"What?"

Zeng immediately winced as he heard both the Furious Five and Master Shifu's outburst at the same time.

"It's true! I saw it myself when I was flying back from a delivery!"

Even though they haven't really gotten all of the details yet, Shifu did notice the fact that Zeng did look a little haggard. He couldn't really recall having a message sent recently, though, but he wasn't really worried about that fact.

"Tell me what happened, Zeng. I need some more details before we head out."

"There are bandits there, and I noticed that they were trying to steal all of the metal inside of the village. Please, you've got to hurry!"

"Tigress, go and take the rest of the Five to the Musician's Village, and quickly. Po?"

As Tigress and the rest of the Five rushed towards the exit, Master Shifu turned towards Po, who looked back at him curiously.

"Remember what I said. We'll talk later about this."

Admittedly Po was a bit worried, thinking that he might have done something to get in trouble, but those worries soon slipped out of his mind as he realized that he was falling behind.

Rushing towards the door, Po almost threw himself through the opening and sped towards the exit to the palace grounds, thankfully managing to catch up to the Five as they made their way past the Dragon Grotto and on to the cliffs overlooking the valley.

"So…what do you guys think?" asked Po in an attempt to break the awkward silence that his episode started.

"About what?" asked Viper.

"About the bandits! I can't help but wonder why they would only have their eye on steel things. Isn't that a little strange?"

Tigress couldn't help but be curious as well, but she knew that taking care of the bandits themselves were the biggest priority on their plates right now.

"Let's focus on taking them out first, alright Po? Then we'll think about why."

Po was admittedly disappointed, considering his curiosity was almost at its peak, but he acquiesced and the group fell silent just as they reached the overlook to the Musician's Village, and what he saw down there made his blood boil.

The bandits this time were wolves, but instead of the normal ransacking that he was used to, the wolves were getting very rough with the villagers, kicking them around freely and even dragging some of them away if they made an attempt to protect the metal that they were trying to steal. He could even see a pig trapped in one of the large bells, a net of rope preventing him from escaping.

A low growl escaped from Po's throat as his fists clenched and his arms began to shake in anger. He could barely even hear what was going on in front of him.

"Po?" asked Viper, confused as she and the Five were expecting an answer from Po as to whether he understood the plan.

However, when she turned to face him, she was shocked to find that he was almost literally radiating anger from his entire being. His teeth were bared and his eyes were narrowed almost to slits, but what really worried her was the amount of stress that Po looked like he was going through.

"Po? What's going on?"

"Never. Again."

Po's words came in a strained whisper, but Viper could clearly hear them. Before she could try and calm him down, though, Po immediately sprinted forwards, jumping off of the cliff face they were on as he made his way towards the village.

"Po, wait!"

"We'll deal with him later, Viper. Come on! We need to get down there before he gets himself hurt!"

Tigress immediately beckoned the rest of the Five towards their destination, and they all jumped off of the cliff as well, landing pretty smoothly near the outside of the village.

As the Five began to engage with the wolf bandits, though, they were all surprised to find that Po was managing to hold his own pretty well for how outnumbered he was before they came in. Then again, there's not much that one can do to defend themselves when they're dealing with a thoroughly pissed off panda bear.

After taking down one of the bandits, Tigress glanced quickly over towards Po as she checked to make sure he was alright just in time to see him violently roundhouse kick a wolf in the face, wincing as she noticed the wolf's snout snap out of place.

"We really need to get this stopped." she thought before engaging with another wolf bandit.

Thankfully, Po's rampage didn't cause any injuries to the villagers, as apparently Po seemed to be in control of his senses enough not to immediately run any of them over in his hunt for the wolf bandits. Tigress was admittedly a little surprised to find Po even protecting a blind rabbit who was busy playing music on a liuqin, unaware of the action going on around him.

One of the wolves, who appeared to be the alpha due to a strangely similar scar to Po's across his left eye, noticed how poorly their fight was going against the warriors of the Jade Palace, and he knew that their escape had to be now if they wanted to get away with the loot.

Letting out a howl, the Boss Wolf signaled into the sky, as the loot that they had collected began sliding towards the edge.

After taking out another bandit, Tigress looked over towards the pile of metal and finally noticed that it was being pulled away. However, what caught her attention was the pig villager, still trapped inside the bell as it was just about to go over the side.

"Crane, go! There's a villager stuck inside one of the bells!"

"I'm on it!"

Crane immediately flew off from his most recent knocked out bandit, and sped towards the edge of the cliff, barely managing to catch the bell as it went over the edge. Unfortunately, the metal was pretty heavy, so Crane was unable to do more than use his momentum to toss the bell up a few feet.

Thankfully, Tigress and the rest of the Five noticed after their attention was caught by Tigress's original warning, and they immediately rushed towards the cliff.

Without really thinking, Tigress jumped off of the cliff, managing to grab on to the bell just as it began to drop again. Before it could end up carrying her down to her death, though, she felt Viper wrap herself around Tigress's legs, and the Five formed a chain with Monkey carrying up the rear.

Unfortunately, Monkey was more built on speed than actual strength, so pulling everyone up proved to be a challenge. Luckily, though, a pair of muscular arms soon wrapped around Monkey's torso, and as the chain began to be pulled up, Monkey turned around to find that Po was the one who was helping them out, still looking pretty angry, but much less so compared to when they first arrived. This slightly worried the simian kung-fu master, but thankfully Po still seemed to be getting back to his normal self now that most of the bandits were down.

Eventually, once Tigress came over the side of the cliff, she used her own strength to toss the bell containing the pig on to solid ground, the pig soon coming to a complete stop thanks to Mantis.

As the villagers celebrated the warriors' victory, Tigress turned around, intending to talk to Po about what happened to him, but as her eyes landed on the panda, she noticed him walking towards the Boss Wolf, the only remaining bandit who hadn't already been knocked out.

She could tell that the Boss Wolf looked pretty nervous, no doubt due to the seething look that Po probably had on his face at that moment, but he brandished a large war hammer all the same in an attempt to protect himself.

However, what came next was a surprise, as Po suddenly froze in place once the Boss Wolf wound his hammer back as he prepared to attack.

"Po, watch out!"

By then it was too late, though, as the Boss Wolf's hammer connected with Po's jaw, sending the Dragon Warrior flying as he landed nearby a group of villagers, his weight sending them into the air a few feet.

"Ha! Chew on that!" yelled the Boss Wolf as he jumped on top of the one remaining pile of metal.

Before any of the others could make a move to catch him, the pile of metal was soon lifted into the air, and the Boss Wolf successfully made his escape.

Tigress stared at the retreating pile of metal for a few moments before rushing over to check on Po's condition. As she walked up, though, she noticed that the expression on Po's face has changed, so she assumed that hit with the hammer must have knocked him back to his senses.

"Po, what happened? You let him get away!" she said, slightly annoyed as she watched Po try to readjust his jaw.

"I don't know. I saw this weird symbol on that wolf's shoulder pad and I just froze."

Po didn't want to admit to Tigress that he had a really weird flashback of an old female panda running away from a pack of wolves in the middle of a forest, considering he knew he was already on thin ice with her after his outburst, so he remained silent on that part, choosing to only tell part of the truth.

Unfortunately, Tigress was unable to confront him on his vague answer, as the rest of the Five rushed forward to check on Po's well-being.

"I'll be fine, you guys! My jaw's just really sore right now." said Po after seeing the looks of worry on the other's faces and also having to deal with questions from them.

"I'm just glad to see you're okay, big guy. You were kind of worrying us a bit with that rampage you were going on earlier." said Mantis.

"Yeah, what happened? One second you were fine, but then you rushed in like a wild animal. That's unlike you!" said Crane.

Po looked noticeably cowed at Crane's admonishment, realizing that he did end up letting his emotions get the best of him again so soon.

"I'm sorry, you guys. I just…I saw what those bandits were doing to these villagers, and I couldn't handle it! I wanted to…to…to show them the error of their ways!" said Po, unable to think of a better way to say what he was trying to say.

"By beating a wolf half to death?" asked Monkey as he pointed towards one of the knocked out bandits, whose snout was almost nearly caved in.

Po didn't answer Monkey's question, but the genuine look of regret on his face made Tigress reconsider berating him for continuing to let his anger control his actions.

Sighing, she glanced over in the direction of where the Jade Palace was before returning her focus to Po, who still looked pretty upset with himself.

"Look, you do know that Master Shifu isn't going to be happy when he hears about this, do you?"

"Well, is there a chance that we could maybe…not…tell him?" he asked, a fake smile plastered on his face.

Unfortunately, the flat look Tigress had on her face gave him just the answer he needed, and he sighed in defeat.

"Alright. Let's head back."

As Po led the Five back along the path to the Jade Palace, he couldn't help but stare into the sky for a moment, lost in thought. He was admittedly worried that defying Shifu's orders, however unintentional it was, would lead to some dire consequences, so he went to the only one he knew how to speak to in an attempt to save face, his voice coming out in a whisper.

"God, I hope Master Shifu's not going to be too mad at me."

"I'm very disappointed in you, Po."

Unfortunately, Po's prayers were unanswered, as once they returned to the palace and Tigress gave her report, Master Shifu looked down on a noticeably distraught Po with a sad look on his face.

"I told you not to let your emotions get the best of you, and now I hear that you've been like a wild animal out there! Frankly, you're lucky that none of the villagers were hurt, otherwise there would be much more of a problem."

Po didn't answer, as he was still unable to look Shifu in the eye after realizing what he'd done. Surprisingly, though, before Shifu could continue on with his tirade, he was suddenly interrupted by someone else.

"Master Shifu, if I may?"

Shifu looked over and saw that it was in fact Crane who had spoken, his wings together as he bowed.

"Yes Crane, what is it?" he said, exasperated.

"While I will admit that Po's…episode…was a little concerning, it wasn't by sheer luck that none of the villagers were hurt. I noticed that he was actually working to protect some of the villagers that were around him while he was taking out his aggression on the bandits. I think that he may have still had his wits about him even though that didn't appear to be the case."

"Alright Crane, I appreciate your input, but-"

"Master Shifu!"

Shifu winced, annoyed that he was interrupted again before he could finish his sentence.

"Monkey? Do you have something you'd like to share with us?"

"Yes, there is. There was a villager tied up inside one of the bells inside the village. Myself and the others attempted to save him when the bandits tried to take the metal they stole away, but we wouldn't have been able to do it without Po's help!"

"And did you manage to recover the metal?"

Shifu was already aware of the fact that they lost the metal thanks to Tigress's report, but he wanted to hear it straight from Monkey's mouth.

"Well, no, but isn't the fact that the villagers were unharmed enough?"

Shifu paused for a moment as he considered what Monkey said.

"Yes, I suppose that's what matters in the long run, especially considering we don't even know what they were planning to use it for, but that still doesn't excuse-"

"Master Shifu!"

"Enough!"

Master Viper immediately fell silent, being the one who had just interrupted Master Shifu.

"While I appreciate your willingness to jump to the Dragon Warrior's defense, he did not remain in control of his emotions despite my specific instructions to do so."

Before Master Shifu was able to finish his thoughts, though, he looked over at Po and noticed the despondent look he still had on his face. Now, Shifu did always pride himself on being able to tell whether an expression was genuine or not, and from what he could tell, Po looked to be pretty genuine, so he was admittedly unsure of what to do now.

"You're not going to kick him out of the palace, are you?" asked Mantis.

"Please don't! He doesn't deserve getting kicked out like this!" said Viper, desperately pleading on Po's behalf.

Eventually, Shifu sighed, realizing that simply following the code and kicking Po out of the palace was going to be tougher than he thought. However, after a few seconds of considering his options, Shifu soon got an amazing idea, but he kept his expression neutral to avoid getting everyone's hopes up.

"Dragon Warrior, meet me at the Dragon Grotto in one hour. There is something important that we need to discuss there."

For the first time in a while, Po looked up at Shifu, confused as he wondered what exactly Shifu had in mind.

"What?" he said slowly.

Po was clearly expecting to be kicked out of the palace after what he did, but Shifu's answer completely caught him off guard.

However, before he could try to get some answers, Shifu had already turned around and was heading towards the Dragon Grotto, back in the direction that everyone else had originally traveled through to get back from the village.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I need some time to think. I'll be in the Dragon Grotto, but please do not bother me until my business with Po is concluded."

Without waiting for an answer, Master Shifu disappeared as the pathway to the Dragon Grotto soon blocked him from everyone's view.