Chapter Three

Both Red and Blue teams walked over to their respective sides of the field. Of the six masters of Kung Fu, only five of them seemed eager to give Po's experimental game a try. Only the female tiger warrior had some doubts about the whole thing, but figuring that everyone else would just yell at her later on, she decided to give it a shot and get it over with. Po on the other hand was the most excited; but at the same time a little nervous. He was hoping, no- praying that his game would be a success for himself and the Furious Five.

The bear, bird, snake, insect, primate, and feline all got into their starting positions, and they waited for Po's signal to start the first ever game of Fury Ball. After thirty nerve-wracking seconds, the panda finally screamed, "BEGIN!" Everyone immediately rushed for the yellow ball, Crane took flight and tried to fly up to the ball so he can grab it with his talons. Tigress saw this and kicked the post the ball rested on. Right before Crane could grab it, the ball fell off it's perch and it fell into Tigress' arms. Po and Viper started to close in on the tiger, who then leapt onto the side of the post and propelled herself off of it, heading towards the Blue goal.

She then threw the ball into the goal: One point for the Red Team. Po, Viper, and Crane stared at what just transpired in surprise and disbelief. Tigress grinned to herself as she calmly walked back over to her side of the field, where she was met with cheers from Monkey and Mantis. For Blue team, getting scored on in the very beginning of a game isn't exactly the best start to a competition. After five more seconds of stunned silence, Crane flew down to the bear and serpent and told his two teammates to huddle, and so they did.

For the first three seconds, no one said anything. Finally, Crane spoke up with slight anger in his voice. "Okay… what the Hell just happened?"

"I'll tell you what happened. We just got totally owned back there; that's what happened! By the gods, who was guarding the goal?!" Po yelled as he turned to Viper.

Viper snapped back at the two males, "Hey, don't either of you look at me like that! It's not my fault we got scored on!" She turned to Po, "And about that, we never really did establish who was the goal blocker now did we?"

Po paused, then said, "Well… no we didn't."

"Well, gee wiz, that's funny…" Crane said with sarcasm in his tone, "It's surprising coming from you; considering the fact that YOU CAME UP WITH THIS GAME IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!"

Po angrily turned towards the avian, "Don't blame this on me! I figured you guys would've figured that out by now! And I didn't think it would get this competitive. You guys make everything a huge competition!"

Viper yelled back at him, "Well I got news for you boys: This is acompetition!"

That sentence was all it took for Po, Crane, and Viper to start yelling at each other in unison. Red team was now starting to get impatient, Mantis yelled at them, "Hey! Are we gonna keep beating you guys, or are we just gonna sit here and wait for when you guys start ripping each other's heads off?"

The three Blues heard this, all sighed in unison, and Po spoke up. "Okay guys, arguing with each other isn't going to help us get revenge on the Reds. We need a strategy here." Crane and Viper nodded in agreement, and they all together came up with a plan of action. The Red team watched as they all whispered to each other for twenty more seconds. Finally, all three members of Blue team yelled "Break!" and walked back to their starting positions. Crane however took the time to fly the ball back up to the top of the post.

Crane flew back to join his team mates; he nodded to each of them, who returned the favor. Tigress, Monkey, and Mantis have also gotten back into their positions; shortly after, Po gave the signal for the game to start up again. While the Red team again rushed for the ball, the Blue team took a different approach. Po and Viper went in for the center of the field, while Crane stayed near their goal, grabbing his hat with one of his wings and making sure it was secure on his head. Whatever it was that he, Po, and Viper just went over, he needed to be ready for it.

It seemed as if Tigress was going to once again get the ball first, when much to her surprise, along with Mantis' and Monkey's, Po managed to somehow climb up the post with relative ease.

FOURTY FIVE SECONDS EARLIER…

"Po, tell me: During your fight with Tai Lung, how were you able to keep the Dragon Scroll away from him?" Viper asked.

Po groaned annoyingly, "I told you guys a million times already! I had to throw pots at him, used noodles, fireworks; and there was this one part where I had to imagine that it was a bowl of-" he paused, then grinned deviously at the serpent and bird, who also did the same thing.

RIGHT NOW…

Po saw the ball as a giant dumpling, and it motivated him to get up to it. He finally reached the top of the post and grabbed the ball in triumph. He then looked down on Tigress, who for a full ten seconds stared in absolute aw at what she's seen. "Wow," she thought to herself, "I really hate to admit it; but he's actually getting better at this. I've gotta know how he does it." But positive thoughts on the bear were interrupted when she saw that he was now taunting her by sticking out his palm and gave her the "come and get it" sign; all while having a cocky look on his face. Tigress gritted her teeth and leapt high up onto the pole right next to the center one; where she then leapt towards Po. The second he saw this, he was pretty surprised, and tried to then get off of the pole, but it was too late; she kicked him off, letting go of the ball in the process. Po fell to the ground with a thud, and he looked back up towards the center pole. Tigress threw the ball with all of her might towards the goal, which seemed to be once again unattended. She grinned as the ball closed in, but was then shocked to what the happened in the next eight seconds.

Crane swooped in right at the last second in front of the goal and deflected the ball with one of his large wings. It was particularly easy for him to do, considering that the Crane style of Kung Fu focused mainly on the deflection of blows delivered by an opponent. The ball flew right towards Viper, who grabbed the ball with her long tail, and she flung the ball towards the Red goal with incredible speed. Monkey and Mantis never saw it coming, and it flew right into their goal. The score was now tied.

Po got to his feet, jumped into the air with his fists raised his above his head and yelled, "YEAH!!!" Crane shouted at Viper, "Nice shot Viper!" She looked back at Po and Crane and said, "Well, I couldn't have done it without you guys!" It became clear to Tigress, Mantis, and Monkey that Tigress stealing the ball from Po was all part of the Blue team's plan the whole time. They wanted the ball to fly towards the goal. It also seemed clear that Crane was made the goal guard when on the defensive. It seemed like a perfect choice, not only for his style of Kung Fu, but also his large wing span. Po and Viper rushed over to Crane, where they all turned to see the Red team's stunned reaction.

"That'll teach you guys not to mess with the Blue team!" Po yelled, followed by laughter from Viper and Crane. Mantis and Monkey glared angrily at the Blues, while Tigress gritted her teeth so hard, they could've snapped off of her jaw. She stormed back over to her team mates and it was their turn to huddle up. However, she noticed that Monkey and Mantis were both glaring furiously at her.

"…What?" Tigress asked with a low tone.

Mantis replied, "Nice job kitty. You just had to fall for that one."

Tigress yelled, "Hey! It's not like you could've known they were going to do that! And besides, I don't see either one of you guys putting in any effort out there!"

Monkey shouted in return, "Well… that's because you wouldn't let us do anything. You never passed the ball to either one of us! Damn, it seems like you have problems with team work."

Tigress' eyes widened at that statement, "Excuse me? Are you forgetting our fight at the Thread of Hope against Tai Lung? We worked perfectly as a team there! Well… until he used his nerve attack on us." She then sighed and said, "You guys are right, we need to come together to show these guys who the real champions are."

Mantis replied, "Damn straight! We're gonna give these guys a bad case of the Reds!"

Monkey and Tigress glared awkwardly at Mantis, who both then said, "…What?"

Mantis tried to explain, "You know, it's like getting a bad case of the blues; but instead of 'blue' I said 'red.' Get it?" He chuckled nervously. Tigress and Monkey groaned and rolled their eyes. Mantis was a skilled warrior, but he was horrible at coming up with jokes or puns.

"Don't ever say that again." Tigress said. Mantis slowly nodded. "Now let's come up with something here…" Tigress, Mantis, and Monkey all went over their plan on how to get back at the Blues; whom were all waiting for them to wrap things up.

Viper broke the silence, "Hey, what are you guys waiting for? We're waiting to start our 'totally gonna beat you guys' spree here!" Finally, Red team yelled, "Break!" and everyone once again got into their starting positions after Crane reset the ball. When the signal was given for the game to start up once more, only Mantis and Tigress went after the ball, while Viper and Po did the same thing.

Once getting close to the pole to their right of the center pole, Tigress nodded to Mantis, who then leapt onto her shoulder; and she in turn leapt onto the right pole. Po used his previous tactic to get up onto the left pole, unaware of where Mantis was. This time, Tigress beat Po to the ball, and just as Po jumped towards Tigress to intercept her, the ball suddenly flew right out of her hands. Po was in mid air as it happened, and he now couldn't stop flying towards the middle pole. Tigress smiled in delight of the Red team's plan, when she suddenly realized that Po managed to jump higher than she thought he would; he was now flying right for her, and there was no time for her to dodge.

"Oh man… this is gonna hurt." They both thought at the same time. A second later, Po collided with Tigress with tremendous force and they both fell to the ground next to each other, hard. Five seconds later they both said in unison, "…Ow…"

Unaware of what had just happened to the two opposing team members, Mantis had the ball held up on one of his pincers and was heading right for the goal. Viper was just about to intercept Mantis when two large feet grabbed her body and flung her away from Mantis. It was none other than Monkey, who stayed away from the action in order to get into a strategic position. Crane meanwhile was more than ready for Mantis to throw the ball towards the goal.

At that moment Mantis threw the ball, but on the contrary to Crane's predicted thought, the ball flew right for Monkey, who had since dealing with Viper, used his athletic skills to climb up to a pole near the Blue goal. He grabbed the ball and threw it into the goal, and Crane wasn't in position to block it this time. Now Red team was in the lead again.

"Yes!" Monkey shouted as he landed next to Mantis who yelled, "BOO-YAH!!!" They both laughed and cheered much to Viper's and Crane's stunned reactions. The primate and insect duo made their way over to Tigress, whom was recovering from her unexpected collision with a large flying bear.

"Ugh… what happened?" the feline asked wearily as she got up; as did Po, who was rubbing his temple. Mantis and Monkey excitedly shouted, "It worked!" By some miracle, the pain Tigress was in was now gone, and her eyes widened. "You mean…?" They both nodded, and her face turned into a big smile.

She bolted up and gave Monkey a high-five. She would've gave Mantis one to, but his pincers were a little small for a high-five. They all laughed and bragged about their plan as they walked back to their side of the field. Po and Viper wearily made their way towards a stunned Crane. They were all bemused at what the Reds managed to pull off. Their bemused faces were then replaced by absolute annoyance and agitation. Po then looked over to the Red side of the field, and saw that while they were too busy talking about what they successfully pulled off, he noticed that the Red goal was wide open.

An idea sparked in Po's mind. He turned to his team mates, whom have apparently saw the same thing he saw. Crane, Viper, and Po all glanced at each other, then all smiled mischievously. They all knew what Po had in mind. Crane took the ball from their goal and gave it to Viper. She flung the ball up in the air; as it was airborne, Po decided that it was time for him to do something he's done during his fight with Tai Lung:

He threw his gut back and braced his feet as though they were nailed to the ground. As the ball came back down to Po, he then threw his gut out with great force, and it hit the ball right on target. The ball flew at tremendous velocity towards the Red goal, and it went right into it. The Reds immediately stopped bragging about their recent play, and all turned to see that the ball was now in their goal. Tigress, Mantis, and Monkey were all left speechless, their eyes widened, and their jaws fell as loose as they possibly could. Then all at once, they turned slowly to the Blue side of the field, only to see Po, Viper, and Crane smiling smugly at them, with Po waving slowly at them.

That was the final straw. All at once, the faces on Po, Tigress, Viper, Mantis, Crane, and Monkey went into absolute dead serious. The two sides now stared at each other like that for a full minute before Tigress finally spoke up.

"So that's how it's going to be…"

Po replied, "Yes. Yes it is, my friend…" It was clear now:

THINGS HAVE JUST GOTTEN TO THE POINT OF NO RETURN

A/N: Oh it's on now…! Review! And state who you believe is going to win!