Greetings again. This is the second, still one to go

Hope you like it.

Kung Fu Panda and its Characters belong to DreamWorks.

This World and Idea is mine.


Space Panda

Reaching the Stars

Chapter VIII: Black Banshee

Finally we see our goal.

"This is it?" I ask.

"Yeah.", Monkey replies.

"This is a comet." Crane states.

"Yeah, we see it. We hawe eyes." Mantis replies.

The comet was an unknown one, who is circling a sun far away from Jade Station. His coma and tail was rather strong.

"From where do you have this information?" I ask Monkey and Mantis.

"From…Jacky." Monkey admits.

"Jacky the Rabbit?" Viper asks surprised. She isn't the only one.

"Yeah.", Mantis approves.

"Jacky is a smuggler, thief and what is most important a liar." Viper explains the fact, we all know.

"Yeah, but I don't think she lied this time." Monkey explains.

"And why do you think this?" Crane wants to know.

"Because it should hawe been a joke. She wanted to laugh about Banshee. He seems to have screwed big things up for an employer of the Melsat Oligarchy and that is why he is hiding in his old hideout." Mantis explains.

"A comet?" I ask to be sure.

"Yeah.", Monkey replies.

I think a while about this.

"Rather original hideout that I must admit." I turn around, "Viper can you contact him?"

Viper looks at her computer. "No. The coma around the comet is too strong. No channels are coming through."

"As well as sensor data, Captain." Crane adds.

I nod.

"Well then we need to do this in the old and traditional way. Monkey, Mantis to the Hangar. Crane, you are in charge."

And so we leave the Bridge.

I hate spacesuits. They are always itching.

"Have we reached the surface of the Comet already?" I ask Monkey who is wearing a golden-silver spacesuit like Mantis and different to my red-silver one.

"No, you will notice it, Captain." he replies.

I grumble. I hate to wait.

We took a Standard Space-Shuttle for this mission. Aerodynamic and rather well to navigate even in comas of comets. Also rather small and agile, but there for only Standard weaponry.

The Shuttle begins to shake.

"We entered the coma of the comet, Ma'Am.", Monkey says too late.

"I noticed." I reply while holding myself to my seat in the back of the Shuttle.

It passes a while till the flight gets smoother again.

"We passed the coma and are coming closer to its surface. Many ice and rocks down there." Monkey replies from the Cockpit.

"Understood. Can you open a channel?"

"No, Ma'am. Some artificial interference on this comet. The Sensors are still unable to see anything further a far than five meters."

"I see….It would be better, when we would put on our casques."

I begin to put on this thing consisting of high-quality glass, several layers of fabric and tubes, which I connect to the Air Machine of my back.

Two hours. I hope this is enough.

"I begin the landing process…." we hear nothing, "We have landed. And dear passengers, when you look outside of your windows, you will see in front, back, left and right nothing more than ice and rocks."

"Stop the jokes." I say while standing up and going to the Blaster Locker and taking out a blaster, "We should be prepared for anything. Don't want to be surprised by an inhospitable host."

Monkey puts on his casque and takes a blaster as well, but Mantis like always trusts in his invisibility and fighting skills.

I open the back door of the Shuttle and point my Blaster outside.

Nothing.

We all come out slowly. We activate our lights, which are installed at the casques, because the light reflection at this place is not good.

"Like I said: Ice and rocks." Monkey repeats.

"I heard it the first time." I take out my portable Analyzer, "The Analyzers are not working here. We need to look for him."

"This can end in a rather hilarious and long lasting searching quest, Ma'Am.", Mantis says.

I ignore it, while we are looking around.

Something comes into my mind…

"The distance of the Communicators is limited to a few meters.", I say after checking, "So we need to stay close and remember where we parked." I look around, "We are going this way."

And so we start our search. The first direction I picked only, because it was in front of me. And so we didn't find a clue for at least half an hour. But the view didn't change.

"Something is telling me, that we are not even close to our target." Monkey states rather bored.

Normally I would put him in place, but this time I can't. He is probably right.

I growl only.

Then I see something. A red light…Oh no…

"Down!" I yell and fortunately they react almost immediately, when the shooting begins.

I cover myself behind an ice rock close to me, while the others behind a rock right on the other side of this automatic machine gun shooting position. It stops firing after a while.

I try to look behind my cover and see the gun, which was hidden beneath the snow. It starts shooting after it had noticed me.

After I was in cover again the shooting stops.

"Seems to hawe wisible sensors, Captain. Maybe I can trick them." Mantis declares and I nod.

He jumps down from Monkey's shoulder and runs rather fast for a small guy like him to the gun. It notices him already too late. He had passed it, so it needs to turn around. This moment I and Monkey use to take our Blasters and fire. The Gun gets destroyed and lands almost on Mantis.

"We seem to be close." Monkey corrects himself after a while.

I nod.

We are marching further. From time to time, we activate further such automatic guns, but no one is able to adapt to Mantis' speed. In this way we shoot them all down.

After we met our fifth one, a flying drone appears from nowhere and begins to transmit a holographic projection of a bat.

"Stop doing this! I have seen you already….Or not? At least I noticed you. The Automatics are deactivated." Banshee yells at us.

He is a rather big bat with red diving goggles on his head and black pants. No shirt.

I stand up, after I determined if the guns were really deactivated. Only to be sure.

"What the Star Fleet wants from me to send you?"

I put away the blaster to its place, while I answer: "Nothing. But I want to know something from you, Banshee."

"But I don't want to have you in my secret hideout!"

"You have the choice: Either you let us in, cause you are indebted to me or we shoot our way to you through your Automatics, which are probably rather troublesome to install on an icy rock like this."

He looks down. "Let me think." he answers and his image disappears.

"What do you think: How will he decide?" Monkey asks Mantis.

"Hopefully wise. I don't want to run always." Mantis replies panting.

The image reappears.

"Fine. I let you in. Follow the drone."

We follow the drone. The view still not changes. Big icy rocks or even small hills and so on.

We end up in a dead end.

"And now?" I want to know.

"Good Landing." the image replies and vanishes.

We look at us startled, before we lose the ground from our feet.

We fall and land hard.

"I get him for this." Monkey states after a while moaning and I need to approve. Above us is closing an iris shaped hatch.

Oh no…

We fall again and land hard, after the second hatch had opened.

We stand up in this dark room and are massaging our backs. Finally another automatic door opens and our blind host welcomes us.

"So what do you want from me?"

Before he can react I grab his neck, choke it shortly and then throw him at the ground. Hard like I hope.

"First taking revenge." I reply, while undressing my casque. The other two follow my lead.

"Okay, okay this I have deserved." Banshee replies, while beginning to fly upwards again, "But why are you here?"

"We need your knowledge about some matters." I reply.

I tell him what we know.

He holds his cheek with one of the wings, while floating in the air thanks to the other….Not bad.

"Hmm…Interesting. I have not thought about going to this auction, but now when you mention it…"

"So you don't know, what this code can mean? Our inwestigation was rather fruitless…", "Shht!" I stop Mantis from saying further discreet information, which we need for our talk here.

Obviously Banshee heard it.

"So you don't know how to crack this code? He he, so you need me. What I will get for helping you?"

Damn. I think….seems like I have only one choice.

"When you help us think of the debts you have by us as forgotten."

The bat doesn't show his joy.

"Okay. Follow me."

So we follow him. This whole hideout is completely dark and we need to look out that we don't lose him as well as don't hit the hard surface of the metal walls.

"Hawe you no lights in here?" Mantis asks the obvious.

"Don't need any." Banshee replies.

"But when you have…employers here or something like that?" Monkey helps Mantis.

Banshee stops in his track and turns around.

"True, I haven't asked you, how you have found me…Was this Jacky?"

We can only nod after a little hesitation.

"I see. I need to rethink, who I will trust such discreet information in the future."

"Oh you don't need…" Mantis tries to help Jacky.

"This is a hideout. A secret one. This is not planned for showing my employers." he replies the question from before and flies further.

I should concentrate on the matter better. Jacky is not important for now.

Finally we reach a bigger room, where some small lights are on at the edges.

I don't lose sight of Black Banshee, while he flies to a computer and taps in it something.

"So do you know who this Shadow Cloak is?" I try to inquire.

"Not a clue. A nobody like it looks. No info about him in the Net as well. He appeared with this message."

"How will the other guys react, who heard this message?"

"Probably going to the auction. A Jade Orb is nothing, you have the chance to get every day, you know? But they will not go alone."

I see…

A holographic image appears and Banshee looks at it. It is the one, we heard already.

He looks at it and when it ends he let the message repeat, which is telling the coordinates.

After the second time he chuckles.

"I see. An easy one."

"You know, what this code means?"

"Yes. It needs to be easy or the dumb ones wouldn't understand it. And somehow the dumb ones have much money rather too often."

This surprises me.

"How is this possible? Even Crane and Viper…"

"You have ordered Crane and Viper to do it? Hah, there lies the answer to your question: both of them are not dumb."

"So you are?" Mantis says chuckling, but stops after a glare from me.

"No. But I have some experience with such codes, not like your precious Crane and Viper."

"So what it means?"

"Simply: The words are standing for the things you need to look at: First the Nebula, then the Star System, followed by the Planet name and by the more exact location of the Planet itself."

…I get it. It is really simple.

"So Snow needs to indicate on Nix Nebula. Nix means snow." Monkey figures out.

"Yes and further? Are there Star Systems with a blizzard in their name?" Mantis inquires.

Banshee activates a stellar map.

After further tapping the Nix Nebula is showed. It looks like a snowflake.

…Finally the computer finds something.

"´Blizzard Sloth Star System`?", Monkey states not without a proper humor.

"An original name." Mantis replies.

"Further. Which planet has something to do with a storm?" I say rapidly.

"The sixth one: Storming Elephant.", Banshee declares after a while, "And the continent is the third biggest one, where the highest peak of the planet is located. And now look how it was called: Snow Blizzard Storming Peak."

That it is! It needs to be.

"There we need to go! Let's go. We have no endless time."

"When I would be you, I would not be going." Banshee declares after we reached the exit of the room.

I turn around.

"And why?"

He chuckles.

"Because the worst scum of the galaxy will be present there. The worst criminals and probably all the guys, who hate Jade Republic and what it is standing for."

…I see.

"We still need to go."

He sighs after a while.

"Yes, you need. Hero duty, what? At least my debts are paid."

I nod after a hesitating moment.

"So good luck." he ends the conversation not without a little sarcasm in it.

Hope we will not need it.