A/N: Hey guys, MCN here with Chapter 7, hope you guys like it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda or Alchemax, just my own OCs
Parkour v.s. Kung Fu
GONG!
"Good morning Master." The Furious Five said once again.
"Morning stude…" Master Chen began but stopped once he realized that Darvel wasn't outside his room yet. "Darvel?" He called but received no answer. "Darvel are you there? Darvel?" Chen opened the door to his room just to find that he wasn't there. Everyone gathered around and went wide eyed at the scene.
"H-he left us." Baboon said in disbelief.
"No way." Spider added.
"I knew that fox couldn't be trusted," Tigria growled in anger. "I swear if I ever see that low life again I'm going to…"
"Tigria calm down," Master Chen said, to which Tigria complied. "He hasn't left; look his stuff is still here." He said as he pointed to the items Darvel brought to the palace.
"Oh, well if he isn't here, then where is he?" Tigria questioned as she regained her composure. Just then, they heard a noise coming from the training hall.
"I'll give you one guess." Spider said jokingly. The group then made their way out of the barracks and into the training hall.
"Darvel are you…" Master Chen began but trailed off once he saw exactly what Darvel was doing. The whole group's eyes widened as they watched Darvel pacing back and forth nonchalantly… on the ceiling.
"Oh, hey guys, what's up?" Darvel greeted as he continued to pace.
"A-apparently you are." Cobra replied.
"Ha, you knew where I was going with that." Darvel said in amusement. Everyone then came back to earth and Master Chen spoke.
"Darvel, were you down here all night… training?" He questioned.
"Yeah, you see since you people are obviously insane and insist on putting the fate of China in my hands then I thought I would need all the help I could get, so I did what I always do when I want to learn something, I researched." Darvel replied. "I read an article online about the fundamentals of Kung Fu and it mentioned this wall walking technique in the Chi control section of it. And of course as a man of science I didn't think that was physically possible so I just had to try it out."
"Wait, so you mean to tell us that you spent all night learning that technique." Eagle said.
"Look I told you I have no experience in this stuff; you don't have to rub it in." Darvel stated, gaining a confused look from everyone. "What?"
"Darvel that isn't technique a beginner like you should be able to learn, especially not in such a short amount of time." Master Chen said, surprising Darvel a bit.
"Really, cause it was a bitch to learn, seriously my back is all shocked up from all the times I fell trying to learn it, I'm actually surprised I didn't wake any of you guys." Darvel said as he rubbed his back.
"What's everyone so impressed about, so he learned one technique, big whoop, we all know how you use it, it's no big deal." Tigria insisted.
"Yeah, but it took us like three days to learn how to use it properly." Spider pointed out, receiving a growl from Tigria.
"Really, it took you that long?" Darvel questioned causing Tigria to turn her attention back to him.
"Listen here fox; learning one technique doesn't make you a master, not by a long shot." Tigria stated. "As far as I'm concerned you learning that technique was pure beginners luck, and it'll take a lot more than that to prove that you're the Dragon Warrior, we clear fox."
"Hey, I have a name you know; it's Darvel, Darvel Richeen." Darvel replied, but received a snicker from Tigria.
"Darvel Richeen, seriously?" Tigria mocked.
"Oh and like 'Tigria' is so much better, I mean it sounds like something a little kid would name a stuffed animal." Darvel rebuked, shocking the rest of the Five and angering Tigria.
"Why you little…" Tigria growled but was stopped by Chen.
"Temper, Tigria." He said, causing Tigria to reluctantly calm down. "Darvel I think it's great that you were able to learn this technique, on your own no less, well done." Master Chen complimented.
"Thanks Master Chen, but really it's no big deal." Darvel insisted.
'On the contrary, it is a very big deal.' Master Chen thought to himself. 'By learning this one technique you have jump started he has jump started training. This technique is practically the introduction to chi control and the fact that he can do it with such ease shows that he seems to have a natural affinity for it. Looks like training him will be much easier than I thought.'
"So what do guys say we have some breakfast huh, I'm starving." Darvel suggested as he got down from the ceiling. The others agreed and they all made their way to the kitchen for some breakfast.
It was now noon and the Furious Five were currently sparing each other. The previous match was Baboon v.s. Spider, which Spider won, and the current match was Eagle v.s. Cobra. Darvel, Tigria, and Master Chen all sat at the sidelines watching the fight, wondering who would win. Tigria thought it was stupid to have Darvel just sit there and watch the fights when he could be training, but Master Chen insisted. Eventually the fight ended with Eagle being the winner.
"Well done Eagle, I see you've improved since the last time." Master Chen complimented.
"Thank you, master." Eagle replied.
"Cobra, you were doing very well, but you lost focus midway through the battle which aloud Eagle to gain the upper hand. I suggest you try meditating before sparing to help your concentration." Master Chen instructed.
"Yes Master Chen." Cobra said with a respectful bow.
"Alright, it's my turn." Tigria said as she stood up. "So which one of the winners am I fighting master, Spider or Eagle?"
"Actually Tigria, today you will be sparing with Darvel." Master Chen corrected.
"WHAT?" Everyone exclaimed in shock, especially Darvel, whose eyes were as wide as saucers.
"Master I don't think that's such a good idea, how about Tigria spars with Eagle and I'll spar with Darvel." Spider suggested, to which Darvel prayed he would agree to.
"Spider, you and Eagle have already had your matches, while Darvel and Tigria have not, this way we only need one more match and fatigue won't be a factor." Master Chen explained, thinking it was a good idea.
"Yeah, but a radical difference in skill and sanity will be." Baboon stated, causing Tigria to glare at him when he mentioned sanity.
"Fret not, I am sure Tigria will go easy on him, won't you Tigria." Master Chen said the last part in a stern voice, as he seemed to be ordering Tigria instead of asking her.
"Of course I will Yéye (A/N: Grandpa in Chinese)." Tigria replied in a sweet voice as she removed her Plasma Claws.
"Are you shocking insane, I just started out for crying out loud, there's no way I'm sparing with anybody, especially not her." Darvel stated causing Tigria to roll her eyes.
"Darvel if you don't get any experience on battle then what's the point in learning Kung Fu?" Master Chen questioned. Darvel was silent, Chen did have a point. After a moment of thought Darvel sighed in defeat.
"Fine, but if I die it's on you head." Darvel said as he made his way to the sparing ring. Tigria did the same with a smirk on her face.
"Oh, I'm going to enjoy this." Tigria said as she cracked her knuckles.
"*gulp* I am so shocked." Darvel said nervously as he fell into his stance. Tigria did as well, only hers looked a lot more advanced.
"Ready…" Master Chen said as he looked down at his two students. Both of their hearts were beating fast, Darvel's in fear, and Tigria's in excitement. The rest of the Five nervously watched, hoping Tigria really would take it easy on the fox. "…and begin!" Chen announced commencing the fight.
'I've wanted to do this for so long.' Tigria thought to herself as she dashed towards Darvel, her fist pulled back ready to punch him. Tigria was certain that this one punch would finish the fight but then, to everyone's surprise, Darvel dodged it like it was nothing. "What the…" Tigria said as she turned around to face the fox, who just shrugged his shoulders. Tigria just shook off the surprise and continued throwing a barrage of punches. Darvel was too nervous to get back in his stance and try to block and counter so he did what came naturally to him, he avoided obstacles. No matter what punch or kick Tigria threw at him Darvel avoided every single one of them. Tigria was starting to get annoyed with this and tried to pounce on him, but he just jumped over her like he was playing leapfrog. Tigria fumbled a bit but once she regained her composure she turned to face her opponent again but found that he wasn't there. Tigria looked all around the field, but couldn't find him. She then looked over at the rest of the Five and they all pointed up. She looked where they were pointing and to her surprise she saw Darvel clung to the ceiling. "W-what the hell are you doing up there?" Tigria questioned in annoyance.
"Staying away from you." Darvel replied.
"Get back down here and fight." Tigria demanded with a death glare.
"No thanks, I'm allergic to death." Darvel joked, causing Tigria to growl in anger. She then jumped up to the ceiling and attempted to kick Darvel down, but he moved out of the way just in time. Darvel then dodged all of her following attacks but just then Tigria saw an opening. Just as Tigria threw a punch to that opening Darvel detached himself from the ceiling and landed safely on the ground. Tigria did the same and tried to drop kick Darvel, but at the very last minute he spun on his heal dodging the kick and then, almost instinctively, spun back around with his right leg extended and swept Tigria's feet, causing her to fall to the ground. Everyone in the room was utterly shocked (A/N: Not that kind of 'shocked'), especially Darvel himself.
"Did-did I just do that?" Darvel questioned the others as he backed away to avoid getting hit. Unfortunately this didn't help because as soon as Tigria got up she dashed towards Darvel, and by the time he refocused on the fight, it was too late. Tigria did an open palm thrust right on his gut, knocking the wind out of him and sending him flying to the other side of the training hall. He smashed right into the wall and groaned in pain as he fell to the floor.
"Tigria, I told you to go easy on him." Master Chen said, breaking the silence.
"I was master, but he wouldn't fight properly so I had to get serious." Tigria insisted as she pointed to Darvel. She then looked over at him and saw that he was struggling to get back up, but once he did he began walking away from the sparring ring and towards the Adversary. Tigria then did a back flip and landed right in from of Darvel. "And just where do you think you're going." She questioned him.
"Back to my training; our fights over." Darvel replied before he tried to walk passed Tigria, only to have her stop him again.
"It's over when I say it's over." Tigria stated. "Besides you weren't even fighting, you were just running away like a sniveling little coward."
"Be that as it may, you won, isn't that enough for you?" Darvel asked getting fed up with her attitude.
"I won because you didn't even try, not that it would even matter anyway, like a 'wanna be' loser like you could ever beat me." Tigria spat.
"'Wanna be', you think I want to be here, you think I want the pressure of having the fate of all of China in my hands, well I don't!" Darvel replied angrily, surprising Tigria a bit.
"Master, don't you think you should stop this?" Eagle whispered to his master.
"No Eagle, this is between them." Master Chen replied, feeling that this was something that needed to happen.
"You know I had a life before all of this, I had friends, family, college, I was even lucky enough to get an internship at Alchemax, do you know how hard that is!" Darvel continued. "I had a good life, and a stupid prophesy took it all away from me!" At this statement Tigria grabbed Darvel by the caller and pinned him against the wall.
"I warned you about insulting the name of the Dragon Warrior!" Tigria exclaimed in fury.
"What are you gonna do, beat me up some more, go right ahead, at least then I'd be sent to the hospital and won't have to deal with you anymore!" Darvel rebuked, angering Tigria further.
"Well, 'Mr. Internship', tell me this, if you don't want to be the Dragon Warrior then why are you here anyway?" Tigria demanded looking Darvel strait in the eye.
"Because I promised my dad I would give this a chance!" Darvel replied. Tigria's face went from anger to surprise at this statement, her grip loosening a bit allowing Darvel to escape her grasp. "My dad thought that this would be good for me, that learning Kung Fu will help me decided what I want to do with my life. But I already know what I want to do, and it has nothing to do with Kung Fu, the Dragon Warrior, or this Brotherhood of yours. I promised my dad I would stay for at least a month, but you know what, I've had it with all of this, I'm out of here." Darvel said as he walked passed Tigria and towards the door. Tigria then came back to her senses and began following Darvel, the others doing the same.
"So you're just going to leave, abandon us in our time of need." Tigria said as she followed Darvel out the door.
"Oh please, like you ever believed that I could be of any help to you guys." Darvel rebuked, to which Tigria couldn't really respond to, for it was the truth.
"Master please do something, I think he's serious about leaving." Spider pleaded.
"I cannot force him stay, if he wishes to leave then there's nothing I can do." Master Chen said calmly like it was nothing. The Five minus Tigria were surprised by this; it wasn't like Master Chen to give up on a pupil like that, especially if that student was the supposed Dragon Warrior.
"Calm down guys, he's not going to leave; he probably doesn't even know the code for the platform." Tigria reassured loud enough for Darvel to hear it.
"Who said I was using the platform?" Darvel questioned.
"Well how else are you going to get down from here, it's not like you can jump." Tigria said sarcastically with a laugh, but just as she said this Darvel began running towards the edge of the 'palace'. "Wait, you're not really going to…" Tigria trailed off as he picked up speed getting closer and closer to the edge. "What are you insane?" Tigria exclaimed as she and the rest of the Five dashed towards him hoping to stop him. Just as they were about to catch up with him it was too late, he reached the edge of the platform and jumped off, disappearing in the clouds below. The Five stopped dead in their tracks by this, all except Tigria who jumped off after him, surprising the Five even more.
Darvel was nose diving through the clouds, savoring the sensation of freefalling at a great height; it felt like it's been forever since he felt this feeling. Just then, Tigria appeared next to him and spoke.
"You've got guts fox, I'll give you that." Tigria said.
"Oh please, this is nothing compared to what I'm used to." Darvel replied, confusing Tigria a bit. The two then noticed they were nearing ground and they flipped over and landed expertly on separate rooftops. "What do you want now anyway?" Darvel questioned.
"I want you to get your ass back up to the palace." Tigria replied in a demanding tone.
"Why, so you can insult me more, no way." Darvel said causing Tigria to growl in annoyance.
"Darvel wait." A voice said from above them. Suddenly the rest of the five landed on Tigria's rooftop, the voice turning out to have been Spider. "Don't take what Tigria says seriously, she acts like that with everyone." Spider stated, annoying Tigria a bit.
"I don't care; I'm not just going to sit around while pickle puss over here insults me." Darvel replied, causing Baboon and Eagle to restrain Tigria.
"Come on man, isn't there anyway we can convince you to stay?" Cobra asked. Darvel thought for a moment and then came up with an idea.
"Ok, how about this, the six of us have a little competition, you five v.s. me." Darvel said which confused the Five. "I'm going to make a break for the tunnel that goes right through the mountain, if you guys can stop me from going through it, then I'll stay, but if I make it, then you guys leave me alone and let me leave, deal." Darvel explained. The Five took a moment to talk amongst themselves, Darvel couldn't hear what exactly they were saying but he caught some fraises like 'not even a challenge' and 'like taking candy from a baby'.
"Deal." The Five replied in unison. Darvel smirked confidently at this.
"Then it's settled, the race starts… now!" Darvel announced as he rushed forward, the Furious Five following him. Darvel jumped from rooftop to rooftop, laughing inwardly at how easy this was compared to the skyscrapers he was used to. Darvel looked over his shoulder and saw that the Furious Five where already gaining on him, however, this was exactly what he wanted. Just as it seemed that race was already over, Darvel made a sharp turn to the right, while the Five continued strait.
"What the…" Tigria gasped as she skidded to a stop. The rest did the same and continued to pursue him.
"Where the hell is he going?" Baboon questioned, as he knew that Darvel was headed in the wrong direction.
"Doesn't matter, we just have to catch him." Tigria stated, as she picked up her pace, dead set on catching the fox. Once Darvel realized that they were still perusing him, he decided to try a different tactic. Darvel jumped off of the roof top and began running on the ground, the Five then did the same. Darvel and the Five darted through the multitudes of people with ease, the villagers stunned with amazement as they watched the group dart away from them. After a minute or two of darting through the crowd, the Five were finding it was becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between Darvel and the other citizens. Once he felt he had a good distance on them, Darvel stepped out of the crowd and hid behind a wall, watching as the Five dashed past him, blissfully unaware of his maneuver.
"That should buy me some time." Darvel said to himself as he climbed back up to a rooftop and headed towards the cave.
"We lost him." Tigria said in an angry tone after a few minutes of 'pursuing' the fox.
"What do we do now?" Baboon questioned her. Tigria thought for a moment and spoke.
"Eagle, fly up and search for him." Tigria ordered to which Eagle obeyed. Eagle flew up high and searched the valley for the fox. Eventually his eyes fell on a little red blur that was heading out of the village.
"He's heading for the exit of the Valley." Eagle informed the others.
"Head him off; we'll be there as soon as we can." Tigria said. Eagle nodded in response and flew towards the young fox, hoping to catch him. Darvel felt a presence and looked up to see Eagle swooping down at him. Darvel avoided this by jumping off of the roof and once again ran amongst the citizens, to prevent him from trying that again. Darvel tried to shake him, but Eagle kept a sharp eye on him, making sure that he didn't get away. After a minute or two of this, the rest of the Five appeared, closing in on him. He realized there was no way he could shake them now, so he decided to try and out run them. Eventually he made it out of the Valley and made a mad dash towards the cave, the Furious Five not too far behind. He watched as the cave entrance was getting closer and closer, the rest of his surroundings blurring. He then saw the Five surround him, and he know that they were going to strike.
"On three we jump him!" Tigria ordered to which the others agreed to. "One… two… THREE!" As soon as Tigria said three, the Furious Five pounced, but to their surprise Darvel slid to a stop and ducked. The Five's momentum propelled them over Darvel and they then smacked into each other, resulting in them laying in a big pile, dazed and confused. Darvel then leaped over them and ran towards the cave, and just as it seemed that Darvel earned his freedom, the entrance closed itself, forcing Darvel to slide to stop.
"What the Shock?" Darvel exclaimed as he examined the cave entrance trying to see why is suddenly closed.
"Well Darvel, it seems that you are more skilled then you previously led on." Said a familiar voice. Darvel looked over to find Master Chen standing next to the emergency lock down button, which he must have pressed.
"But… how did you…" Darvel began but was interrupted.
"While you were running all around town I was coming straight here, that's how I got here before all of you." Master Chen answered.
"Oh, well I guess that makes…" Before Darvel could finish Tigria pounced on him and pinned him to the ground.
"Got you, fox." She said in victory.
"You're a little late stripes, Master Chen already beat you to the punch." Darvel said, his voice muffled by the ground. Tigria then looked up at her master, who nodded, prompting her to let the fox go. As soon as Darvel got up, he sighed.
"Well, I guess you guys won the competition, so I'll stay." Darvel said halfheartedly as he dusted himself off. The rest of the five then approached him, all with suspicious looks on their faces. "What?"
"You know Darvel, you really gave us a run for our money back there; I thought you said you didn't have any experience in Kung Fu." Cobra stated, confusing Darvel.
"I did, and I don't." Darvel replied.
"Yeah right, there's no way a novice could pull off all of those moves." Baboon added, referring to the chase.
"Oh that, that wasn't Kung Fu." Darvel said, once he realized what they meant.
"Well if it wasn't Kung Fu then what was it?" Tigria demanded as she crossed her arms.
"It was Parkour." Darvel replied, causing confused looks to appear on everyone's faces.
"Par-what?" Eagle asked as he tilted his head slightly.
"Parkour, it's a method of movement focused on moving around obstacles with speed and efficiency." Darvel explained and was met with more confused looks. "Basically it's when you try to get from point A to point B in the quick and fancy way." He explained again, this time gaining understanding looks from them.
"If you had such a skill Darvel, why didn't you tell us?" Master Chen questioned.
"I didn't think it was important." Darvel replied with a shrug.
"You think having a skill that allowed you to out maneuver the Furious Five is something not worth mentioning?" Master Chen said with a smile.
"Well…yeah I guess." Darvel began but trailed off. He had to admit, Master Chen had a good point; he did out maneuver the Furious Five, but being unconfident young man he was, he saw it as just a fluke. "But they caught up to me anyway."
"Only because I interfered, if I hadn't you probably would be on your way back to the city right now." Master Chen pointed out with a smile on his face.
"Huh, good point." Darvel said as he pondered this fact. As he did this, Master Chen examined his chi flow once again, noticing a change in it.
'Interesting, his chi flow seems to have improved since he left the Palace, as if he has been meditating or doing Tai Chi for hours. It seems that this 'Parkour' is what gives Darvel his impressive chi control, the unity of his body and mind.' Master Chen thought to himself with a smirk on his face. He has learned by now that every student is different and all learn in different ways, this applied to the original Dragon Warrior, so it's only natural that it applied to the current one. "Well students, I think it's time that we head back to the Palace, there's still training to be done." Master Chen said, gaining a bow in response from all of his students. They all then made their way back to the Palace, Darvel a little pissed about getting cheated out of his freedom.
A/N: Yeah not the best way to end a chapter I know, but I couldn't think of anything else, so yeah. I hope you guys don't think that the whole Parkour and chi control thing is too ridiculous, I thought it would help establish Darvel's own unique fighting style or something, what do you guys think. Well anyways, R&R please.