Kung Fu Panda - The Adventures of Liu Zhang 02. Let me see your true self (part 5)
My plan was a total failure, and now I was going to pay for being careless. Po gave me a strong punch in the face, throwing me toward a wall behind me and making me topple the machine on the floor. I tried to catch it again, but Mantis grabbed my hand quickly and twisted my arm to wedge it on my back. I agonized with pain, thinking he would break my arm, then fell to my knees on the floor, no longer able to stay in that position. Once I touched my knees on the floor, Monkey ran towards me and gave me a kick in the chin, lifting me off the ground.
Before I had time to react, Viper ran towards me and curled up on my neck and on my hand, then started to get me to punch my own face. She released me and hit my nose with all her strength, using the tip of the tail. I unbalanced again and fell sideways on the ground. I tried to get up to run away, but before I even stayed up, my mother, Tigress, grabbed me by the wrist, punched me in the stomach and threw me with all her might toward Po, who gave me a bellyful and threw me back to Tigress, that using a powerful right hook knocked me upward. Finally, Crane flew quickly towards me and gave me a kick with both legs, hitting me in the stomach and throwing me away.
I hit my back in the window and I one half of my body was outside of the house while other was inside. I groaned with the agonizing pain that ran through my body. Scared, I thought I had broken my spine, but luckily I was wrong and I could move myself, but when I did, fell out of the window and hit my belly on the hard dirt floor.
"D-damn it...*gasp* if I keep up like this...I will...*moan of pain*...end up dying! I hope...I hope Tuggsy comes soon with someone else to help..." I concluded.
I was getting up slowly, but stopped when I heard a loud noise of brick breaking. The wall in front of me was being struck from the inside, and soon it began to fall. I gathered all my energies, got up quickly and ran away before the wall fell on me.
When it fell, a large curtain of brown smoke rose, and suddenly the silhouettes of the 'bad' parts of my friends appeared. Their eyes seemed to glow like fire. It was scary.
"My wall! You fools! You will fix everything that you break after this fight" Taotie shouted from inside the house, angry. I could see my friends tighten their eyes with hatred and indignation as he said that.
I was in a very big trouble. I was hurt even before get a chance to start fighting, and I'd have to fight six opponents at the same time. But these opponents weren't like any thug or villain, they were The Furious Six (Five in this case) and the great Dragon Warrior! During my training, I always fight with them, but I could never win a single fight.
They've trained kung fu even before I was born. I had no chance of winning. But this couldn't prevent me from fulfilling my mission, otherwise I'd never have my friends back. I needed another plan.
Considering that I was outnumbered, had much lower kung fu skills and I couldn't escape the combat, I had only one chance: to tire them. Soon Tuggsy would bring help. I wasn't foolish to believe that I could defeat them alone. However great the pain of this battle, I'd just have to dodge and defend from their blows, otherwise the chances of winning were nil. I stood up, took a deep breath and went into a defensive fight position, putting my right foot back, left hand at the height of my chest and right at the waist.
"Well, well, well! It seems that the little brat will defend herself" sneered Monkey.
"Good! I was eager to be able to take the life of something today! Hehehe" Viper said, with her creepy voice.
"You bet!" Crane and Mantis agreed.
"Leave it to me, guys! I'm going to take care of her" Po said, already cracking his neck and preparing to fight.
"Ha-ha! Listen here, loser: do you really think we will let only you have some fun?" Tigress said. I shivered when she said that, by thinking that, somehow, the words had been spoken by my own mother. Taotie approached.
"Don't you dare to start arguing! Stop fighting each other, c'mon!" he ordered angrily. They stared at him but didn't answer. "Let's do like this: each will have 20 seconds to fight alone. And after everyone has gone once, you will attack together and finish her off!" he said with a firm tone.
"Ah! Why don't you close your mouth, Taotie?" Po replied angrily.
"Besides giving us orders you also want to teach us how to do our own job?" Crane snapped.
Taotie took his control again and electrocuted my friends.
"Still do not agree?" he asked ironically.
"I don't!" I replied by far.
"Fighting or not is not something that you can choose, little girl. Get her!" he ordered.
I didn't want to show how much I was relieved, but the truth was that I felt much better to know that I wasn't going to fight with they all at once. So maybe Tuggsy could arrive in time to help me.
The first to run towards me was Monkey. I still wanted to follow my strategy, just dodge the blows and defend myself. He attacked me first, giving a big jump, doing a somersault in the air and trying to hit a kick in my head. I pulled my head back, making him miss the blow, then grabbed his foot with both hands, spin on the spot and threw him away from me.
He got up, showing rage in his eyes, then came for another attack by doing a quick sequence of punches, aiming on my trunk and on my face. As he attacked, I walked back and defended myself from the blows using my hands and forearms. He was quick, and increased the speed of his attacks increasingly, until after a while I ended up going backwards and hit my back on one of the walls surrounding the ground.
Without realizing it, I stopped defending myself to look at what had hit my back and opened my guard. Monkey took the chance and hit me a strong punch in the stomach, leaving me gasping for air. I was without reaction after that and didn't know how to get out of there. Then he gave more punches in my ribs and my belly, then he gave me a kick in the chin, causing me to hit the wall and back toward him again. When I was falling on his direction, he struck my chest with his palm. I felt like my heart had stopped for a moment.
A tremendous pain was all over my chest. It seemed that something was squeezing my lungs and my heart inside my body. At that moment I felt like I was already unable to continue fighting. I coughed with shortness of breath, and noticed some blood came out of my mouth.I fell to my knees, and then immediately I heard someone approaching.
"Your time is up! Now it's my turn!" it was Crane. He took a flyby and threw Monkey away from me, then flew into the air again.
I forced my body to keep moving and went back to where I had started the fight with Monkey. I took several deep breaths quickly, then I returned to my defensive position. Crane gave some pirouettes in the air and then quickly flew towards me, almost touching his body on the floor.
I did a backflip, jumping over him before he could hit me, then I kicked him in the back as he passed under me. Crane continued going forward, staggering and kicking up dust from the ground. I felt my heart ache with the pain again. I groaned in agony and put a hand on my chest to relieve the pain.
"Hahaha! I thought you were going to give her lesson, birdie" Po laughed.
"How pathetic!" sneered Tigress. Crane was furious now.
"Shut up!...Grrrr, now you are going to pay for it, little girl!" he shouted, then flew toward me.
While in the air above me, Crane took a spin and was going to give me a blow with his wing. I put my left arm over my face to defend myself, but I repented. The tip of the wing passed through my arm, as sharp as a blade, and left a large scratch on my forearm. I screamed with pain, then went struck in the hindhead by the other wing and fell on the floor.
How had he done it? I'd already fought against Crane and seen him fight, several times, but he had never done it before. He had no blades on the wings, so how did he cut me using that move? Now matter how, now I knew I should avoid defend myself, and start only dodging the blows.
I got up, and so I was going to looking backwards to know were he was, he kicked me in the nose using both feet, while flying. Then he grabbed me by the leg and flew up, and threw me on the roof of the house. Tiles were broken when I hit them. Before I could get up to react, he grabbed me by the back of my shirt and flew into the air.
He spin a few times in the air and then flew toward the ground. A few meters before we knock, he threw me with all his strength, throwing me to the ground. I fell on my right shoulder, faced down, and I thought it had been broken. I groaned with pain.
"18...19...20! My Turn!" Mantis shouted, already running towards me.
I could barely get up after the impact. When the thought that I had faced only two of my enemies crossed my mind, I felt a desire to give up the fight and accept my fate. But I shook my head to send that thought away, how could I give up my friends? That wasn't going to happen!
I stared firmly my next opponent, but I didn't get up, he was too close for me to get up and begin to defend myself. Instead, I raised my left hand and gave a very hard and strong slap on his back, smashing him on the ground.
"Can't you guys give me a little time, dammit?! That's cheating! You are already better than me, and will keep beating me without giving me time to breathe?! How about a break between each fight? Then I can fight longer with you..." I thundered, then suggested.
"I agree with the idea of the break time..." Mantis nodded, still under my hand.
"Well, well! It seems that the insect is the only useless one who will beg for mercy! Hahahaha...what a shame" sneered Viper, with her chilling voice.
"Come on, little girl! Don't tell us you're already thinking about giving up?...We haven't even begun" Po told me, with a threatening and challenging tone.
I didn't answer, I just stopped to think how much longer I could handle that. I looked at the sky, soon the sun would set. Where was Tuggsy?! If he doesn't get here soon, it would be the end for me, and we'd never be able to bring my friends back.
"Shut up! I'm not useless, You are useless! Now you will pay for mocking me... FEEL THE BUG!" he cried under my hand, then lifted it and twisted my wrist.
I could no longer stand the idea of just defend myself without attacking, I needed to do something. I turned my body so he wouldn't immobilize me as before, then I kicked him, throwing him away. I got up and went into fighting position, the same as my mother, Tigress.
Mantis came for another attack, trying to jump on me and hit blows on the nerves in my body. If he could, he'd probably paralyze some of my members, but I managed to block the blows placing my palms in front of him before being hit. A few seconds later, he managed to hit me a blow on the chin, but I counter-attacked with a kick, throwing him towards the others. He hit the belly of Po and then fell to the ground. Taotie was counting the seconds.
"15...16...17..." he was interrupted.
"AAAH! Heck, I can't stand to wait! I don't know even why we are waiting! Enough, lets just get this brat and continue with our mission. I want to get rid of her as soon as possible so then we can get rid of other useless" complained Po.
"I totally agree!" said Monkey.
"And what are we waiting for?! Attack!" Viper ordered, then they all came running towards me.
They didn't follow the orders of their boss, but Taotie didn't stop them. Tuggsy hadn't arrived to help yet. Again, my plan failed, because I wouldn't manage to tire my enemies until he arrived, I couldn't even fight with one of them at a time, let alone now that they would attack together.
There was still one thing I try to do: find the Mystical Mirror of Yin and Yang. The machine may not have brought my friends to normal, but certainly the mirror would. I checked my back pocket quickly. Bingo! There was one smoke bomb yet.
"Please...you gotta work this time!" I exclaimed, raising my hand to throw the smoke bomb on the ground.
It worked! Once the ball of paper touched the ground, it broke out and a great cloud of gray smoke rose, covering up Taotie's house. I bent down to ensure no one would hit me and then ran into a tree which I knew that was on my right side. I went up to a thick branch, where I stood, waiting for the smoke be gone.
"Where did she go?" asked Crane, looking from one side to the other.
"She ran away! Coward..." muttered Monkey.
"She can not be far! Find her!" ordered Taotie.
I crouched on the branch and began to catch my breath. I was panting, it seemed that that was my limit. But after all, what was I thinking? They were the Furious Five and the Dragon Warrior, but in a bad and cruel version. How could I even think that I would put up to fight them alone, and Tire them? But now it wasn't the time to stop and think about it, I needed to find the mirror and save my friends.
"Trying to escape, Liu?" a shiver went up my whole column, it was my mother, Tigress! She was behind me, on the same branch, supporting the back and one foot on the trunk of the tree, with arms crossed.
I got up quickly after the fright and almost fell off the branch. I looked her in the eyes, just like the others, a flame was burning in her eyes, and I could hear the faint crackle of sparks coming from her inside. Her presence caused me a very great fear, leaving me with the feeling that that thing in front of me wasn't the 'bad part' of my mother, but a monster who wanted to kill me.
"M-mom..."
"No...she's dead, just like the rest of your family" she said, coldly.
"...You...you..."
"The fear is that big? How could I adopt someone weak like you? I must have had pity on you that day"
"W-what?!"
"You should have run away when you had the chance, Jade! Have you forgotten that no one here is your friend? The only thing waiting for you here, is death "
"Mom...stop it...please!"
"Shut up!" she screamed, then stretched her claws and set out for an attack.
I couldn't react, it was very shocking to me. Even though that wasn't really my mother, a part of me told me it was. Hearing those words from that thing that looked like my mother, spoke as her, walked like her...it shocked me too much to want to keep going. It was all over.
She dug her sharp claws on my thigh, which had been hurt by the sword of Hina, then tore my leg until her claws come out the other side. The pain was immeasurable, as if this time four swords had cut my thigh, instead of one. Then she scratched my belly, cutting off the part of my shirt that covered it, so she gave me a strong blow to the chest using her palm, like Monkey had done. I was thrown to where I was when I threw the smoke bomb. Once I hit the hard dirt floor, I felt my heart stop for a moment again. I was out of breath, blood came out of my mouth when I coughed, I seemed to hear the strong beat of my heart to decrease its pace. I put my hand on my chest to ease the pain, but to no avail.
"It seems that the game is over" sneered Monkey.
"That is Perfect! What amazing experience, I'm seeing that my work paid off
...well, she does not serve us for anything, finish her" Taotie said.
"Sure" they all said, starting to approach me.
At that moment, I heard the sound of something cutting the air. Shurikens! The Five and the Dragon Warrior turned away from me quickly, six silver shurikens dug in the ground. That could only mean one thing: Tuggsy! But something surprised me.
"Stay away from her!" the voice of a girl, probably my age, sounded behind me. That voice...was familiar. I knew that voice from somewhere, someone I hadn't seen for a long time.
A clouded leopard jumped above me and went to attack the aggressors. She was wearing a very similar combat gear that Tuggsy gave me, but it was white, and instead of throwing knives, she had shurikens, and on her back she carried a wooden stick. I couldn't identify who she was, she was wearing a mask, also white, with a beautiful lotus flower drawn, covering the left half of the mask, which had just an opening that you could see her blue eyes.
She attacked the six fiercely, using an excellent kung fu skills, and when they decided to attack her, she grasped her wooden stick and defended from all the blows they tried to hit her. Who could be that girl? I was pretty sure I knew her, but I couldn't remember.
Out of nowhere, I began to cough several times, I could no longer follow the fight. I was losing consciousness, my heart was beating with increasing force, as if it would burst. My sight blurred, and when a huge blue smoke, which came from a smoke bomb, appeared suddenly, I fainted.
I woke up in the Jade Palace. It was a dark, but realized that I was in my room. I rubbed my eyes and tried to sit up, a strong pain in my belly made me moan in pain. And then I felt the presence of someone watching me from the door.
"Phew! Thank goodness...I was afraid that you would not wake up" it was Master Shifu. He entered the room carrying a tray with a pot of tea and a packet that seemed to have some medicine or herb inside.
"Master Shifu..." I said, half dazed.
"Oh my God! Liu! Liu, you're fine! I-I'm so sorry, I was away and couldn't get there in time...it is my fault you almost died" lamented Tuggsy, which came into my room and gave me a big hug, almost crying.
"Tuggsy...it wasn't your fault...and what's more, you saved me! And my friends too..." I replied calmly.
After saying that, a dead silence came. Tuggsy stopped hugging me, he seemed to want to say something, but just got his head down and closed his eyes. That didn't seem good, Master Shifu also looked away when I looked at him. Tuggsy swallowed before speaking.
"...Um-uh...Liu, it wasn't me who saved you"
"Er, well, apparently the girl who was with you helped a lot, but..." he interrupted.
"Let me tell you all what happened...*sigh* when I saw the fireworks, I didn't stop to think about calling someone...and when I got to the house of Taotie, that girl came out of nowhere behind me, then I recognized, I was under the impression of being followed, and I really was! She was following me since I started the look for...but anyway, then she said she knew you and that she would help. She didn't say her name, just jumped over the wall and went on the attack"
"And I have to thank her when I find her again, but...it was you who threw the smoke bombs and brought me here, right?" I tried to console him, he was too sad, I guess I'd never seen him like this before.
"When I threw the smoke bombs, Viper, Mantis and Crane attacked me. I just didn't take a beating as much as you because an unexpected rescue came" he explained, still downcast.
"Unexpected rescue?" I asked. It was Master Shifu who answered this time.
"Koshi and Leona. They were here for a while, but left, they said they had something important to do. They wish you to get well soon"
"Wow...it's been a while since the last time I've seen these two, I have to visit them one day" I said. Then Tuggsy continued counting.
"Well...after they arrived, they managed to soften things up a bit...the problem is..."
"Problem?..." I asked, already scared and thinking the worst.
"...Koshi, Leona, me and...whoever is that girl, spend a good time fighting...the battle was vicious...we lost a lot of time trying to stop them and didn't even know how to make they back to normal...the mirror... "
"...Y-you're saying that...you didn't find the mirror?..." I felt a heavy heart.
"No...Koshi managed to catch a strange machine and Leona took a small control that was with Taotie, but...we were exhausted...the girl yelled for all of us to run away and then threw a smoke bomb on the ground. I carried you while Koshi and Leona escorted me along the way, and the girl fled in another direction, attracting Po and the others...and now we are here" he finished explaining.
That could only mean one thing: my friends hadn't returned to normal! I heard laughs coming from somewhere close, it were my friends' 'good' halves talking. I froze for a moment. They hadn't yet returned to the normal.. my mission! The desperation was stronger, I got up fast, I needed to see if the sun had set.
"No! My friends! My mother..." I fell to the ground, then I noticed that my leg had a new bandage, but the pain was still too great.
"Liu, stop...we need to talk" Master Shifu tried to stop me, but I ignored him.
"No! It can't be..." I ran, limping through the hall. I noticed that the lights were already on.
"Liu, come back here" Tuggsy yelled from my bedroom's door.
I didn't stop. I couldn't believe that I'd failed. My mission must to keep on, my friends and my mother depended on me. If I failed, they'd never return to normal. I just had to find the Mystical Mirror of Yin and Yang.
"No...*crying sob*...it's not over yet...it can't be the end..." I went out to the outside. A sky full of stars and the full moon illuminated the palace and the Valley.
"*gasp*...Liu..." Tuggsy followed me, but didn't know what words to use now.
"NO! No no no...no...it can't be *cry*...I've failed!...My friends...and my mother...will never go back to normal" I said, sad and angry with myself. I fell sitting on the floor with my whole body tense.
"Liu, calm down" Master Shifu spoke this time.
"HOW can I calm down?! HOW? How can I calm down now, Master? They'll never go back to what they were before...and it's my fault!"
"No, Liu. None of this is your fault. But now it is not time to panic. Calm your emotions...we are going to get them back to normal. I promise" he soothed me.