"Oh man, I need a snack." Po said holding his stomach.

He woke up quite early before the gong went off and was a bit famished. He decided to settle on some bamboo, bread, and left over soup from last night. Since he wasn't cooking for his friends he decided to just lazily eat it cold. While he ate he looked out in the horizon, especially at the red sunrise.

"It looks really beautiful, almost like her eyes…" he said almost unconsciously. He then slapped himself and said "You can't think of her like that! Look at yourself; she is out of your league. And what would Shifu think?"

The panda could only imagine what horrors would await if Shifu found out about his crush on Tigress. His training would increase tenfold, he would beat the daylights out of him, and most horrible of all the diet that Shifu would put him through. He was already on a harsh diet, where he is forbidden to get any midnight snacks.

As Po continued to ponder Shifu's cruelty chewing on his last piece of bamboo, Shifu burst in the doors.

"Panda!" the grandmaster yelled

"Master Shifu! It's not what you think, I wasn't eating… I was… um." the black and white bear stammered

"Not now, I will discuss about your late night snacking latter. As of now I need you to and the rest of the five. I have another mission for you." the red panda left as he quickly came.

The Po then came out of the kitchen and raced to hall of heros. Panting, he finally made it and noticed the red panda was bobbing his head angrily.

The grandmaster turned around and with a rough voice called out. "There you are! We do not have any time for your snacking."

Po stood next to the other five awaiting his master's instructions when the grandmaster pulled out a letter. He coughed a little and began to read aloud.

"Please help, we are being taken over by a number of wolves, we have tried to fight them off but they they overwhelmed us. We need assistance immediately. Signed Master Croc and Master Ox."

With that the master rolled up the letter and faced the five. "The message seems to be written frantically, no doubt that they were under attack when the letter was written."

"Do you think that it is the remainder of Shen's army?" asked Monkey

"Or maybe Shen is still alive." said Mantis

This gave a tension of fear to the rest the rest of the masters within the room.

"But the cannon… and… it fell on him." Po said.

"Po is right. We all saw how the cannon fell. No one could survive that." Tigress said trying to relax Po.

"Even so, we need to get over there and face whoever it is behind this. Shen or not." Shifu said. "I will stay here and protect the valley from any potential threats. The rest of you will need to return to Gongmen City and deal with this problem. You will leave after the gong."

"Here we go again…" Crane said joylessly.

The others simply agreed with a murmur. They have been in Gongmen just days ago, and now they have to return. The warriors then returned to their rooms to pack anything necessary. While they packed they began to discuss about the situation.

"Don't those guys know how to defend themselves?" Mantis said in an annoyed tone. "And how come is it that we have to clean up their mess?"

"It is because we are the closest allies that they have. If enemies were to find out about their weakened state, they were surely to attack." Viper said.

"Yeah, and I am pretty sure that if we asked for help they would most definitely come and help us." Monkey added on.

Po was just listening to them; he finished his packing early and sat on his bed looking at the figurines of the five. He was especially looking at the one of Tigress; he could not stop thinking about her. Even her action figure seemed to be perfect. He sighed and felt a bit saddened; he needed to step out for a second. He wanted to see his father; hopefully he would be able to help him.

"Hey Po, where are you going?" asked the straw hat avian.

"Oh… uhh… gotta say bye to my dad. Don't want him to be worried." He said "I will meet you guys later." Po then took all of his packed equipment and ran off.

The old goose opened the cold stove loaded it up with some dry wood and with a flint he lit the stove on. He made sure that fire would not go off and began to prepare his pots and pans. All that the goose needed to do was to wait for the gong to ring off. The bird always was up before the gong, but unlike Shifu, Mr. Ping did not want to bother his son to get up. There were rarely any customers around this early, and he knew that he could handle it himself. Though nowadays Mr. Ping was alone most of the time. He missed his son and always would bring out a large bowl of his most famous noodle batch just in case he would come.

The old goose waited peacefully for the gong until he noticed a familiar black and white figure approaching him, it was his only son.

"PO!" exclaimed the happy goose. Giving Po the traditional hug.

"Hey dad! How are the noodles selling?" Po replied.

"Better than ever, with you being Dragon Warrior and all." said the goose "Are you hungry? I got you some soup."

Po remembered the way Shifu made him stop eating, and agreed to drink the golden liquid that his father prepared for him. They laughed, and Po talked about how he fought against some bandits, while Ping told him all of the new good deals he was going to make. As they talked Po knew he could not stay longer. He had a mission and although it he knew it pained his father, he needed to tell him.

"Well anyways dad… I came down here to let you know that, I am going off again to the city." A silence filled the air. "I am going to be gone for a couple of weeks. Nothing too big." Po said trying to lighten the atmosphere.

His father remained silent. This gave Po an uneasy feeling.

"Dad… I am sorry… we just got the message today. I would have told you earlier…" Po said softly

After another pause until Mr. Ping said "Son… just promise me that you will come back." his voice started to break "You are all that I have left… and if you go…" he then started to weep slightly.

Po embraced him and spoke "Don't worry dad, I will be fine. I know that I will. I have inner peace now, and nothing will be able to hurt me." He broke the hug and looked down at him "Besides I have the Furious Five, they got my back too."

The goose looked at him, and with a sad look said to him. "Ok son… just remember that I love you." then his face turned a angry "And if I catch you tasting different soups other than mine while you are gone…" He took a hold of a ladle to Po in a threatening manner

Po chuckled and said "I love you too dad." Right after those words Po hugged him.

The gong rang and Po knew it was time to go. He looked down at Mr. Ping and gave him a smile, trying to comfort him for another time. He stood up and waved to his father, while his father waved back. All that he could do is hope that this would not be the last time he would wave bye to his son.