As you may have gathered, there's going to be a bit of an intermission between each trial. Don't worry, it's not just filler stuff. Things will happen here.
Chapter 8: Information Gathering
The Shushi Inn was a bustle of activity the morning after the first trial. Many competitors who didn't make the cut had already packed up and left, too proud to stay in the Valley after being publicly disgraced. Those that remained were celebrating their hard-won victory.
All except one.
The occupant of the dark room sighed to himself in contentment, pleased by his own performance that day. A small black-furred paw wrapped itself around a cup on the floor, raising it to his lips in a silent toast. He had assumed his new identity and made it through the first trial without being discovered. He was well on his way to completing his mission and no one suspected a thing.
Or did they?
His paw gripped the cup tightly. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. His tail kept twitching uncontrollably, an instinct that he had learned to trust in situations like these. But what could it be?
Come to think of it, he had been expecting a certain coded message from his employers in Japan. It was not an important message, simply a final signal to officially begin his mission. That was the standard procedure. Clearly, the mission had begun because the tournament had begun, but he had never received this message. Most lesser spies would write this off as inconsequential, but not him. He didn't survive for as long as he had by taking meaningless risks.
He saw two possibilities. Either his employers trusted him enough that they saw no need for this message, or it had been intercepted. The former was very likely, but he would never discount the latter. If that message had been intercepted, it would be easy for the Chinese to come to the conclusion that there was a spy in their midst. And if they had done that, there was the distinct possibility that someone was on to him. But who?
He set the cup back down, slowly drumming his claws against it. The most likely candidates would be those that lived in this region and knew it the best. That would be China's greatest masters, the Furious Five, and of course, the Dragon Warrior.
He chugged down the rest of his drink and stared into the empty cup thoughtfully.
"So let me get this straight," Shifu said slowly, "You decided to pick a fight with a piece of training equipment because it made you look bad, in the process allowing so many other competitors to pass you by that you got locked out of the gate. Is that correct?"
"Y-Yes, Master," Mantis bowed his head shamefully.
Shifu of course knew exactly what happened, as he had seen it for himself, but he was nothing if not thorough in his teaching. "Then I hope you have learned from your mistake. But in case you haven't, I want you to go up and down the thousand stairs fifty times before nightfall. That should give you plenty of time to reflect."
He gaped. "I'm being punished for losing?"
"No. You are being punished for losing in a manner that has dishonored the Jade Palace, and by extension, myself. Now go!"
"Yes, Master..." If Mantis could sink any lower, he would have gone through the floor. He slunk away to begin his punishment.
Shifu nodded, satisfied. "Panda!" Po bolted up. "Your father wants you to come help him down at the noodle shop again. It seems the place is getting busier than ever." He muttered something incoherent about mahjong. "...so you're free to go for the day."
"Yes, Master." Po bowed and hurried out the door, not wanting to keep the goose waiting any more than his master. The rest of the Five watched him go sympathetically. They thought the usual crowd at the noodle shop was hectic, so they didn't even want to imagine what it was like now.
"What about the rest of us, Master?" asked Viper. "Should we just continue training as usual?"
"Not today. I have a special task for you all." He turned around and beckoned them to follow after him.
He led the group into one of the most underused rooms of the Jade Palace: the Archives. It was a room filled with shelves upon shelves of scrolls, tomes, maps, and another documents, of such a large volume that even Grandmaster Oogway himself never had the time and patience to read all of them. And it was updated by the week.
Shifu pointed his students to the expansive sea of knowledge lying before them. "As you are well aware, one of your opponents is not who they claim to be. But disguised as a stranger, you have no means of discerning fact from fiction. That is why I want all of you to spend the day studying up on the other masters you encountered in the tournament. The more information you can get on them, the better our chances will be of exposing this spy."
As the students looked upon the massive collection that awaited them, they found themselves starting to envy Mantis and Po.
Hours passed, then days, then weeks.
Actually, it had only been hours, but it might as well have been weeks. They had worked straight through most of the day, only taking the smallest of breaks to have lunch, then dinner. And even that felt so long ago now.
If there was any consolation to this mind-numbing, soul-crushing task, it was that they were at least turning up results. "Master Spotted Blur," Crane read aloud from a scroll on former Lee Da students. "A master known for the invention and mastery of the powerful Fleetfoot technique, allowing the user to move at super-speed through the power of their chi alone. He is also known for his abrasive personality and dirty tactics, making him one of the less popular masters to come out of the academy. That sound familiar to anyone else?"
"Master Spotted Blur," Tigress rolled her eyes. "Could Kuai have possibly come up with a more obnoxious title?"
"At least now we know how he managed to win the race," Crane said. "Fleetfoot...I swear I've heard about that somewhere before."
"Hey, check it out, I think I found Dun," said Monkey, reading from the same collection as Crane. "Master Rolling Fortress, a master with an even stronger absolute defense than the late Master Thundering Rhino. Rolling Fortress has trained his natural armor to the point that he can deflect nearly any attack without even trying, which has given him an extremely relaxed and indifferent attitude about pretty much everything. He is a close associate of Master Spotted Blur, and they both graduated Lee Da together under Master Golden Cat."
Crane recognized that last title instantly. "They're Mei Ling's students?!" His lower beak was going to fall off one day if he kept dropping it like this.
"Shame Po isn't here right now," Viper said. "He'd probably enjoy this."
"Yeah, he'd be like a little cub in a candy shop with all this new kung fu knowledge," Monkey chuckled.
"That's probably why Master Shifu sent him away before telling us about this," she said, skimming though another scroll. "It's okay, one of us can fill him in la-wait a minute!" Her eyes widened. "Master Swift Hare, killed in a bandit raid by his own son. He is succeeded by his daughter, Yin Bei, who went on to defeat her brother under the tutelage of the great Master Rooster. Shortly thereafter, Rooster granted her the title of Master Silent Hare, now the sole master of the mysterious "Ten Limb" style."
Viper shook her head sadly. "The poor girl. No wonder she's so timid." Her desire to befriend the snow hare increased exponentially.
"You know she could totally be the spy, right?" Monkey asked.
In one of her rare moments of anger, Viper's tail wrapped around his throat as the snake pulled him close to her face. "Don't even joke about that!"
"I hate to admit it, but he's right," Tigress said. "We can't afford to trust any of these people." Viper bit her lip and looked away, releasing Monkey in the process.
"What about you and your crush on Reidak?" The simian coughed, immediately earning him a scroll casing to the head.
"That is not a crush, I just want to crush him."
"Well I don't think we're going to get any info on that guy," Crane said. "He's a foreigner after all. He's not going to have anything written about him here."
"I think it's safe to assume that a foreigner wouldn't disguise himself as another foreigner," Monkey shrugged, rubbing his head. "Unless he's trying to pull some kind of reverse psychology stunt."
"Now you're sounding like Po yourself." Tigress smirked as she opened another scroll. "Speaking of which: Master Twirling Fox, a feminine warrior who has mastered the bladed war fan. She is as beautiful as she is dangerous, but her sights are only set on one person, the legendary Dragon Warrior. It's rumored that she even has a personal shrine to him, consisting of drawings, action figures, legends, and...fur samples."
"So she's a crazy fangirl. Did we really need a scroll to tell us that?" Monkey asked. He looked down at the scroll that had opened when it struck him. "Woah, who's this guy?"
The rest of the Five crowded around him curiously. On the scroll was a sketch of another master, an incredibly buff simian in grey robes crouched down in a Monkey stance. Crane rubbed his beak in thought. "Weird. He looks kinda familiar. You don't know him?" It was typical for masters of a particular style to learn about other famous masters of that style, in order to assist in their training. For Monkey to not know about this guy, he was either really obscure, or really old.
"I don't. Let's see what it says about him. Master Golden Gibbon, once a bodyguard for the Imperial royal family. He was a legend whose sheer strength could topple buildings and make the oceans themselves part for him. He was also a trusted confidante for the family and was even rumored to have taught them kung fu. However, he suddenly disappeared one day while out on an important mission, and no one has seen him since."
The four masters looked at each other, all thinking the same thing. "It couldn't be..." Crane said.
"That would be silly," Monkey laughed nervously.
"No way," Viper tried to smile.
"An Imperial bodyguard..." Tigress thought aloud. "I think we had better talk with his royal highness about this."
"Ugh...no...more...stairs."
It was almost nightfall now, and Mantis was on his last lap up the thousand stairs. Unfortunately, he was also on his last legs, making this particular lap at least ten times longer than the first few. He silently swore to himself that if he survived the rest of this climb, he would never make fun of Po's hatred towards stairs again.
Appropriately enough, he soon heard the panda in question climbing up next to him. Po still couldn't get up the stairs very quickly, but it was quick as lighting compared to his own pace right now. "Hey Mantis, are you still doing-okay yeah, yes you are," he amended as the bug turned to glare at him.
"What's...up...Po?"
"My Dad just let me off noodle duty for the night, so I'm heading back up to see what the guys are up to." He scratched the back of his head nervously. "You, uh...don't want me to carry you the rest of the way up, do you?"
Mantis wanted to say yes. He really, REALLY wanted to. "No...Shifu could...catch you...punish you too...just...go..."
Po frowned, but nodded. "If you say so, buddy. I'll meet you up there, I guess."
Mantis watched Po quickly ascend the rest of the stairs, already regretting his decision.
"So what is it you wanted to ask of me?" The Emperor smiled warmly as he joined the Five in their "reading room". His guards didn't even bother following him in. If anyone could get past the Jade Palace masters, what good would they be?
"Yes, we were wondering you knew this guy." Monkey passed the scroll over to the lion.
The Emperor looked over the scroll, becoming more and more interested with each sentence. "Master Golden Gibbon...yes, I do remember him. I was only a young prince at the time, so I can't give you too much information, but I recall the way he stood next to my father. Hardened, passionate, as if he would gladly die for our family if he had the choice."
"Sounds like he might've," Monkey voiced without thinking, causing Viper to smack him.
"We noticed that he bares a strong resemblance to a certain competitor in the tournament," Tigress explained. "An aged gibbon named Lao Pi."
This news clearly came as a shock to him, making the Five second-guess themselves a bit. "I suppose it is possible," he admitted. "But why would Master Gibbon come back after all these years, when he was believed to be dead, just to enter this tournament? It makes no sense."
"It is only a theory," Tigress reassured him. "What I'm wondering is, what was this 'important mission' he was on when he disappeared?"
He looked down at the ground solemnly. "I wish I could tell you. Whatever it was, it was secret enough to keep even from me. I recall asking my father about it once, but he refused to tell me. I'll admit that as the years went by, I forgot about him completely." He sighed in regret. "Could he really be alive...?"
Before anyone else could give their insight on this new mystery, a loud gasping noise came from behind them. The group turned to see an extremely exhausted Master Mantis crawl into the room. "I...finally...made...it...WOO!" He collapsed on the spot.
"Leave it to Mantis to spoil the mood," Tigress remarked.
Viper rushed over to where the bug fell and gently lifted him back up with her tail. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah...just surprised...I'm still alive...is all." He wobbled back onto his legs, but it looked as if a stiff breeze could topple him again. "So what are...you guys...up to?"
"Just doing a little research," Tigress said shortly. "We're trying to find some leads on our spy."
As Mantis looked up at her, he took notice of the Emperor in the room. His eyes widened for just a split second, then returned to normal. "Do you...have any?"
"Master Mantis!" The bug cringed as Shifu suddenly appeared behind him. "I'm pleased to see your dedication to the team, but now you need your rest. We will fill you in on everything tomorrow."
Mantis seemed as if he were about to protest, but almost fell down again and relented. "Yes Master..." He shambled past Shifu and towards the students barracks.
Shifu turned back to the rest of his students. "Now then, please inform me of what you have uncovered."
"Yes, Master!" they said simultaneously.
"I...finally...made...it...WOO!"
Mantis pulled himself up over the final stair and flopped onto his back, desperately trying to catch his breath. He just had to make sure he wasn't going to have a heart attack, then he would move...eventually.
A large orange foot came down next to his head, and he looked up to see Tigress staring down at him. "I see you've made it back."
"Thanks...for the...support." Mantis gasped out. "Here to...drag me in?"
"Sorry, that's on your head," she said bluntly. "I'm just going to run down to the village quick. Po forgot something back at the noodle shop. When you're able to move again, Master Shifu said you should go straight to bed." She got on all fours and bounded down the steps to the village.
"Like I...was planning...to do...otherwise." Tigress was out of earshot before he even got to 'was'. Against the protests of his aching body, Mantis got back up and headed for the barracks.
Whatever happened while he was gone, he could deal with it tomorrow.
I'll admit up front, the idea of having cool master titles for everyone did not come to me until just recently. And with that, I came up with the idea for this chapter. For the record, these little excerpts will not be the full extent of the OC backstories. They're just here to whet your appetite a little for when I go more in-depth later. (Oh, and apologies to Reidak for shafting him a bit in this chapter.)
Those who have read my previous KFP stories will recognize the Fleetfoot technique from On Their Own. Now you know where it came from.
