Hello guys! I would just like to say thanks for the many reviews that I received for this story. Seven chapters for twenty five reviews may not sound much but to an amateur writer like me, that's a big thing!
So again, thank you for the support and I'm glad I'm doing this for all of you! :)
Now, for the people who Ship Tigress and Chang. Your prayers are answered. This chapter is gonna center our two favorite felines.
Now I may have used some "Criminal Minds" references here. Why? Because that show is awesome! And Matthew Gray Gubler Awesome!
Half passed midnight...
Tigress took a sip of the oolong tea that that Officer Rae had made minutes ago. She looked to her right to see Viper, who was sitting by a table, reading a book.
"Psychology of the Criminal Mind" she said the title was. That took the tiger master by surprise. She never knew Viper had any interest in Psychology. Most of the books she reads were basically just romance. So why the sudden change?
Before she even got to ask her, Chang approached them, carrying a stack of files in his arms.
"You know that used to be Peng's" he suddenly pointed out as he placed the files in top of the table.
Viper looked up to him, surprised by the information.
"Really?"
Chang nodded, "Yeah. He IS our resident Criminologist and Profiler"
I looked at the book for a moment. "Criminology means just that, right?" Tigress asked.
"Psychology of the Criminal Mind?"
"Exactly, Master Tigress" answered Chang.
"But wait" Viper interrupted "How would you know a Criminal's exact thoughts?
"I've always known that a criminal is often unpredictable. So how would you know?" she asked
"She's right" followed Tigress
"I've been in a lot of missions in. Most of them involved stopping bandits and assassins; 'predictable' would be the last thing I would want to describe them."
"Well" Chang began, running his light brown furred paw through his mane.
"The definition of Criminology Master Viper, isn't so much as knowing what a criminal is thinking, so much as asking 'Why would he or she do this?', 'Does he or she have a reason?'"
"What about Profiling?" Tigress asked.
"That's a different field Master Tigress. You see, in Criminology the main focus is the perpetrator's mind. But in Criminal Profiling, the crime scene is the main focus
"For example: a victim was found at her place of business, fully clothed but stabbed over one hundred times in the back. The murder weapon was one of opportunity. No evidence of forced entry was found. The victim was stabbed primarily in the back. However, she was also stabbed a few times in her chest. There was no evidence of a sexual assault or defensive wounds. The offender had covered her body with a blanket after killing her. There was a partial smudged palm print found at the scene.
The victim was the manager of the store who had a strong mind for business. She was in her late twenties and a flirt who enjoyed being treated to expensive gifts from those she dated. Additionally, she was not seeing anyone exclusively at the time of the murder. Drugs and alcohol were a part of her life. She dabbled in Opium and drank quite a bit on the weekends. However, money was not an issue as she had a lot of savings and few debts.
"So you ask, why would someone come into a place of business, seek her out, and do this to her? It appeared that this was an explosive individual who felt the victim had "stabbed him in the back." When you see a victim who primarily has injury to the back without a rape or robbery, it usually points to a revenge murder. This suspect would have had a prior relationship with her which would have been positive at one point. I said this because the killer showed some remorse by covering her, and there was no attempt to rape the victim. The offender would have been in his early to mid twenties due to the victim age and the evidence pointing to a man without prior homicide experience. This means he would be younger rather than older."
Viper and Tigress stared at him for a while.
"That was... Pretty accurate" Tigress told him. He gave her a somewhat content smile, she then felt her blood rushing to her face.
Dammit not now!
"I wasn't done" he mentioned, that pleased Tigress for some reason. She leaned against the table to hear the rest. Viper did the same, abandoning the book in favor of this.
"Now, You see rage and remorse at this scene. This is an explosive act by someone who feels he was pushed to the brink by the victim. Again, you had no robbery. You had no forced entry. You had no sexual component.
What you did have was a weapon of opportunity versus a weapon brought to the scene. The offender grabbed a pair of scissors from her desk to kill her, and he took them with him after the crime. So this points to a man who knew the victim, had a positive relationship with her that had gone bad, was young and inexperienced in crime, and due to the type of murder, would have been someone with anger management issues. Because he would have known the victim and had such a grudge, this is the type of perpetrator who would have had difficulty keeping his feelings secret.
Thus, people would know him and know of his anger toward the victim." he concluded.
"So It turned out the perpetrator was a man she had recently dated. However, she had broken the relationship off and wanted nothing to do with him. This hurt him terribly because for years they had been close friends prior to dating. People in her office knew him because he kept coming to the office in an attempt to convince her to take him back. He was in his early twenties and had no criminal record. The sad fact was that he was so emotionally invested in the relationship that he felt she stabbed him in the back. In fact he had uttered this phrase to those who were friends to him and her.
He had gone to the office after hours when she was working late in an attempt to get her to take him back. She told him to get out and that she wanted nothing to do with him. In a rage, he grabbed her scissors and began stabbing her. After he was done, he covered her body with a blanket she kept in her office. He said he couldn't stand to look at what he'd done. He took the scissors with him and hid them at his home." Surprisingly, this came from Viper.
Now it was Chang's turn to stare at her. Surprised that she solved it by herself.
"That is... Actually quite impressive" he marveled.
Viper winked at him, "Well I'm not just another pretty face, Officer" there was something about the way she said the word 'Officer' that sounded annoyingly familiar.
Wow, really Viper?
Tigress resisted the urge to roll her eyes at her friend. Not that she's jealous! No! Viper could flirt with whomever she wants! It's just really annoying to see her flirt with every guy we meet in missions.
"Well I'm sure a lot of guys found that fact the hard way, Master Viper" he chuckled before walking off the other side of the room, where Officer Rae was busy sifting through files.
"You really had to do that?" Tigress harshly asked, Viper looked up at her.
"Do what?"
"You don't have to flirt with every man you meet" she lectured.
She scoffed "That wasn't flirting"
"Viper, I've known you for years. If you see a guy even remotely good looking some sort for switch suddenly snaps on in your head"
"So you admit it then?" she asked
"Admit what?" Is this some sort of twenty questions?
"That Chang is good looking" she replied suggestively
Tigress' reaction was almost instant:
"I didn't say that!" she exclaimed. She then immediately recoiled as she realized just how defensive her reaction was. And also, how loud it was.
"Is everything okay there?" they heard Chang call out. Tigress just hoped he didn't hear their entire conversation.
"Er yeah... Just a little 'Discussion' with a fellow Master" she lied.
Once his attention was back on the files, she glanced back at her "Fellow Master" only to see her grinning. Like she had just uncovered something big.
"What?" she demanded quietly.
The serpent dismissively swiveled her eyes upwards, suddenly acting innocent.
"Oh never mind" she muttered before returning to read the previously closed book.
VVV
After finding the exact details that they need, Rae had suggested that they should get some much needed rest, Viper and Tigress couldn't agree more. It's been a long night.
As soon as got inside her room, she wasted no time and flopped on to her bed. She was tired. Physically and mentally tired.
How does Chang and his team put up with this kind of lifestyle? Well, then again people like Chang were trained differently from from her.
To them, staying up all night reading case files to solve crimes and catching psychopaths is a normal everyday thing. To her l knowledge. Completely different from the way she lived at the Jade Palace.
She sighed as as laid an arm across her forehead, staring at the ceiling. Willing herself to sleep.
Her eyelids were just about to drop when she heard the floorboards creak from outside her door. A silhouette appeared through the rice paper, it looked familiar and it looks as though that the person casting it was limping.
"Owww" it moaned. She huffed and immediately got up and off the bed.
"Po?" she whispered, opening the door to confront the lumbering panda.
"Hey Tigress" he sounded like he was in pain, but he was still smiling.
"What happened to you?" she tried not to sound as compassionate as she could. She's been losing a lot her edge lately.
"Well long story short: Cynthia cooked some curry and then she slammed on top of the table"
That... Did not make sense.
"Anyway, I'm gonna go get some sleep. Goodnight. Ow..."
She was still confused. She almost yelled at him to come back and explain but then she remembered just how important sleep is right about now.
Remembering her deprivation of sleep, she closed the door and went back to bed. Deciding to deal with everything in the morning.
VVV
Her eyes opened...
She didn't know what time it was but she was sure that it still early. She groaned as she knew that once she wakes up, she won't be able to bring herself to sleep again. Probably her routine back at the Jade Palace had something to with it.
She rubbed my eyes and blearily scanned the walls of her quarters. The sun was only starting to show its first rays. It was rather funny that despite of what little sleep she got, she was still able to wake up this early.
'Well, there's no use sitting around and stare at a wall' she scathingly thought
'I might as well take a walk. What could happen?...
Oh... Right... There was a psycho on the loose.'
And then she remembered that this place had a gym. She also remembered that she's a Kung Fu Master, she needed to practice my forms. She hasn't had the time to do that every since they got here.
Sure the station won't mind.
With that last thought, she made her bed, walked out of her room and made a straight course to the stairs.
About two flights of stairs later, she heard a feint sound from the hall. She recognized this floor, the gym was just down the hall. Where the sound was coming from.
The double doors that lead to the gym were wide open and the first rays of the sun peaked through them. And as she got closer she could now make out what the sound was. It sounded like someone was grunting.
A second sound caught her ears: a feint 'Woosh!', followed by a metallic ring.
She peaked through the doorframe. Heat flooded her system as she stood there, seeing none other than Chang, who was wielding the very same katana sword that he used before.
Armed, panting and... Or dear gods! Shirtless! Does he ever wear a shirt when he's doing this?
It was too early for her to be dealing with this. She had too much pent up energy! She needed to train!
'That's it! I am Master Tigress! I am a Kung Fu Master! And I am NOT going to let some... Distracting male get in the way of that!'
Determined, she collected that famous, stoic, demeanor that she was known for and casually strode inside.
"Oh Good morning Tigress!" remarkably, he had somehow known she was there. She also found it strange that he had dropped the honorifics and had reverted to a first name basis. And as equally strange, she ignored it.
"What brings you up here?" he continued to practice his forms.
"I thought I could practice my forms up here"
She scanned the whole room, it seems like they were the only ones here. The gym was more larger than the training hall back home. And also there weren't any obstacles, just some heavy lifting equipments, a mat, a bench, a punching bag that was hanging from the ceiling by a rope and a rack that held a few night sticks and batons.
"This is a big gym" she mused.
Chang chuckled "It's no Kung Fu hall. But it's enough. Hiya!" he swung his Katana blade in a downward motion. His eyes locked straight forwards as if he's engaged in combat.
And as much as she wanted to avert her eyes away from his display, she couldn't. She just can't. What was it about this man that makes him so distracting?
"So yeah" finally gaining a bit of control over herself, she awkwardly backed away -Slightly tripping as she did so-.
Choosing a spot near the training mats, Tigress breathed meditatively. Inhale through the nose, Exhale through the mouth. She righted her stance before beginning her forms.
For almost half an hour later, she trained in silence. But despite her best efforts to ignore that nagging feeling in her chest and continue her training, she had to resist the urge to look over her shoulder and steal a peek at the lion across the room.
Just to make sure he wasn't gonna pull anything on me again, she would like to believe that.
Though in reality, she just wanted to watch... Er... Observe his form. Or rather, one of his forms. So far, she had seen two of his styles. His skill in sword combat and the one he used on that bandit on their first day.
'Oh just go for it!' she mentally yelled, 'He's too busy to even notice. And even if he did, you have a valid reason'
Finally, she gave in to her urges. She sighed, she couldn't believe how low she had sunk in just mere days. This wasn't usually her way to operate. But maybe this time she could make an exception.
Just after finishing her current set, she turned her head and looked over to where Chang was.
"What the-?" she muttered when she saw that Chang had sheathed his sword, stowed near him as he sat on the bench. Still shirtless.
His jade green eyes fixated on her. The more he stared, the more Tigress felt self conscious. What was he doing? Had he been watching her this entire time?
"You were watching me...?" she stammered.
"Heihuquan" Chang whispered.
"I beg your pardon?"
"The Black Tiger style" he called out. He then stood from his seat and began to walk over to her.
"Characterised by its extensive footwork, acrobatic kicks, low, wide stances, and unique fist position, where the thumb is curled in the same manner as the other fingers, rather than wrapped around them.
According to the Shaolin grandmasters, the style is the single most external style in the Shaolin canon; the longer the stylist practices, however, the more she or he comes to rely solely on internal power."
For a moment, Tigress stared agape. Half impressed on how spot on his observation was. And half nervous as she realised just how better he looked up close. As in: almost close enough for her to tackle him to the ground and-
"Er yeah, exactly" her tail twitched uncontrollably.
"You know I never got to witness the style up close"
She looked skeptical "Really?"
"Yes. It's quite fascinating really that such power would come from someone like you"
Though he didn't sound like he was insulting her but something about that comment slightly irked her for some reason.
"What about you then?" she asked, she didn't trip over her words for once.
"What about me?"
She was blunt "Your fighting style, Officer"
She crossed her arms over her chest in a challenging way.
"My fighting style?"
"Yes. So far I've witnessed your form in using a Katana blade. A very sharp, one sided blade that was popularly used by Shoguns and Samurais of feudal Japan. The sword itself is believed to be connected to the wielder and rather than thinking of it as a mere weapon it is considered as an extension of the arm"
She sent him a confident smirk.
You're not the only one who can be smart.
But his reaction was not what she was expecting. He smiled.
"That's quite impressive, Tigress"
There it is again. He reverted from calling her 'Master'. What was going on?
She scoffed "The last time I looked, there SHOULD be a Master in there somewhere"
"Yes, there should be. But I'm off duty"
"What does that have to do anything?"
He shot smug grin "When I'm not 'in business' I tend to act more casual and therefore I don't need to call you the extra name"
She sneered. Her tail began twitching again, but this time, it was doing it out of annoyance.
"That doesn't even make any sense" she retorted
"Of course it does!" he then reconsidered it "Well, to me anyways"
"Still. That does not give you any right to disrespect me like that!" she snapped.
"Well-" he didn't get to finish that thought, for Tigress was suddenly at his face.
"And don't you dare think, even for a second, that I have forgiven you for arresting me for no reason!"
A few tense seconds passed by, "You know, not being able to let go of something like that is a sign of anger management issues"
She would've punt him off this building if it wasn't against the law!
"Oh you think you're so smart" she quipped.
"I don't believe that intelligence can be accurately quantified, but I do have an IQ of 187, an eidetic memory, can read twenty thousand words per minute."
A beat, then: "Yeah, I'm a genius"
And as soon as those words left his mouth, Tigress, with all the fury that she was famous for, talked him to the ground.
So the whole scenario looked like this:
Chang sprawled on his back, surprised and disoriented. With Tigress on top of him, her claws dangerously close to his neck and viciously growling at his face. Her tail swishing, unintentionally hitting Chang's legs.
"If you're such a genius, then you should know that showing arrogance to a Kung Fu Master is never a good idea" she seethed.
"Yeah?" he huffed. A bit out of breath but he still managed to crack a lopsided grin.
"Well, attacking a lawman can get you in jail" he pointed out.
"Perhaps this time I may have a good reason to arrest you"
She returned his grin, "You're off duty"
"So?"
"Didn't you say that when you're 'Not in business' you refrain from all formal connections. And since you 'currently' don't see me as a Master then I 'currently' don't see you as an Officer"
"So what you're saying is, everything that might happen in the next minute or so is strictly between you and me?"
She gave him a look "You might say that"
In a flash, Chang grabbed her shoulders and rolled over. And before the striped feline could even register what had happened, she found herself on her back, stunned and flushed.
She then realised, just now, that Chang was merely inches away from her. Also, she remembered that he still wasn't wearing a shirt.
The heat of his body radiated on hers. She laid there, pressed between the floor and a wall of taut muscles. Her golden orbs clashed with his jade green ones. That familiar heat had once again flooded her system, and as it lingered, instincts began taking control.
And her instincts told her to just lay there, and let this dominant male proceed.
And proceed he did. No words, no warnings. Just the feel of his lips on hers. Tigress's fur stood on end.
At first, she felt very stiff, but then, as the moments passed, and as it kept extending, she finally reciprocated.
Her tail, that was previously swaying back forth during the whole ordeal, had found Chang's, and had now intertwined themselves. Slowly, her paws reached up and cradled his face.
Her eyes half lidded, her muzzle angled in a way that could be only described in one of Viper's romance novels.
Eventually, she began to purr. If anyone could believe it! Master Tigress, Leader of the Furious Five, purring to man's touch!
Softly at first, then more loudly. Her purrs resonated throughout the whole gym, and it had registered in Chang to do more.
*Gong!*
Then everything just stopped.
*Gong!*
Chang growled in frustration. That was the morning gong, signaling to the people to wake up and start the day.
Or in Chang and Tigress's case, the signal was loud and clear: Time's up.
He stood on his feet, before lending a paw to Tigress to help her up.
"Well" he lifted her paw to his lips and lightly kissed it "Back to work, Master Tigress"
"Of course" she replied, still a bit shaken from their short lived moment.
He smiled thoughtfully, letting her paw go before grabbing his shirt from the bench.
"Come on" he beckoned, that same smile still ghosting his lips, he then proceeded to the door and through the hallway.
After a few breaths, her legs moved and she followed him.
And Cut there!
Please let me know if this chapter catches up to your expectations because I think this might be the most suckish chapter I've written. Also, this might be the last chapter where we see a bit of romance, I gotta keep the plot going.
Well that's it for this one, I hope you enjoyed this chapter more than I enjoyed writing it.
And please, don't forget to review.
PS: I know nothing about Kung Fu or Swords. All the information came straight from the internet. And also, I do not Own Kung Fu Panda.
