KP All Grown Up 3: Mystical Zodiac War
AN: A story about the mystical animals and the people in the KP universe and the desire to prove who is the TOP mystical animal of the Chinese Zodiac! Starting with King Rat(Rat), Mindy(Monkey), Karen from M.A.S.K.(Snake), and Xi-Wang(Tiger)
Chapter 10: The Scope of Things
(In China at the Ninja School: Outside in a training field)
Yori was dressed in her usual all-black ninja clothes. Even her face was covered up to her nose so that all you could see were her eyes, and they showed experience and concentration. She was no fool, as she knew exactly how powerful a mystic animal could be after having helped train two generations of them. Along with her personal experience was a wealth of knowledge that her Sensei had passed on to her as she took over the school from the archives. So in short, she knew a few tricks that she could do that not even Stoppable's children were aware of.
Yori stares at the nervous teen before her and very silently, very slowly bows to him. She slowly straightens up and watches him return the gesture before gulping a little to loudly. It was only through her many years of training that she betrayed no emotion outwardly even as she mentally smiled at him before she slips into a battle pose, ready for anything that could come her way, mentally, physically or even mystically.
Yori had no doubt that he had been trained specifically on how best to fight her. She would have done the same in their position and her heart swelled with pride at knowing such good people, having a hand in raising and training them. It was those very same reasons that drove her now. She would find out his true heart for she had noticed that she had a gift for seeing the hearts of men.
Xi-Wang gulps so very nervously as the older woman stands before him. He could only see her eyes but they were so piercing to him that it made him feel as if she was staring into his very soul. He tries to focus on remembering what the others had told him even though the only slightly comforting thing that he remembered was that Yori was not going to attack him in a lethal way, but the down side to that was that he couldn't expect her to go easy on him at all. She would make him hurt and even knock him out if he didn't go in there with anything less than full power.
He also hated the thought of her testing him in ways that he didn't fully understand and for the thousandth time since rescuing the agent, he wished that he as back in the shop, sweeping up instead of possibly getting his butt kicked most painfully. A second look at Yori confirmed in his mind that he was going to get hurt most painfully. So he grits his teeth and makes a firm decision to go down fighting the best he could and use what he learned against the rat guy when the time came.
Yori speaks clearly to him, "We will begin when you are ready. Attack me when you are, not before."
Xi-Wang had learned one thing from his relatives and that was there were seldom second chances at doing things the right way. He closes his eyes and takes several deep, cleansing breaths to relieve his body of any tension and nervous energy as Tri Stoppable had taught him. After a few minutes, he feels his center and power aligned as he had been taught by Cindy and opens his eyes with sharp focus.
Yori would have smiled in her youth at the sight of the sharpness in Xi-Wang's eyes but she was too experienced and old enough to know that was a distraction in itself. She shifts very subtly, preparing for him as her careful eyes analyze him for possible attacks and mentally prepares for each and every one of them for up to twelve future moves as well before she notices Xi-Wang starting to glow. She could hear the wind howling much like many tigers as the wind roared all around with him floating up into the air and when a glowing tiger form surrounded his body, she saw that he dropped to the ground with the grace of a feline.
She had not expected such skill already and revises her plans with a mental note to never underestimate the fact that he had been trained by Cindy and Mindy, both very powerful users of the Monkey power and possibly Jesse who was very dangerous in his own way. The memory of having to fight the twin sisters in monkey rage was still strong in her memory and since then she had thought of ways to deal with such an event again. She wonders if this would be a good time to test them out as she observes Xi-Wang carefully stretching his body out as if preparing to capture prey.
Xi-Wang's glowing tail tip swishes quickly up and down before he dashes forward towards Yori even as Jesse whispers to Cindy, "What do you think his odds are?" He swings his fist at her, thinking it was going to be to easy as it didn't seem like she was even moving yet.
Yori moves in a flash, countering his strike as she moves to the side in one swift move and directs his powerful punch downward into the ground! The power of the punch causes dust and rock to go flying up. Even before he could begin to pull back she swings her own open-palm fist at him and is surprised as Xi-Wang's other hand blocked it! She immediately backs off to a safe distance as Xi-Wang couldn't help but say, "They warned me that you would probably block and strike at me the moment my guard was down."
Yori glances at Cindy, Mindy, and Jesse with unreadable eyes before turning her attention back to Xi-Wang.
Cindy whispers back to Jesse, "Probably better than ours after this match."
Jesse chuckles and wraps his arm around her waist from the side, pulling her closer to him. He feels her snuggling into his arm and whispers, "You're probably right… but I bet he will surprise her yet."
Xi-Wang could feel his tiger side desire in wanting to chase after her some but knew that he shouldn't do that. He had to be smart. The three of them had been trained by this woman and if he had trouble with them, then he was royally screwed against her but darn it, he was feeling a rush like no other against her!
He moves quickly towards her like before except his arms were ready to grab at her and as expected she leaped over his head as he passed under her like a freight train but using his powers allowed him to stop suddenly and he boosts his own ability for a second to spin quickly and reach out to grab her.
Jesse whispers in a cheer, "Alright, good move!"
Yori had seen such a move before and adds an extra spin in mid-air, causing her to change her trajectory and with the spin she thrusts her leg out to catch him off-guard. Sending him to the ground with his hands coming up under him to soften the hard landing. She lands perfectly and says to him, "A bold and risky move that almost paid off."
Xi-Wang growls as he felt that the tiger power was done playing with her now after that strike! He forces himself to calm down as he remembers in a flash what the others had said about how anger would only lead to his defeat.
What Xi-Wang didn't know was that Yori was very carefully watching his face carefully and his every move. She could see his power flaring like an angry beast and then surprisingly, he forced himself to calm down. This alone told her much about him so she moved forward to test just how much control he had by quickly striking at him in a way that would test his concentration.
Xi-Wang was surprised by her speed considering that she was supposed to be a really old woman and even with his boosted abilities he finds himself struggling with her as he did not want to injure the teacher of the ones who taught him. After the first couple of moves though, he begins to wonder if that was even possible as he kept getting thrown into the air. If it wasn't for his cat-like agility and speed, he was sure that he would have been slammed and hurt or even knocked out.
Yori notes his style of fighting was not one to injure her but to hold her off at first and pushes him harder until she notices him responding in a way that would have injured her had she not been watching him. She continues to push him by striking him in a few spots that would cause him pain for a little bit.
Xi-Wang cries out in pain and almost collapses, barely staying on his feet. He looks at her with growing anger but again the words come to his mind and he straightens up despite the pain from the strikes and turns his anger into focus on her defeat.
Yori notices the subtle look on Xi-Wang's face as he moves in a way that was sure to cause him pain but he was either ignoring it or he was focused on striking back at her. Either way, she knew that the fight should not go on much longer as even with her ninja techniques to extend her energy and speed, there was only so much that she could take in her older body.
During all of this, Amber slowly approaches the field and gasps at the sight of a large cloud of dust flying up, before dashing quickly to see better. She is very amazed by the sight of the field, which showed an incredible amount of damage as that indicated that the battle had thus far been a very intense one.
As Amber stands there, watching she hears Mindy, who was right next to her say, "Wow, he is doing good against Yori! Better than I thought he would do!"
Cindy says to Mindy, "That is because he is keeping his cool. If he went in there angry, he would have lost a long time ago."
Mindy nods as she says, "Yeah, I know. Looks like all that training and advice really helped him."
Amber crosses her arms in front of her and dismissively says loud enough for the twins to hear, "Hmph! He has probably gotten this far on luck. I seriously doubt he got enough training from three would-be ninjas such as your team."
Yori hears Amber's words but she was too busy avoiding a spinning kick to respond.
Mindy turns quickly to Amber and near-shouts, "What was that? You doubt our skills? Come on, I'll take you on here and now!"
Cindy says to Mindy, "Calm down Mindy, sticks and stones remember?"
Amber snorts and says, "Oh, right… says the one having to protect her boyfriend during some training. Why would you keep him on the team if he was that weak and pathetic? What a joke! He should just leave the team or get himself offed."
Now Cindy could accept just about anything that Amber might have said about her team, ninja skills, or even ninja lineage as the cooler headed of the twins but after having lost and gotten back her Jesse. Hearing Amber insult him was like touching high voltage from a power line.
Cindy's mystical monkey aura erupts around her body as she shouts, "What… WHAT DID YOU SAY!?"
Mindy shakes her head, "Oh boy… now you've done it."
Jesse quickly says, "Calm down Cindy, she didn't know. Amber, please apologize to her."
Amber looks at Cindy and says, "Why should I apologize? What is it that I don't know? Whatever! It isn't important."
During this time, Xi-Wang and Yori continue their battle with his strikes getting ever the more closer and precise as he sees that she is tiring.
Yori had heard everything that the four of them were saying. It wasn't hard really as they were all being quite loud and were already distracting almost half the people watching. She knew that Xi-Wang was too focused on her to realize what was going on and there was little time in explaining things to him before Cindy blew her top and went after Amber.
She moves quickly and knocks Xi-Wang off his feet, striking at him in such a way that it would stun him long enough for her to rush over and stop a possible and very dangerous fight. She didn't have the strength left to stop Cindy if she went after Amber and doubted that Mindy or Jesse would be able to stop her before Amber was hurt.
Xi-Wang lays on his back, stunned as his mind quickly works through what had happened. A single woman, albeit a very strong ninja was able to get through his defenses, his training and dash off as if he wasn't important! His mystical aura flares like a nova as he thinks, "Oh No She Didn't!" He overcomes the stunned effect and leaps to his feet. It was only when he was on his feet and turned to see where Yori had gone did he begin to see for the first time what was going on.
Yori pulls down her mask as she runs up and quickly but firmly says, "You will apologize immediately to the three of them! You had no reason to insult them as you did!"
Amber looks at Yori with surprise and then sees Xi-Wang coming and immediately regrets the actions that interrupted their fight. She had dishonored herself and the school for speaking both rashly and harshly.
Cindy swings her powerful, glowing fist as her patience snaps right at Amber with Yori moving quickly to push Amber out of the way.
Amber does a quick roll and springs to her feet just in time to see Cindy's fist swing down quickly. Too quickly for her to move out of the way but moments before it was to strike, another glowing figure catches the fist!
Amber looks up with surprise once more as it was Xi-Wang! He had covered the distance very quickly when he saw that Cindy had begun to attack!
Xi-Wang was surprised by Cindy's immense strength as she continues to try and push the fist down. He knew that if she had connected, Amber would be little more than a splatter within a deep crater.
Fortunately Xi-Wang didn't have to deal with Cindy by himself as Mindy, fully powered up grabs onto Cindy's wrist, while Jesse steps up to place himself between Cindy and Amber.
Cindy growls, "Let me at her! She…" Jesse says loudly, "She had no way of knowing that I was just brought back from being dead or that you love me more than life itself just as I love you more than life itself."
Xi-Wang felt Cindy's strength quickly ebb from her fist until the mystical animal disappeared altogether. He was surprised to see that where she was once a strong woman was now a very tearful and emotional woman who couldn't even say anything as she ran up to Jesse and wrapped her arms around him.
Cindy whispers, "Can you forgive me Jesse?"
Jesse squeezes Cindy and pulls back to look at her in the eyes, brushing some of the stray strands away from her face before he softly says, "There is nothing to forgive. No one was hurt. I know the pain and shock of what happened for us won't heal overnight but I think it is safe to say that I am not going anywhere for a long, long time Cindy."
Cindy says, "Promise me?"
Jesse meets her eyes and everyone can see the love bond between the two as he says, "I promise."
Yori quickly walks over to Amber and says, "Now don't you have something to say?" Her piercing eyes and scowling face cut short anything that Amber might have argued.
Amber bows to Mindy, Jesse and Cindy in that order with Cindy getting the deepest bow as she says, "I am very sorry. Please forgive me for my rudeness. I had no right to say what I did."
Mindy says, "Yeah, why did you say all that stuff?"
Amber blinks as that wasn't what she had expected when Jesse says, "I think I can speak for all of us that all is forgiven." Jesse had looked at Mindy when he had said 'all of us' and she had gotten the hint.
Mindy grumbles something that couldn't be made out before she says, "Apology accepted."
Amber sighs and says, "No, you have a right to know. I will answer your question."
Amber can see and feel all eyes on her as she says, "It is because I…" At that exact moment a ninja runs up and says, "King Rat has found another mystical animal holder!"
AN: Well everyone I hope you enjoyed this chapter. What do you think of all that went on? Do you think Yori learned much about Xi-Wang's true heart and character in the battle? What did you think about Amber? Did she go too far when she started to insult Tri Stoppable and especially Jesse? What mystic animal do you think King Rat has found this time? What do you think Amber was going to say? The real answer just may surprise you!
As usual all reviews, votes, suggestions, thoughts, ideas and bass guitar lessons are appreciated.