progress towards changing that.
"I've been trying, sir, but whatever the panda did seems to have completely severed our connection with the subject," Double explained apologetically, "It's as if Judas has been completely purged from them both."
"That is unacceptable!" Guy yelled, feeling a headache coming on. Then, not able to stand the sight of the blank monitor anymore, he turned towards the windows behind him and locked his arms by his sides to resist the urge to tear his hair out as he said, "This is a disaster!"
"This is awesome!" Guy heard behind him, causing his irritation to increase. "What did you say!?"
"It wasn't me," Double told him, pointing at the monitor. When he turned to look he could hardly believe what he was seeing: the static on the screen was being parted like a curtain by a pair of furry paws to reveal the face of the panda that had proved to be a major pain in his ass this evening. As he watched the panda looked around in awe (as if the monitor screen was merely a window) and, to the astonishment of Guy, opened his maw and said, "Whoah!" Then it appeared to attempt to push it's way out of the screen (though it couldn't possibly have been, for it was merely a monitor set in a console that didn't have room for even a BABY panda inside) and yet Guy could have sworn that he heard the squeak of flesh against glass as the panda smushed his face against it, asking in a bewildered and muffled voice, "Huh?" Then it pulled back a bit and knocked on the screen (again sounding like it was really happening rather than being transmitted by the console's speakers) and the panda curiously asked, "What's this stuff made of?"
As fascinated as he was by both this strange phenomenon as well as the creature that seemed to be responsible for it, Guy couldn't just stand by and do nothing, letting the panda do whatever he wanted in there. Gesturing for Double to move out of the way, Guy stood before the console and addressed the panda within, "Good evening. You must be the panda whose uninformed interference has caused me much trouble tonight."
"Ah, and you must be the bad guy who cast a spell on this girl, making her try to kill her friends," the panda retorted.
"Hardly a spell, panda. I merely used the wonder of technology to make her more compliant," Guy explained, "And I'm no 'bad guy': I'm actually the hero this world needs. You seem to be new here, panda, so it's understandable that you have no clue as to how large a threat these Buranki pose to this planet and the people who live here."
" 'Buranki'?" the panda asked in confusion.
"You've seen the weapons Maxim's group had with them when you saved that boy, didn't you?" Guy asked him. When the panda nodded yes Guy continued, "Those are bubuki, the limbs of a buranki. While they may appear to be mere weapons at first, upon the command of those they're bonded to they can change into the arms and legs of a gigantic mechanical monster capable of destroying anything and everything in its path."
"Those weapons can do that!?" the panda asked excitedly, "That is awesome!"
Awesome? Guy thought to himself in disbelief. He wasn't sure how old this panda (or whoever was controlling it if that was the case) was, but they seemed to have the mental maturity of a 10 year old. "You may think that now, but I wager you have never been to the site of a buranki battle," Guy told him, "When you're listening to the dying cries of your friends and family as you're futilely trying to dig them out of the rubble of those monsters' destruction before it's too late, would you still think that buranki are 'awesome' then?"
"But if these 'bidooki' are so dangerous, then why don't you destroy them rather than killing those who use them?" the panda asked him.
"The reason for that, panda, is simple," Guy explained to him, "A bubuki user can just find another unallied one, of which there is too many, or take one from another user once they're dead or defeated in a duel. The bubuki itself is not as capable of changing allegiances of its own will, however, remaining bonded to their user until an heir is born. If the user dies with no heir the bubuki becomes unable to act on their own, eventually going dormant. If there are no bubuki users, then our world would be free of buranki and our destinies would be once more in our hands."
"But is it necessary to kill them?" the panda reasoned, "Can't you just...I don't know, ask them to give up their bubuki things?"
"It would be nice if it was that easy, and indeed everyone would be better off if they would agree to do so," Guy told him, "Unfortunately those who would willingly relinquish power once they have it are far and few inbetween. Would you turn over the secret of your power, let go of that which makes you special and go back to being just a regular panda, for the sake of the world? Somehow I doubt that, but if you did I'd be impressed yet that would still place you in a rare minority. No, it is regrettable, but for the sake of the world all buranki masters and their bloodlines must be eliminated."
"Do you even hear yourself?" The panda asked him, his face and tone of voice conveying a sense of shocked disbelief, "You're talking about wiping out an entire group of people like it is nothing! I know you described these buranki as 'monsters', but you're coming across as a bigger monster than they could possibly be."
" 'The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few'," Guy quoted, "I do what I do for the sake of the world, and if I end up labeled a 'monster' for a while then that's a sacrifice that I'm willing to make, but I'm sure that in the long run people will see my actions in a different light." Guy then sighed wearily and added, "I'd love to discuss this with you further, but it's a bit awkward talking this way. Why don't you come here so we can continue this talk face to face?"
"Oh, you can bet your sweet dumplings that I'm coming!" the panda said in a determined tone, the way he bounced within the frame of the monitor giving Guy the impression that the panda was bounding on the balls of his feet like a fighter, "Best prepare yourself, you ugly, hairless ape. The pain train is pulling in shortly, and I'll be along to punch your ticket! Skidoosh!"
With that the panda punched towards the screen, and Guy flinched away half expecting its fist to break through it. Instead the screen goes black, without even any static to indicate even a tentative connection between Judas and Lyudmilla. As troubling as this information was, however, foremost on his mind was the panda's puzzling closing remarks. "Skidoosh"? Was that supposed to be some kind of insult from a foreign language he never heard of? And why would it be needed, wasn't "ugly, hairless ape" insulting enough? Then again, the panda did make that remark just as he was destroying Judas' connection. Surely he wasn't audibly adding a sound effect to his attack, was he!? That's something that 5 year old children do during their play-fighting! Well, mentally mature or not, this panda has proven himself far too dangerous. He's already gotten reports that Ryoko's airship was headed their way, possibly to try and rescue Ryoko from his custody, and those same reports indicated that Azuma and his team was a part of that effort. As much as he would love to have a chance to study such a fascinating specimen, Guy couldn't afford to let such a dangerous wild card as this panda muck things up, not this close to the end of his operation.
"Did you want me to continue trying to reestablish contact, sir?" Double asked Guy, breaking into his thoughts.
"No, Double, I'm sure that link is lost to us," Guy informed her, "Instead contact one of the others and have them complete her mission. In the meantime I want this compound on high alert. I don't care if it's a canary, mermaid, or a damn unicorn: if it doesn't have the clearance to be here, shoot to kill. Also make sure that the buranki teams that we have coming back to stop Ryoko's would be rescuers are on the watch for these new threats as well. I don't want any more surprises from these...things."
"Affirmative, sir," Double said, "And what should I tell them about this?"
"Just that a deceptively dangerous enemy is on their way here and may be arriving around the same time as those trying to rescue Ryoko, that they're to be stopped at all costs," Guy explained.
"A 'dangerous enemy', sir?" Double asked, her eyebrow raised, "A talking panda and his animal friends?"
"No need to go into such details, Double," Guy groaned, "Just...get everything ready, OK? And if those creatures show up here, don't let them leave alive."
"As you wish, sir," Double confirmed with a nod. Feeling very weary, Guy sighed and told her,"Then I'll leave you in charge for a bit, I'm headed back to my homestead for some fresh air."
"Got it, sir," said with another nod, "leave everything to me." Giving the blank screen one last baleful glare, Guy turned and walked towards the exit, wondering when the world had gotten even crazier than it already was. Regardless, today's mindboggling events made him more determined than ever to see his project through to completion: to see a world free of buranki, bubuki, and now talking pandas. A sane world once more firmly in the ownership of humans.
"And Tigress told him, 'Po, that technique is far too advanced for you!' " Maxim heard the viper called...well, Viper say to him as she recounted the events that led to their arrival here. Monkey and Mantis (yes, that really was their names) had finished sealing the entrance with a translucent barrier formed from their "Chi" (he recalled that the Chinese called Rinzu that before the appearance of bubuki and buranki) and now were, for some reason, extending that barrier to cover the walls and ceiling of the cave. Maxim's own team, (minus Lyu, who was still missing) was gathered around and listening to Viper's tale.
Only Tigress wasn't participating in any of the activities, standing silently and ramrod still in the middle of the cave and staring (no, more like glaring) at the entrance. At first she seemed to be standing sentry while Monkey, Mantis and Viper (who was helping them back then). However, a couple of hours after they stopped hearing the shots Tigress got a concerned look on her face that, after a few minutes, changed to one of shock and surprise, then to one of outright anger. Maxim wasn't sure what had brought about the change, but apparently the panda's other companions must have picked up on it as they stiffened around the same time, and when Maxim tried to break the tension by asking them how they got here Viper agreed rather quickly, skirting a wide berth around Tigress as she did so. Thinking back on it, Maxim guessed that this was the reason that Mantis and Monkey continued the seemingly useless task of extending the barrier past the entrance to covering the impenetrable stone walls and ceiling of the cave: it was a way to keep busy while simultaneously keeping themselves out of easy mauling range.
" 'It took Master Oogway several decades to perfect that technique, and you think that you can pull it off after reading his scrolls just once?' she asked him in concern," Viper continued her tale, drawing Maxim's attention back to her, "But Po was like, 'But I'm the Dragon Warrior! Master of chi! Master Oogway himself gave me this staff! Of course I can do this!' Then, before you could say 'Skidoosh' we found ourselves here, in a huge town and surrounded by a bunch of hairless apes...sorry, humans.
"Sounds like you're saying that coming here was pretty much an accident, and that panda was the one to blame," Maxim guessed.
Viper undulated her body just behind her head in a motion that seemed much like a shrug, then she gave him a toothless grin and said, "Pretty much. Luckily they seemed even more started by our sudden appearance than we were, and in the chaos and confusion we managed to make it to this forest unscathed. Then, as we were catching our breath and before we could figure out what happened and chew Po out for it he suddenly got a strange look on his face and took off deeper into the forest, shocking us flatfooted for a moment before we could follow."
"From the way you talk, I'm guessing that this isn't the first time Po has caused problems for you guys," Maxim said to her thoughtfully, "Why do you follow him?"
Viper shrugged again as she said, "He's the Dragon Warrior. He might not be the brightest star in the sky but his fighting skills are undeniable, which has saved us on more than one occasion. More importantly he has a good heart, and its instincts have more often than not led him, and the rest of us, on the right path."
Maxim couldn't think of an argument to counter that. After all, it was those instincts that led this Po to save Dersu's life. Perhaps it was for those reasons that the American team follows Epizo, to whom Po strikes Maxim as remarkably similar. In fact Epizo's team and Po's are alike in many ways, with one of the main differences being that Po's group has one more member.
"Hey guys, we're back!" Maxim heard a voice call out, and he turned to see the panda Po push his way through the membrane covering the entrance as he said, "Nice work on the barrier!" Through the translucent glow he saw the hat wearing crane land behind Po, and between them was...
"Lyu!" Diane cried as she rushed towards the entrance, embracing her sister as soon as she made her way through and sobbing tears of relief. Lyu in comparison looked unusually subdued, down even,and her hands floundered behind Diane as though she didn't know what she should do with them.
"Great! It looks like everyone made it here okay," Po said rather airily, "Well guys, it's been fun, but I think that my friends and I ought to..."
"Po," Tigress said in a low tense voice, her glare fixed on the panda and her unnaturally still tail giving a small, angry twitch.
"Um, yes?" Po said meekly, his mannerisms reminding Maxim of a small child who's realizing that his or her mom might have caught them with their hand in the cookie jar, "What is it, Tigress?"
"Crane told me what you did," Tigress said in that same tone that sent shivers down Maxim's spine, punctuated by a swish of her tail.
When Po turned his shocked gaze towards Crane, the bird held his wings up and said defensively, "I had to, Po! She was concerned that we had been out there so long, and I didn't know if you were going to snap out of it or not..." Crane then gave a sheepish chuckle and sidestepped away (which looked kinda comical to Maxim with the bird's long legs) as Po turned back to Tigress and said, "You gotta understand..."
Tigress held her palm towards Po, silencing him instantly as she continued, "He also told me that you had no choice but to use that technique, that it was the only way to help the girl without hurting her."
"Well...yeah," Po responded uncertainly.
"Under the circumstances that was a very brave and nobile thing you did," Tigress said as she approached Po, gently placing her paw on his shoulder, "I'm glad that it worked out, and I'm proud that you thought of it so quickly before anybody got hurt."
Po smiled then, but before he could say anything else Tigress's face changed back into the angry mask it had wore before. Her paw clamped down on his shoulder, driving Po to one knee as he hissed in pain (caused, Maxim guessed, by Tigress digging her claws into him) as she growled, "But if you ever do anything this stupid again I'll see to it that you get ten times worse, even if I have to follow you into the Spirit Realm myself! Understand!?"
"Yeah, got it. Sorry. Ow!" Po answered her, his voice tight with pain. In spite of what Maxim had witnessed thus far (or perhaps, for some strange reason, because of it) he got the impression that there was something going on between Tigress and Po. This suspicion was strengthened when he heard Monkey and Mantis snickering, though they quickly shut up and went back to setting up the barrier, as if they never stopped, when she turned her glare on them. Even Viper his her muzzle in her coils and Crane his beak beneath his wing in an effort to keep from laughing. Finally Tigress relented, releasing Po's shoulder with a sigh which Po then rubbed gingerly.
The crisis apparently over, Diana turned to Po and asked, "Did Tigress say you did something to help Lyu? What happened, what's wrong with her?"
"And what of the guy who attacked us?" Dersu's added, "Did you find him?"
Po rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably as he said, "Um, well...you see, that is...how do I put this...?"
"Lyudmilla was the shooter," Tigress finished for him.
Maxim felt the shock ripple through his team as the information sinks in, with Diana speaking for pretty much all of them when she said, "What, Lyu? No, she couldn't possibly do something like that! You've gotta be mistaken."
"Sorry, but it's true," Crane said regretfully, "I was there and saw it with my own eyes: she's the one."
Maxim's team continued to express their disbelief, but he himself was starting to think that it was true after looking at Lyu's guilt-ridden face. What's more was that he was beginning to suspect just how that could be, and that he himself was partially responsible, suspicions that were pretty much confirmed when the panda rubbed at his cheek (which Maxim just noticed had faint traces of blood in the fur) as he said, "For what it's worth it wasn't her fault. Some jerk was using dark chi to force her to attack you."
"Guy," Maxim growled under his breath, "So that's why he gave me that power, even though he knew I harbored treasonous intents! That's why..." Unable to contain his rising anger any longer, Maxim whirled and kicked a small stone behind him which bounced off the barrier covering the walls with a faint hum as he yelled at the top of his lungs, "Guy! I'll make you pay for this if it's the last thing I do!"
" 'Guy'? Is that that hairless ape's name?" Po asked him, "His mother wasn't very creative in the name department, now was she?"
"Huh?" Maxim asked just as Tigress corrected Po, "Humans."
"Hugh-what?" Po asked back.
"Humans. That's what they call themselves, the name of their species," Tigress clarified, "You know: tiger, panda, human...get it?"
"I see," Po said thoughtfully, then he shrugged and said, "If you ask me, however, I'd say that 'hairless ape' suits this Guy character better."
"Wait, you actually saw Guy?" Maxim asked Po, wondering exactly when he had been in the area.
"You could say that," Po told him, "When I was still in your friend's mind after purging it of the dark chi, I saw him and a woman through a window of sorts before I closed it for good."
"I see," Maxim said, "And Lyu?"
"She was understandingly disoriented after I helped her, not to mention a bit upset once she remembered what she was made to do, but other than that she was okay," Po assured him, "More importantly, this Guy won't be able to make her do that again, and by the time I'm through with him he won't be able to do it to anyone else."
"Po," Tigress said, exasperation in her tone as she glared at him again, "Please tell me that you already went and picked a fight with an enemy we know very little about. We've been here for less than half a day!"
"Um, okay," Po told her, but the way he wouldn't look Tigress in the eye was far more telling to Maxim than anything else.
"Well?" Tigress asked Po after a moment, her arms crossed.
"Well what?" Po said evasively.
"Did you?" Tigress asked again.
"Did I do what?" Po responded in an ignorant tone that was fooling nobody.
"Pick a fight with this Guy character!" Tigress practically yelled at him.
"You just told me not to tell you that!" Po said defensively.
Tigress groaned and did a facepalm, and to be frank Maxim couldn't blame her. To think that this was the guy this group decided to follow. Maxim personally couldn't see it, big heart or no.
A strange sound next to him distracted Maxim from the inner drama of the newcomers, and he looked over to see Diana with her hand over her mouth, her eyes squeezed shut. Had Guy shifted his efforts to turning Diana into his assassin since his access to Lyu was now denied him? Or was this some sort of self-destruct, a failsafe for the event if Guy's blatant attempt to have Maxim's team murder each other failed.
"Diana?" Maxim asked in concern, "Sis, are you oka..."
"BWAHAHAHAHA!" Diana's laughter exploded from her like water bursting from a dam, and she gripped her sides and tears streamed from her eyes as she chortled, "Oh! Oh my god, my sides! Please, no more! Bwahahaha!". Diana's laughter was so contagious that soon the entire cave was ringing with it. Even Dersu, who hardly ever showed emotion before, even he was laughing along with everyone else. Not even Maxim and Tigress, arguably the two most serious and level headed people (beings? however you'd describe it) in this confined space, even they weren't immune to being caught up in this jovial atmosphere. Once the laughter died down Tigress asked Po in a much more friendly tone, "Oh Po, what on Earth are we going to do with you?"
"You mean besides kicking some major bad guy butt?" Po asked him.
Tigress chuckled as she said, "Yes Po, besides that." Po shrugged in response and Tigress's tail began swishing in a more natural, non-angry fashion, and Maxim began to think that his earlier impression of a relationship between those two may not have been that far off. Of course it was rather likely that they themselves were unaware of how close they had gotten, and would likely adamantly (and, as far as they knew, truthfully) deny any implication that they were a couple.
"So, where are we going?" Viper asked as she slithered over towards Po.
"Um...uh..." Po said uncertainly, looking as though he was trying to divine the direction with his index finger.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Mantis exclaimed as he hopped over to Po, "You challenged this Guy character, likely bringing down on us all sorts of Hell, and you didn't even bother finding out where he lives!?"
"It was the heat of the moment, Mantis!" Po said defensively.
"Guy's compound is on a small island fortress just off the cost of France, about 10,110 kilometers north-northwest from here," Maxim informed them.
"And you would know this because...?" Crane asked.
"You could say that my friends and I were sort of in his employ previously," Maxim answered him, "It's likely that Guy attempted to eliminate us because of my intentions to leave, taking my team and our buranki with me."
"Then that is where we must go," Tigress said determinedly.
"Wait, now you want to go?" Po asked in confusion.
"Of course," Tigress answered matter-of-factly with a smile, "We put this much effort into protecting these humans, there's no way I would leave them at Guy's mercy now."
Poor nodded in affirmation of her decision. Maxim, however, felt unsettled. This group of strangers had already done much to help him and his friends, and now they were willing to storm an enemy compound and face unknown dangers to protect them. Maxim, however, didn't want to be protected. What he wanted...
"Wait!" Maxim called out as Po and his companions started to walk away, "It's too far for you guys to simply walk there, and I don't think that you want to try and hitch a ride with Guy's people likely looking for you. If you can wait for a few minutes for us to rest and get ourselves together, we can give you a lift there in Zanpaza."
"No," Tigress told him adamantly, "You folks need to wait here while we take care of this."
"Wait here? Why!?" Ignat asked indignantly, "We can fight!"
"I don't doubt that, but I seem to recall your leader saying that he allowed Guy to meddle with your minds, and from what I gathered it was that meddling that allowed Guy to force Lyudmila to attack you," Tigress responded, "Po has certainly freed Lyu from his control, but the rest of you are still vulnerable. Now as long as long as you're here, within this barrier we created for you, Guy's control method can't reach you. If we allowed you to follow us out and Guy decides to active you three, then at best he can force you to turn on each other, at worst he might have you try and kill us. Either way we would have to stop you, which would distract us from taking down Guy. We can't afford that to happen in the middle of the mission."
"Then, can't you do for us what you did for Lyu, Mr. Po?" Dersu asked him, "Can you purge the brainwashing from our minds as well?"
"Well, the thing is I'm rather new to that technique, and only managed to pull it off last time by accident," Po said uncomfortably, "Also, Lyu was actively being controlled when I freed her. I'm not sure that I'm familiar enough with your minds to be able to recognize and safely remove this 'brainwashing' while it is hibernating."
"It'll be easier and safer for your people if we go ourselves and destroy Guy's hold over them at its source," Tigress told Maxim, "Once we have done so you can do whatever you want."
What Maxim wanted was to make Guy pay for trying to hurt his team, not cower here in this cave. However, he also didn't want to sacrifice his team to get his revenge, nor did he want to leave his team alone in case Guy decided to send his hit squad instead, so he said nothing.
"So how are we going to to get there?" Mantis asked Po, "Like the guy said it's not exactly like a jaunt across China, and I'd like to try and find a way back home this year."
Po looked thoughtful for a bit, then after a strange look crossed his face and he raced to the emtrance, cryining out excitedly after a moment, "There! We can take that boat!"
"Boat?" Monkey asked in confusion, "What are you talking about, Po? We're clear up in the mountains here!"
"That one, up there!" Po said as he pointed. Curious as to what he was talking about, Maxim walked towards the entrance and looked where Po was gesturing. There, against a distant snowy peak, Maxim saw a speck that was too large to be a bird and too irregular to be a lone tree. Using Zanpaza's heart to enhance his vision, Maxim was surprised to discover that it was...
"An airship?" Maxim exclaimed.
" 'Airship', that's awesome!" Po said excitedly, "Yeah, I saw that thing flying by earlier when I was on my way back here, and now they're all the way over there. Looks like it's stopped right now, so if we hurry I'll bet that we can reach it before it takes off again. Then we'll be able to get to Guy's place and kick his butt by lunchtime tomorrow."
"And what if it takes off again before we reach it?" Crane asked, "In case you've forgotten, I'm the only one with wings around here." When Po looked at him with a sly grin, Crane goggled at him as he said uneasily, "Wait! Don't tell me that you're thinking about...!?"
"Yep! That's the one!" Po confirmed, still grinning at Crane like an idiot, which he returned with a glare and a grunt as he said in a tone bordering on disgust, "I just want to let you know that I hate you, Po."
"Alright everyone, time's wasting: let's move!" Tigress commanded, which Po echoed with an enthusiastic whoop as he and his friends raced out of the cave, leaving Maxim and his group there in silence. As he watched them vanish into the forest, Maxim found himself torn like never before between following the panda and remaining here with his friends.
Lyu must have felt something was up, as she approached him and asked, "You want to go with them, to make Guy pay for what he did to us and to make up for your allowing him to do so, don't you?" Her tone wasn't accusatory, though he wouldn't have blamed her if it had been, but rather full of understanding. Guy figured that she must have still felt rather guilty for attacking her friends, even though it wasn't her fault and despite that she was prevented from killing anyone, nor could he deny the truth of what she was saying, so he simply looked at her and nodded. "So then, what's stopping you?" Lyu asked kindly.
In the old days, the answer would have been "Nothing." Before his recent defeat and subsequent revelation, Guy would have left his team behind before he would allow them impede him from reaching his goals, even sacrificing some of them (the guys, largely) as long as he got what he wanted. Now, however...
"I don't know, Lyu," Maxim answered softly as he returned his gaze to the forest beyond the barrier, "I honestly don't know."