Here it is! I forgot to say it in my first chapter, so I'll just say it now before anyone gets any ideas XD: I don't own Kung Fu Panda or anything related to it. All characters (except OCs, but there will probably only be a few) in this story are owned by Dreamworks Animation. Not me. Good. Now that the headache had been dealt with, on with the show! :D


It was the next night after. The villagers in the Valley of Peace and practically everybody else in China were hurriedly heading home, trying to beat the moon as it slowly arose from the ground, replacing where the sun would be. Mothers were ordering their reluctant children to go to bed, shop keepers were closing down for the night, and various candles that were emitting from the inside of homes were quickly blown away to embrace the approaching darkness. Most of everyone already had their eyes closed, awaiting the comfort of sleep to embrace them.

That is, all except Mei Ling, who had just woken up and was now getting up off her bed mat.

The vulpine questioned why she did not start her reversed sleep schedule a little earlier. It was far more expedient to be awake at nighttime than during the day in her opinion. For one, there were far fewer witnesses to watch her in case she accidentally got caught (which was a rarity) during one of her lifts. Another reason would be the fact that there was a consistent transition in all guard shifts from dusk to night. If Mei Ling chose to utilize this to her advantage, she would have a decently sized fortune stolen from any city's treasury and be gone before the guards would even notice the missing items.

Of course, the major setback was carrying the spoils all the way back to her safe house, meaning the rogue had to limit how much things she could steal before bailing out of the city/village. Mei Ling had gotten used to only receiving a very small portion of her efforts in the form of yuan (Chinese currency), but it still bugged her to know that she could have been as rich as the emperor by now if only she was working with a partner. A partner... Obviously, being a rogue is not exactly a popular job opportunity, so that possibility was useless. Nowadays, the vulpine had to deal with her own personal problems such as her occasional food shortage.

*rumble*

The fox glared at her stomach and frowned at it. Right...food. She had forgotten to go into a village to restock on that necessity after her conflict with Shifu. There it was again. That name. No, scratch that. That ANNOYING name. Mei Ling once again shook her head to clear her thoughts. She had never been as distracted as she was now for the aftermath of seducing other males. In fact, she never even bothered to give them a second thought after she had gotten what she wanted from them. So why did she have this tingling sensation whenever she thought back to the moment when Shifu had her pinned down on top of the cliff?

"Ughhh... This is way too complicated... Why can't you just get outta my head you stupid, annoying red panda?!" thought the vulpine with clear agitation ringing in her head.

Mei Ling stretched leisurely, popping a couple bones, trying to recompose herself. She brewed some tea over the fire which she had barely started and only took a single sip from her teacup before throwing it aside due to force of habit, causing the fragile ceramic to shatter into pieces. She couldn't care less. The rogue would probably snag a fancier one later anyways.

She proceeded to head out of her cave and into the welcoming night beyond. The fox headed over to the riverbank that was located in front of her home and decided to follow its steady path downstream. She was aware that a village was further down the river-turned-makeshift-road, and that within the settlement was a popular farmer's market. Perfect for what the rogue needed to resupply on for the rest of the week.

The fox could have chosen to travel upwards from the river and into the Valley Of Peace for food, but she refused to do so for obvious reasons. A pang of regret traveled throughout her body as the Valley of Peace was closer to her home than her current destination, but Mei Ling dismissed it as her hunger.

"No doubt Shifu has placed a decently sized bounty on me by now; if I go there, I'll be an instant red-alert target for the guards, and I've already encountered one too many close-calls there. Best I lay low for now, and besides, I haven't been to the other nearby village in a while. What its name is, I forgot and honestly, I don't really care about it. The enforcement there has probably forgotten all about me and my 'misadventures'...hopefully."

As the rogue traveled down the path, the only sounds that could be heard were the rushing of water, the endless chirping of crickets, and the pitter-patter of her own footsteps as she trod upon the grass and loose pebbles with practiced agility. Her paws were behind her back as she respectfully kept away from the nighttime traveling merchants and their carts that she would sometimes come across.

"I should try not to create any undue notoriety before I even set foot there... Even though 'What's-its-name' Village is still several miles away from here, I can't risk another unplanned incident."

The rogue kept walking with a steely, flint expression, often shying away "travelers" such as herself, as she was completely different from the usual meaning of the word. They never had the same motives as her. When they would come to visit, the vulpine would come steal. Such is the way of life that was in her perspective. The rich would only get richer, while the poor were left to make do with what they had. Often times, some unfortunate people wouldn't even have anything to use as a reference point, such as Mei Ling, herself. The thief had to start at literally the very bottom, but she eventually pulled through her tough past.

She was born as an only child, while her mother was a prostitute and her father was a drunken mess that was constantly on the lookout for jobs that in the end, paid less than the promised wages. Her house was shameful as it was passed on from generation to generation and from one family to the next, with barely any care in between. Growing up, the fox didn't have many opportunities to have a better life as school was considered a luxury and the rare friends she had were ripped away from her when their parents found out of her troubled family relationship. They all thought she was only bad news. So be it.

When she was a teenager, that's when everything started to fall apart. Well, things started to fall apart even MORE than what she was accustomed to.

Her father had started heavily smoking along with drinking, and her mother was constantly showing up at their house later and later. Often times, she was too drunk to be able to communicate where she had been, but Mei Ling always knew. The disgusting smell of arousal and sex had always lingered on her, and Mei Ling's father was either too incapacitated to care, or just simply never did in the first place. The heated arguments between her mother and father showed up more and more once Mei Ling had started to "take things upon herself". Things like stealing and just barely touching the edges of debauchery.

She still remembered the horrible event that caused her to abandon her parents forever when she had come home from her usual routine of hustling gullible strangers and pickpocketing nobles.

*Flashback*

A younger Mei Ling was walking through the crowded pedestrians and clustered streets of Gongmen City. This was her birthplace. Where she had grown up and is still planning to stay there for a while. The fox was fifteen years old and had already been arrested once by the guards there for getting caught shoplifting. Most animals were skittish around her, as she would never be the type to let pointless conversations get in the way of her day. Whenever she would walk past the civilians in the richer districts of Gongmen, people would feel their pockets to make sure that the pouches of coins were still safely tucked in and not suddenly gone.

In fact, the reputation that Mei Ling upheld was enough to make the occasional patrolling guard stop her right where she was and searched her for any signs of stolen goods or even contraband items if they were lucky. Of course, if they attempted to arrest her, she would always either flee the area with her natural swiftness or render the guards that were unfortunate enough to get in her way unconsciousness.

The situation revolving around her and Gongmen had eventually become so dire that even the enforcement there would simply walk the other direction or just pretend that they didn't see the thieving fox at all when they came across her. Both worked in her favor, regardless of what they chose. At that point, Mei Ling had gotten cocky. Some would also dare say that it could even compete against Master Croc, who was known to have an irritatingly high sense of self-esteem. She would openly snatch an unsuspecting target's coin purse and bolt away, with the guards and civilians around the victim to only give sympathetic glances and expressions of pity.

Those were the times when Mei Ling was the happiest. When she didn't have a care in the world about anyone or anything and had nothing to stress about. Her parents would always provide for her, no matter what condition they were in (surprisingly enough), and the city was too scared to do anything about her audacity. The commander of the guards couldn't place a bounty on her as she was considered inept to be a 'killable criminal' at the time and the peacocks ruling over Gongmen (Shen's parents) were too busy with political affairs to even pay attention to the bruise that was slowly eating away at the city like a parasite.

Local wolf bandits had tried to rob her as well, pegging her as an easy mark, but it would always end up with them pleading for their lives as Mei Ling held a razor dagger or something similar against their jugular. One time, she even managed to subdue one of them with a pair of chopsticks that were conveniently within reach. Of course, she would always release them as she had never killed anyone before (no matter what her reputation claimed about her).

The bandits would also have nothing but the clothes on their backs as the fox forced them to hand over their stolen goods to her. She also provided them with a warning that if they tried to pull something like that on her again, they would still be alive, but with fewer genitals than before. It was actually quite the fair deal if you thought about it long enough.

It was all going well for Mei Ling. Right now she was in a clearing, laying atop a branch on an isolated tree lazily with her tail swishing slowly while watching the sunset in the distance. The peach she held in her paw was obviously snatched with minimal resistance, but she threw it aside as she wasn't really hungry. She stayed like that for a while, consumed in her thoughts until an approaching figure interrupted her from her trance-like state.

It was another wolf, but this time it had unusually red eyes, with a brutal looking war maul slung casually over his shoulder. It wore dark plated armor over his vulnerable areas, with enough space for him to still move unrestricted.

It was Wolf Boss. The only difference between him and the one currently was the fact that he was obviously much younger and still had yet to receive the scar in his eye from Po's father, Li-Shan. The fox took notice of his rather aggressive-looking demeanor and simply closed her eyes once more, hoping that the wolf would go away and leave her be. Of course, her wishes were not granted, as usual. Wolf Boss shot a single glare at the seemingly uncaring vulpine and said with practiced authority,

"Hey! Lady! Are you the one that's been causing all the problems for Prince Shen and my pack of wolves?!"

Silence. Time passed. More silence was the only accompanist to the original one. Mei Ling had only twitched her ears slightly, as if a gnat had to annoyed her. Even more silence passed between the two figures. One was trying to catch up on sleep, while the other had his tail fluffed out in indignation.

Wolf Boss looked at her with clear disbelief in his gaze. He quickly became angry at her passiveness and pulled out his maul, issuing out a war cry before smashing it into the tree, causing it to topple over. Mei Ling merely sighed in exasperation as this happened and landed gracefully in front the wolf just before the tree had fallen to a complete stop, creating a loud thud.

The vulpine had an irritated look in her face as she locked eyes with her harasser for the first time.

"That was my favorite spot to relax you jerk!"

"Yeah? Well maybe you should tone down your impudence when I'm talking to you woman!"

"First I'm a lady, and now I'm a woman? You should really get your eyes checked; I think you'd look far more intimidating with a pair of glasses on you."

"ARGH! That is IT! You've done it now fox! I'll just skip the pleasantries of asking you questions while pretending that I have no idea what you've done, and just beat the living daylights out of you!"

"Whatever. Chivalry is a dead practice anyway."

Mei Ling got into a basic Kung Fu stance, waiting for the enraged wolf to attack. He did not disappoint. Wolf Boss sprinted quickly at the petite fox and proceeded to smash her thirty feet into the ground, only to have her catch the maul with surprising strength, pry the weapon from his paws, and bludgeon him repeatedly on both sides of his face before backwards somersaulting away from him, stopping with one foot on the fallen tree's trunk.

Wolf Boss spat out a tooth and growled angrily before picking up the now-bloodied maul while getting back slowly on his two feet. He seemed mildly embarrassed at the fact that he was so easily outmaneuvered by someone that was barely half his height. Naturally, anybody would have. Mei Ling, having noticed his offended state, decided to add salt to the wound. Figuratively of course, though if the moment became opportune, she would not have hesitated to do so if she happened to have had a salt shaker in one of her pockets. A shame she didn't at the time.

Instead, the fox did the next best thing. She shot him a look of pure innocence and confusion. It was her signature look. It was one that often caused the blood of one's that was unfortunate enough to be its receiver to boil in anger and pure appall. It was a look that represented the streak of rebelliousness and arrogance that all teenagers had possessed at least once in their stage of change. As Mei Ling was still "exploring herself", if you will, she was a master at this glance. She had practically screamed out loud with all the naivete and sarcasm that only a teen could muster, "Oh my gosh! Did I just do that? What would I know, I'm just a teenager going through the rough stages of puberty..."

Wolf Boss was indeed, extremely angered. It was all the better for the agile fox. Most warriors fought more recklessly when blinded by emotions. The wolf was no exception. He then ran straight at her once again, but this time had his eyes narrowed in frustration. Mei Ling decided to humor the poor bandit and chose not to repeat what she had done the last time when he swung his maul downwards. Instead, she gracefully dodged the fatal blow to her head just before it hit its mark.

"Ooooh; so close. But yet...so far." taunted the vulpine, further infuriating the wolf bandit.

At this point, he had had enough. Wolf Boss was literally being beaten by a pint-sized girl with an attitude problem. He wouldn't have any of it. The wolf threw his war maul to the side, and a low clunk could be heard as the weight of the weapon made contact with the earth. Mei Ling's feet vibrated in an unappreciative manner at this. Wolf Boss then drew out a pair of twin daggers. He had rarely used these, as his usual weapon of choice would usually beat his opposer into a bloody pulp, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and this was no exception.

Both the daggers looked quite menacing in the eyes of the vulpine, and she gulped audibly. Both of the daggers were ten inches in length and an inch and a half in width. They were double edged, but what had made Mei Ling nervous was its uncommon choice of material. The blade itself was pure ebony, meaning it was very difficult to break into pieces. That meant that the fox couldn't use her primary strategy against normal daggers when dealing with these two nuisances. Not only that, but both sides of the blade were expertly rough and jagged in shape and proportion; there was no doubt that they were created by a master blacksmith. An unnatural combination, but it still caused the vulpine to stop and evaluate her decisions more thoroughly.

Wolf Boss's eyes glinted manically and a wide smile made its way to his muzzle when he noticed Mei Ling's hesitance. It was quite the menacing sight as he bared his canines in glee. He rarely had the chance to wield the pair of monstrosities he held in each of his paws as he often concluded a fight long before it even began, but the fox standing in front of him was a special case. She obviously knew Kung Fu, and it was even more clear that she didn't learn it from the Kung Fu council that was slowly gaining power within the city, due to her more "free" tactics.

He had to resolve this issue before it became a problem he couldn't handle, hence him drawing out his daggers.

"You like what you see? Few have ever had the chance to meet 'Scorching Tooth' and 'Blistering Claw' up close and personal. By the way, if one of these manages to catch you on any part of your body, you're in for a world full of pain. Now that I've taken the time to give you a warning in sportsmanship, I suggest that you don't scream at the top of your lungs when I impale you in the shoulder blade. You see, all those screams of agony and anguish are great and all, but it gives me one heck of a migraine afterwards..."

A bead of sweat dropped from Mei Ling's forehead and rolled down her chin before making its inevitable descent towards the ground. The psychotic wolf grinned even wider at this, and the vulpine mentally cursed herself for revealing her inner anxiety to her opponent. Wolf Boss then resumed speaking once more, relishing in the control he now had over the troublesome fox's nerves.

"Migraines, as I'm sure we can both relate to this, are extremely annoying. When I'm truly annoyed, I do things that I always regret later on. I mean seriously, do you have any idea how long it takes for me to get the blood out of my fur and the severed limbs away from the crime scene and out of sight? It's tedious, to say the least. That's all I'm going to say about that... Now. Where were we on this again?"

Mei Ling was able to maintain her composure, surprisingly. Here she was, facing against a seemingly mentally-unstable enemy with dangerous toys, but the young fox still managed to pull herself together and formed a self-made Kung Fu defense stance. Wolf Boss's pupils dilated and shone dangerously. He licked his lips, already preparing for the taste of female fox blood on his muzzle, while Mei Ling stared passively ahead, awaiting his attack.

Needless to say, things were about to get ugly. Wolf Boss gave a devilish smirk once more and said,

"Alright then... Ready for round two?"


Author's Note: Already working on the next chapter. But don't expect a miracle, like for me to be done the next day you read this. Nope. No way I'm that good of a writer. Unless you want to flatter me (lol *wink*). If you haven't guessed, this will be a long flashback. Not much else to say. I'll see all you guys again whenever the time comes up :p