Chapter 12: Allies.
Kwan, Rao, and Ling had been fighting to break free of the ropes that bound them for almost half an hour, and made no progress whatsoever. The Furious Five knew their knots.
But even if they had managed to get loose, they still wouldn't have got away. Though their eyes weren't on them at the moment, their captors were still all around them, flanking them. Not to mention, the crocs were five stories above the ground.
It had taken them a while, but Shifu's students finally found the warehouse (out of about ten nearby) where the Yan-Li were hiding, and were standing on its roof.
Po, Tigress, Monkey, Crane and Viper had sent their pal Mantis, the smallest of them all, through one of the cracks to scope the place out before they went in. Now they all waited anxiously for him to return with news of his snooping.
It wasn't good.
"I saw a lot of guys in there", he reported, his brow furrowing.
"Err, exactly how many is a lot?", Crane asked, worried.
"About fifty. I couldn't count them all", the little bug replied. The worry seeded in Crane's voice was now in his own as well, as both animals wondered if they had bitten off more than they could chew.
But they couldn't afford to be timid. "We've faced worse odds", Monkey shrugged.
Po, for once, had nothing to add to that. He was too busy thinking to himself again, and Tigress knew what he was thinking about.
"Are you sure you're feeling up to this?", she asked, worried for both her friend and her team. Like Po no doubt was, she was wondering just how much help the Dragon Warrior would actually be with so many problems plaguing his mind, dragging him down and blurring his concentration.
"Yeah", he replied, and he wasn't sure himself whether he was lying or telling the truth.
Knowing she couldn't persuade her teammate to sit out the mission (or force him to do so), Tigress just accepted his answer - lie or truth - and walked towards their soon-to-be point of entry: the warehouse's skylight.
Going through the front door, back door, or even the windows would be an insane suicide move. Even though most of their opponents were novices, they were still vastly outnumbered fifty to six, so the only advantage they had was the element of surprise. They'd come in through the skylight, and attack as many lowlifes as quickly as they could before the real fight began.
Below them, the Yan-Li were almost done loading all their stolen treasures into crates, ready to be shipped out at the docks in a matter of minutes. Whether the criminals escaped to steal another day or were finally brought to justice depended entirely on their actions that night. It was time for them to make their move – now or never.
All six masters stepped up to the glass portion of the roof and glanced at each other – knowing it could very well be the last time they saw each other alive and healthy, before one of them or potentially all of them were wounded or killed. It was always liked this before every conflict and battle they went into, but for Po, moments like this one seemed even more poignant now after the long talk he had with Zhong about the casualties of war.
As he prepared to save Gongmen City for a second time, he found that for once he didn't want to be a brave, bodacious hero loved by all. He only wanted his team to make it out alive, and for him not to let them down.
The panda closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and leapt into the air. His teammates did the same. They descended a few inches from where they had jumped (thus was their intention), and when their feet made contact with something seemingly solid it shattered beneath them into fragments and they fell through it, through empty air - razor-sharp shards of glass falling with them, alongside them..
Crocs, boars, buffalo and bison just barely heard the noise in time to shield themselves from the onslaught of deadly debris – and they never knew what hit them. The masters took out their first six goons upon landing, by using the unsuspecting criminals to break their fall.
Forty-four other minions just stared at them, eyes popped (they had sort of expected the masters to come looking for them, but not through the roof), and Shifu's students knew they only had a few precious seconds to use their shock to their advantage.
Po and Tigress lead the charge. Po sideswiped two dudes, knocking the wind out of them, while Tigress grabbed a croc by the tail and swung him around her like a hammer, knocking three more lackeys to the floor. And from that point on, the battle was on.
The Yan-Li henchmen dropped everything they were carrying and swarmed the masters. Crane deflected the knives and throwing stars some of the more experienced thugs threw at them, aiming to kill them, while Viper and Monkey tripped up as many opponents as they could, slamming their heads to the floor as soon as they landed.
Mantis pitched in by grabbing one boar's hand and flipping him over his tiny shoulder; his oncoming pals actually tripped over his body. But it wasn't long before the others wised up and started running over the fallen swine. And there were still plenty more animals coming. Mantis' estimation must have been off, because it felt like way more than just fifty men were present.
Po tried his best to look over the heads of the enormous crowd. From his perspective, it looked like they had gained the attention of even more players. Because at the very end of the room, three people who hadn't been there before suddenly appeared, watching the battle with almost amused expressions. A rhino, a leopard and a tiger. Just from the way they held themselves, compared to their lumbering lackeys, Po could tell they were the leaders of the Yan-Li. The master thieves. Come to watch them die. But it wasn't going to go down like that.
With a new determination, Po punched one boar in the face and moved onto the next one. Funnily enough, right before his fist collided with them, sending them into a daze, their expressions turned funny. They didn't seem intense, aggressive, or focused on bringing about his demise anymore – they looked distracted by something. That was when Po realized they weren't looking at him, but around him, at whatever had managed to catch them off guard again. But the Furious Five hadn't done anything out of the norm.
Even the Yan-Li leaders looked shocked, so Po realized he was really missing something.
And then he heard the sounds of combat behind him – sounds his friends weren't making, since they were all standing in front of him.
Against his better judgment he checked it out, looking behind him, and he saw the odds of the masters beating the Yan-Li had greatly improved.
Because Zhong's pack had joined them.
They were all so busy fighting, they had completely missed the wolves' entrance (through the front door ironically). Even the three masterminds hadn't noticed them, considering how their expressions had gone from bored to furious in three seconds flat.
And leading the lupines, Zhong cut through the melee with his mighty hammer, knocking any enemy in his way out of his path with vigor. When he reached Po, the wolf boss was grinning like an idiot, all cockiness and bravado, and the panda was doing the same.
"You…you came", the panda stammered, before (without looking back) punching out a goon who was trying to sneak up on him.
Zhong chuckled. "It's not like we were going to miss a good fight. Especially since we're on the winning side this time", he joked, before he slashed a crocodile coming at him from the side, making the croc bandit grab his scaly chest that was now bleeding and searing with pain.
Po had no idea whatsoever how Zhong had managed to win back the trust of his brothers and rally his troops to war, and he honestly didn't care. He just guessed that Shu (who was standing right behind Zhong) did a good job with the stubborn, one-eyed man.
The bear giddily turned to Tigress, who had just joined him, and shook her shoulder. "He followed us! Again!", he proclaimed.
"Yeah Po, I see", she replied, hoping he would calm down, before looking at the wolf pack.
The gang of fugitives were getting nothing out of risking capture - no money, no advantage - so there was no denying the wolf bandits came for the sole purpose of helping them out, in a time where they needed that help the most.
Which meant that maybe, just maybe, Po was right about them. She still didn't think the panda had any chance of saving them, but he was right at least about how they were capable of change, of doing something decent or honorable.
What she was about to do next wasn't going to be easy for her, but it was the right thing to do nonetheless, considering what she had learned. "Thank you", she said, reluctantly but gratefully.
Zhong nodded, making it clear he bore no ill-will towards the striped master in return for her distrust, before he looked around to survey the enemy. With a new group of combatants among them, the Yan-Li had gathered in a really long circle, taking up most of the room and surrounding both the masters and the wolves on all sides.
"Okay, we'll take them out fastest if we divide and conquer. I'm pairing some of you up with each of the Dragon Warrior's pals. You're to adapt to their styles and work with them, not around them. I get the panda. Shu, you get Tigress. Jing, you're with monkey boy. Tai, follow snake girl. Koran, tail bug guy. Xen, work with long legs. And the rest of you… do what you do best", Zhong ordered, grinning toothily.
The wolves knew he meant kicking ass, so it was an order none of them objected to.
At the edge of the room, a striped tiger and a spotted leopard growled simultaneously and leapt into the crowd. They were both tired of only watching the action, and now that both sides were evenly matched they wanted to make sure their side won.
The rhino that completed the trinity however remained where he was, watching his two partners race off towards their downfall. Gwayne had no desire to suffer the same fate.
((()-()))
Considering the crazy day they had, was it any wonder so many Gongmenites were still wide awake instead of being sound asleep as usual? The village children couldn't sleep because they were still too excited about the awesome street fight they witnessed that afternoon, and their parents couldn't sleep because of who they had seen in said fight that afternoon.
Even though it was impossible, it seemed the wolf boss had returned to their city, and who knew what that meant for all of them. But what they really couldn't figure out was why the thuggish, disgraced mercenary had been fighting with Shifu's students (who they also had no idea was in their city again), instead of working against them.
And so all their senses were functioning perfectly on edge when the sounds of a scuffle echoed all throughout downtown Gongmen, prompting reluctant villagers and their children to leave their homes to investigate (though they already had a hunch about the source of the racket).
They warned their kids to stay behind them, but of course the young ones didn't listen, racing ahead to get to the fight before their folks did. They were the first to reach the warehouse where it was all going down, and the first to see a random thug go flying out one of the windows.
When they looked through it's shattered remains they could hardly believe their eyes. The Dragon and the Furious Five, fighting alongside the wolf bandits (not just their leader this time, but the whole gang of gray wild dogs) that had terrorized them that summer, to combat some nameless, unknown foe.
Their parents couldn't keep them away from the action now even if they wanted to. They didn't care how much trouble they would get into later, risking their lives was completely worth it to get a front row view of something so insane.
((()-()))
"Supermassive Black Hole" by Muse begins.
After the last creep she threw through a window hit the street outside, Tigress wasted no time in taking down another one, moving almost systematically. It helped that she now had a partner to speed things up. Shu was a pretty good fighter for a novice.
Xen meanwhile was enjoying something he never thought any of his kind would get to experience – the sensation of flying. Crane's long legs were easy to hold onto as the bird flew over the battle. He helped his comrades by stepping on his opponents and kicking them down from above, distracting them just long enough for one of the other wolves to pounce and slash. He even blinded one water buffalo by dangling his long, bushy tail in his face.
Koran was working just as well with his partner, Mantis, who was riding the wolf's head as he tore through the throng on all fours. Whenever the brutal, relentless lupine got ahold of one of the Yan-Li, he'd beat them down and give Mantis opportunity to work his acupuncture magic on them. The prideful war dog would never admit it, but Mantis was a pretty powerful bug.
Tai managed to pin one boar down to the floor, who failed to take the wolf out despite his best efforts. The wolf bandit growled and raised his fist, about to slug the porcine good, but he only let it dangle above the thief's face.
The boar didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but he was really confused by the warrior's inaction. And having the still wolf on top of him was starting to feel really awkward. "What's wrong with you?", he scowled.
If he had blinked, he would have missed the snake shooting out of Tai's sleeve, coming right at him.
But he didn't blink.
He did see Viper coming at him.
And he screamed in fear as she covered his face.
Unlike Tigress or Mantis, Monkey had absolutely no qualms about admitting how cool it was having a wolf pack back him up in battle. Jing was just his kind of guy.
The wolf boss' second lieutenant needed to mess with his opponent's concentration somehow, do something to give himself and Monkey the leg up, so he dove to the floor and actually yanked the guy's pants down. When the humiliated lackey tried to fix them as quickly as he could, Monkey attacked him with a well-aimed face kick, striking him right across the jaw.
When it was over, the simian grinned at his taller ally. "Dude…that was classic", he snickered, giving the wolf a thumbs up.
Jing had only done something like that once when he was just a pup, and he certainly wasn't complimented for doing it. In fact, he was yelled at so harshly for his childish prank that he never thought about doing it again. So now, years later, he enjoyed the monkey's praise with a big grin on his face. Vindication was sweet.
In fact the only two animals enjoying themselves more than Jing and Monkey were Po and Zhong.
The wolf and the panda currently found themselves backed into a corner, with crates of stolen artifacts stacked high around them, preventing them from going left or right or back, while two of the most vicious creatures in the animal kingdom faced them down.
Mako the tiger and Chi the leopard leered at the pair, their unsheathed claws reflecting some of the moonlight from the busted skylight.
"I take it these are the head honchos?", Zhong guessed at Po, easily sniffing out the differences between their opponents and the other yahoos they had been fighting.
"Two of them", Po replied offhandedly, wisely refusing to take his eyes off his adversaries.
Zhong scoffed. "Big deal. We've both beat tougher guys than this", he figured, before he suddenly punched a hole in one of the crates, reaching inside. He extracted, out of all things, a long, polished sword from the damaged box.
"Not to mention, we're in a room full of old stuff: like deadly weapons of death. Not the best place to pick a fight", he reckoned, grinning evilly at the bear next to him. To Chi's, Mako's, and even Po's surprise, the wolf boss tossed the blade to his ursine comrade, since he already had a weapon of his own.
Not that Po knew how to use a sword. But the Dragon Warrior figured he'd improvise.
He'd grown tired of the boring stand-off, so Zhong made the first move – charging at the tiger with his bulky war hammer clenched tightly in his fist. Mako dodged him of course, with plenty of speed and agility available to the wild cat, which was exactly what Zhong wanted him to do. Before the feline realized his mistake, Zhong's mallet struck him right in the ribcage, striking bone.
The tiger fell to the floor and hissed venomously as he convulsed. His first impulse was to clutch his side and see just how bad the damage was, but there was no time to do so since Zhong was coming back for a second attack. Instead, he got back on his feet and put his claws to good use, slashing the wolf's chest just before he could reach him, drawing blood under the wild dog's fur in retribution.
This time it was Zhong's turn to recoil in pain, and Mako didn't hesitate with his follow up, lunging at Zhong's throat. Luckily, when it came to razor-sharp reflexes, the two fighters were pretty evenly matched and Zhong could play keep-away with the kitty.
Meanwhile, Po was faced with his own troubles, as a beautiful but lethal leopard female kept trying to end his life. Every time she tried to slash him he blocked her with his sword, her claws scraping metal, but eventually she changed tactics and kicked the bear's legs out from under him.
Like Tigress that afternoon, he caught himself before he landed on his stomach, but he barely had enough time to choose his next move as Chi was already on top of him. Thinking fast, he leapt into the air (feet first) and returned the female's kick by striking her right in the jaw. He may have kicked a little too hard though, because she actually flew across the room and slammed into some more crates – boxes falling on top of her head.
Po winced. "She's definitely gonna need to put some ice on that", he thought, before gasping in astonishment. The Yan-Li bosses were definitely made of tougher stuff than most thieves, because the blow Po dealt her (the one that would have knocked most men out cold) had barely fazed Chi or her initiative. She was already out of the boxes, narrowing her eyes at the plushy panda bear, and ready for more.
Awesome didn't even begin to cover what the villagers were watching from the non-safety of the warehouse windows.
Pretty soon, Po and Zhong found themselves paired up again, their backs pressed to each other as two crazy felines prepared to slice and dice them.
Po wiped his sweaty forehead before chuckling. "So, hammer in hand, men at your back, enemies coming at you from all sides. Is this what life was like back in the guard?", he asked his wolven ally, indulging his curiosity.
"No. This is a lot better", Zhong answered, grinning. "Wanna trade partners?", he suggested.
"Sure", Po agreed. Perhaps they would have better luck with the change.
Switching places, Po went at Mako and Zhong flew towards Chi. Mako had spent the past five minutes studying Zhong's fighting style, and Chi had done the same with Po's, so neither of them had expected the mix-up or were prepared for it. After all these years, Commander Yu was still good at catching his opponents off guard.
Chi attempted to avoid Zhong's attacks but the wolf thought ahead and slammed his paw down on her tail, pinning it down, preventing her from going anywhere. She tried to cut him of course to defend herself, but she was so close up that the wolf was able to grab hold of both of her arms. Before she could try to break free, he used a move he picked up from watching Shu and head-butted the spotted cat, making her world go black, ending the fight then and there.
Mako, meanwhile, couldn't believe how fast a panda could move. Dodging the bear's punches and kicks, while finding time to thrust in his own, was getting harder and harder by the second until eventually it was impossible. Ultimately, the tiger was plumb tired out, worn down by the ursine, and had to stop to catch his breath. That was a big mistake.
Po's stomach turned out to be an even deadlier weapon than the sword the panda weld that night. Not only did he knock Mako to the floor with it, but he took the tiger out entirely with one big belly-flop that actually rocked that part of the building, throwing many of the thieves and masters who were fighting around them off balance by accident.
When the floor finally stopped shaking, Zhong stepped forward to investigate and whistled at the sight, impressed by the panda's handiwork. Tired of carrying around the she-thief he had draped over his shoulder, he dropped her down on top of her partner.
"You said these guys were just two of the alpha dogs. Who's next?", he asked the panda, goal-focused.
Po squinted his eyes and looked at the melee still going around them (though it did seem to finally be winding down now that the good guys officially outnumbered the bad guys), staring deep into the throng, before he found what he was looking for.
"Him", Po replied, pointing at the rhinoceros at the end of the room who glowered back at them for a few moments, glaring daggers at the duo, before turning around and stalking towards a door that Po presumed led to another, smaller room.
Before he could follow the man however, Po knew (from years of making the same mistake over and over again) he had to do something first. He looked around the room again until he spotted his teammate.
"Tigress! We're going after the rhino!", he shouted to his striped friend, who was busy pounding some goon's face in.
In response, the cat started walking towards them until Po raised his paw to stop her. "I've got Zhong to back me up, but the guys still need you here", he reasoned.
Tigress hesitated, but nodded eventually; knowing the panda was right about where her place was at the moment. "I'll be there as soon as I can", she promised.
"Alright", Po agreed, before turning and running away from her, gesturing for Zhong to follow.
Somehow she just knew they were all making a mistake.
((()-()))
Gwayne strode through the backroom of the warehouse. While the main area was mostly used for storing crates and other large objects, this much smaller, private section was where all scrolls and other parchments were kept until they could be shipped out.
He practically had his hand on the doorknob to the rear exit, when he heard another door fly open behind him, kicked off it's hinges. The rhino sighed as he was approached by unwanted company. Eventually, he turned to face them.
"What do you think you're doing?", Po questioned, scowling.
"What does it look like, panda? I'm leaving", he replied bitingly.
"Without your gang and your loot?", Zhong leered skeptically, suspiciously, eyeing his foe up and down.
"Once I walk away from this place I can always start a new gang, one with more competent members. And I will reclaim everything I lost here tonight. Anything stolen once can be stolen twice", the rhino promised, semi-threateningly.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that. If you escape, you'll just keep hurting more people", Po said defiantly.
Gwayne scoffed. "You're one to talk, Dragon Warrior, seeing as how you're apparently best friends now with the killer of your own kind, throwing your lot in with that mongrel", the gang leader sneered, glowering at the burly lupine besides the panda.
The Yan-Li had traveled all over China, picking up so many legends, so naturally their leader had heard the stories about the disgraced peacock prince of Gongmen city. He'd heard enough to know the conqueror's thuggish, one-eyed, right-hand man when he saw him - the scarred lupine and his pack who flew too close to the sun, committed all sorts of atrocities for their power-hungry lord and finally got burned.
The confidence and bravado Zhong had been exuding only moments before faltered, and the brutish lupine suddenly felt the urge not to look the smug bandit square in the eye, or the comparatively pure-of-heart panda standing next to him. Gwayne had found the chink in his figurative armor: his sin and hypocrisy.
Po noticed the wolf's hesitation and glared at the rhinoceros. "Yeah… yeah, he is my friend", he decided. "And it doesn't matter what he did, only what he's doing now. Helping me bring you in", the panda shot back.
Zhong glanced at the bear, lips curling upwards. Not only had Po just stuck up for him a second time, but what he just said was nothing short of a miracle.
Gwayne, meanwhile, rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Well, this is all very interesting, but can we skip to the part where I kill you both?", he asked impatiently.
"Dude, just give it up. It's two against one and I have a sword", Po reasoned, waving said weapon in his paw.
Gwayne raised his eyebrows, amused. "Really? Well I have a better one", he countered, before reaching over his back and pulling out another, longer, sharper blade. It was only then that Po noticed Gwayne was wearing one of those shoulder strap thingies warriors used to carry their blades on their backs instead of in their hands all the time.
"Uh", Po faltered, suddenly feeling a lot less confident.
And for a good reason.
Po just barely had enough time to block the rhino when he came at him. In the split second Gwayne drew back for a second attack, Zhong tried to hit him but the brawny horned animal grabbed his sinewy arm and tossed the gray wolf to the side. The wolf boss landed in a formerly neat stack of papers that went flying everywhere across the floor.
Po meanwhile was beginning to understand how Mako felt about having to try and keep up with a bigger, faster opponent. The sound of metal striking metal occurred over and over again, ringing in their ears, as Po defended himself from mortal injury - he didn't nearly enough time to collect himself and go on the offense. To be fair, he was doing very well for a bear who'd never used a sword before a day in his life (he thanked Master Shifu's kung fu training for his fast reflexes) but he knew his luck had to run out sooner or later.
And it did.
Up until now, whenever Gwayne lifted his sword he always swung at the panda from above or from one of his sides. This time he did something different. He angled his sword so it swung up from below, aimed at the bottom of Po's arms.
Po caught on fast and avoided getting his limbs sliced off by jumping backwards. As a result, the blade's cut only went down a fraction of an inch, grazing him, but even that hurt like hell. Blood dripped down from his elbow; if that part of him had been white, his fur would now be stained red. To make things even worse, the pain was bad enough to make him drop his sword in favor of cupping his arm, losing what had just barely kept him on equal ground with the bandit.
Gwayne, a crazed look in his eye, flew at him with his now blood stained sword. Bear blood.
Po took his paw off his elbow and prepared to fight empty-handed when something stopped Gwayne in his tracks. The wolf on his back. Zhong, having shaken off the judo throw, was back in the fight and wasted no time sinking his claws in the rhinoceros' hard skin.
They drew blood of course, and when they did he knew he had finally succeeded in making a dent in the enemy. As well as making the rhino angry.
Out of all the things Zhong had expected Gwayne to do to get him off his back, throwing himself backwards to the floor and crushing the one-eyed general underneath his weight was not one of them. But it turned out to be Gwayne's decisive, spiteful choice of action.
As he ran towards the lupine's aid, Po winced. He knew Zhong was a durable dude and could take a punch, just like him, but they were getting creamed. Maybe he should have been selfish and let Tigress come after all.
But those thoughts dissipated when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye.
Gwayne stepped off the now flattened Zhong - leaving the bruised, wincing wolf to peel himself off the floor - and both he and Po noticed the panda's sword lying nearby at exactly the same time.
It was the key to turning the battle around.
So Gwayne was determined not to let Po get that key.
Just as Po started to run towards it, the rhino tackled him and started punching the bear. As much as he loved toying with the 'Dragon Warrior' with his swordsmanship, showing the foolish, overconfident bear just how outmatched he was - he figured good old brute force would get the job done. He kicked the panda's weapon to the side and it slid under a desk, out of both their reaches.
Po, knowing he had to get his act together, fought back with strength and tenacity. But his attacks just didn't seem to be doing as much damage to the rhino as the ones he was receiving. And the fight (plus the fights he'd already had with like a dozen guys only minutes before) was slowly starting to wear him down.
He got some relief for a few seconds though, when Gwayne screamed out of nowhere and whirled his head around, laying off Po long enough for the bear to take a few steps back.
The rhino wasn't at all surprised it was Zhong who punched him in the back of the head.
"You're getting on my nerves, wolf", he snarled venomously.
The lupine shrugged. "It's a gift", he replied insolently.
Gwayne's retribution was as merciless as it was swift. Zhong was struck so hard in the cheek Po was surprised the wolf's skull didn't crack, sending him flying straight down to the floor. When he tried to help out, the panda was met with the same, devastating blow. And a kick to the stomach. And another punch.
It was at this point, Po figured Gwayne had snapped. He had already been determined to kill them, but now it was like he wanted to beat them and beat them over and over again until they were nothing but a pile of blood and bones and pulp.
His movements, instead being clean and efficient like a swordsman's assault ought to be, were savage and feral. He wasn't even using martial arts anymore; he was just attacking them like a common thug. Fighting dirty, kicking them when they were down, leaving a barrage of assaults on one specific point, hoping he could break them. It was just brutal.
Eventually, Po felt like he was bleeding everywhere, and he was worried about just how much more punishment his body could take.
Then again, Zhong was faring much worse. Unlike Po, he didn't have half a ton of fat to lessen any hits he took, so he wound up taking the brunt of Gwayne's fury.
Lacking the energy he needed to stand up, Zhong could only watch as Gwayne picked up his trusty hammer and threw it out the door. It landed in the main storeroom with a loud thump, gaining the attention of the wild dog's men and the Furious Five from across the room.
The bruised and battered war dog was next on Gwayne's agenda. The wolf was lifted off the ground by his furry chest before the rhino went one step further and seized him by his throat, clenching the wild dog's windpipe until the wolf tensed up in his grip. Zhong was still fighting though. Still swinging punches even as his feet dangled above the ground. Slow, sluggish punches the bigger thief easily dodged.
"Pathetic", Gwayne sneered, before he did to Zhong what he did with his hammer and sent the lupine flying.
"Zhong!", Po shouted, as the grey wolf flew past him and careened out the door, landing several yards opposite of his mallet.
If the masters and the wolves' curiosity had been piqued before, by the sudden appearance of Zhong's weapon, the crash-landing of the commander himself alarmed them. Shu especially. She was the first to run to him. She had a long way to go though – she was millimeters away, on the other side of the room.
The villagers outside didn't know what to make of the former soldier being thrashed and manhandled so badly. Hell, they didn't even understand half of what was happening.
Po didn't have to worry about Zhong for long, because right after Gwayne was done humiliating the lupine he grabbed the bear by his sides and hoisted him off the ground. To Po's horror, the rhino lifted him over his head and went three for three. It all happened so quickly he barely registered the moment he left Gwayne's hand and flew through the air for a few terrifying seconds, with no telling where he would end up, before he crashed violently onto a hard, stone floor a few seconds later.
Shu was about halfway to Zhong, with the pack and the Furious Five right on her heels, when her path was blocked by the last remaining members of the Yan-Li still standing. There were only about fifteen of them left, not even close to being enough men needed to win. But winning wasn't their goal.
They were just a blockade. Their loyalty to Gwayne was so strong they were willing to give up their chance at escaping to give him time to do what he needed to – kill Po and Zhong. The henchmen could be disposed and disabled of in a matter of seconds, but a few seconds was all the time Gwayne needed.
Po groaned and tried to roll off his side onto his back. Nothing felt broken but everything hurt. He didn't know how long it would take for him to gain his bearings, clear his head and be able to stand up again, he just knew he didn't have the time.
The whole time he was willing his body to roll over, he heard the sound of metal scraping against stone – a sword being dragged along a granite floor.
Zhong lifted his head and gasped when he saw what horrible fate was about to befall Po; one the bear looked helpless to stop. Moving as quickly as he could, Zhong looked around him in desperation until he spotted his hammer. Except it was lying next to Po instead of the wolf boss, and the bear either hadn't thought about using it or wasn't strong enough to do so.
"Po!", Tigress screamed. Both she and Shu were leading their merry band of fighters cutting through their goon barricade like a knife through butter. But they weren't moving fast enough.
Po felt the wind being knocked out of him as Gwayne stepped on his round, plushy stomach, keeping the Dragon Warrior under his heel.
"You should have let me go, panda", he snarled, making sure the bear got the message and understood his folly as he raised his weapon to end him.
Po's eyes widened; adrenaline kicked in, overriding all the pain in his sore aching body. His arms snapped up and he caught the blade between his paws, keeping Gwayne from lowering it onto his neck. But then his limbs were pushed backwards. Even his body's last natural defense wouldn't be enough to save him, because Gwayne was still overpowering him.
Terrified now, Tigress finally knocked down the last minion standing in her way and thrust herself towards her needy comrade on all fours.
Po felt an enormous weight being lifted off his torso, and a sword being ripped out of his bleeding palms as Gwayne got a taste of his own medicine, soaring backwards away from the bear.
Except Tigress wasn't the one who had the pleasure of bringing the big guy down. Both she and Po looked on in amazement as Zhong tackled the rhino, then punched and slashed him to no end, determined to give his friend a chance to defend himself.
And then he just stopped.
His whole frame froze, rigidly, unnaturally.
Because of the sword Gwayne had plunged straight through his chest - gutting him - as close up as anyone could get.
Everyone screamed at exactly the same time, including the kiddies outside who, despite their scared parents shielding their eyes and pulling them away from the gory sight, would be scarred for life. They didn't care who the wolf boss was anymore, only that they had just seen a man get knifed right in front of them.
As Zhong's blood started to leave him, seeping out of the open wound, so did his strength. Gwayne's face twisted into a cruel, satisfied smile, worse than any Po had ever seen on the wolf, before tossing the wounded man to the side. He wouldn't get up to try and stop him again.
The fool had no idea the kind of hell he had just unleashed upon himself. No matter what kind of fights the pack had had with their leader lately, he was still one of them; a core, founding member. And any pack member who was hurt the way Zhong was, who was fatally injured on the field, would be avenged.
Five masters of kung fu and two dozen wolf bandits pounced, attacking him with all they had. The Five intended to beat all the fight out of him; the wolves wanted to end his life.
Now it was Gwayne's turn to be beaten down without mercy.
But Po wasn't interested in any of that. Standing up, he looked at the only five wolves who had put aside any thoughts of revenge to be with Zhong. Shu, Koran, Tai, Jing and Xen surrounded the lupine but were careful not to crowd him as they determined how badly hurt he was.
Gwayne's sword was still lodged in his chest and it was a gruesome, viscerally wrong sight, but Po knew taking it out would only make it worse and cause the wolf to bleed out.
The bear looked back at the wolves, who were ganging up on Zhong's attacker like an angry mob. By now the Furious Five had already helped to incapacitate him. Now, they actually had to protect Gwayne from the full force of the pack's fury.
Po (with a slight limp) walked over to help them, when his foot bumped into something that could get their attention a lot quicker than he probably could.
The Five, the wolves, they all stopped fighting and arguing at once when Po slammed Zhong's hammer against the floor with a loud bang. For once, the bear actually looked angry and outraged. "Guys, stop it! Stop it, now! Forget about him", he ordered.
Lon was the one to step up to the bear. Since Zhong, Tai and Koran were all preoccupied, he had taken up the role of leader.
"Not until he's dead. You saw what he did to the boss!", he snarled.
"You know what else I see? Your leader, on the ground, dying. He needs you right now. Do you honestly think this is what he would want from you all?", Po insisted, his eyes narrowed.
A year ago, Lon's answer would have been a firm, decisive 'yes'. But now…
Behind Lon, all the other wolves had the same conflicted look on their faces as he did, their crimson eyes flickering, torn between their own desires and Zhong's wishes.
Eventually, the brawny dark war dog lashed out in his frustration. "Fine!", he grounded out, before gesturing for his packmates to fall back.
If Gwayne were still conscious, he would have found he now owed his life to the very same panda he tried to gut like a fish.
((()-()))
When Po followed the pack back to Zhong, he saw Xen had made some admirable progress in patching him up, but not much. The doctor had used his shirt as a tourniquet to stop Zhong's bleeding, but by now his blood was everywhere - on his clothes, the floor, the friends who'd remained by his side through the whole painful experience.
Shu turned to Xen. "How is he?", she asked the pack physician.
She got her answer when the doctor shook his head sadly.
But Zhong, who should have been feeling the worst out of all of them, actually smiled a little, stunning everyone. "That guy was supposed to be one of the best thieves there is. He's not even on Shen's level when it comes to killing people", he stated hoarsely.
"So you're not going to die?", Jing asked hopefully.
"No, I'm still going to die", Zhong replied matter-of-factly, and Jing's hopes were crushed. "But not as fast as the last time. This time, I'm going to stick around long enough to tie up some loose ends, starting with you and Tai", he explained.
Knowing he had something to tell them, both wild dogs edged in closer.
"It's up to you two to lead the pack from now on and keep the dream alive. I've kept you in good faith for years. I know you'll both do a good job", he declared.
Both men nodded and sniffled before they decided to raise their paws to their forehead, saluting their fallen commander.
He did the same, though with a lot of more strenuous effort as they could see.
Whenever he ran low on blood, that precious life fluid, the muscles were always the first things to shut down.
They stepped back so as to give the next wolf behind them, Koran, a chance to say something. But as he looked down on his superior, the wolf he held a grudge against for years, nothing seemed to come to mind. Nothing except…
"This is so like you. You get all of us to trust you and then you get yourself killed", he remarked, being half-heartedly sarcastic, but not in his usual spiteful way. It was easier to use sarcasm than face the full enormity of what was happening.
Zhong smile's grew a little bit wider. "It's not like I planned this. Still, aren't you glad now you didn't leave with the pack? If you had, you'd have missed your chance to see me off", he figured, going against his own usually pessimistic nature to try to get Koran to look at the bright side of things.
"When I saw you were deadest on helping the panda, I couldn't let you go off by yourself and get yourself killed. Not that I made any difference", Koran muttered, looking to the side.
"Why couldn't you let me?", Zhong asked, an eyebrow raised. He was under the impression Koran couldn't care less whether he lived or died.
"For the same reason I've stayed with your sorry tail all these years. Because… I'm still your friend", he confessed, knowing there was no point in denying it.
Zhong's smile returned. "And a good one too", he reckoned, lifting his arm again (and again with a lot of effort required for a usually effortless task) so he could shake Koran's paw.
He was certain he saw a tear in his oldest friend's eye as the dark lupine turned and walked away, giving someone else a chance to say their parting words.
That someone turned out to be Shu.
"The Life and Death of Amy Pond" by Murray Gold begins.
Unlike Koran she made no attempt to hide her tears, her watery brown eyes reflecting the moonlight shining down from above.
She got down on her hunches and instead of talking she just looked at him, studying every inch of his face before he went. His beautiful face.
Zhong couldn't miss what she was doing, and it only confirmed what he had thought about for quite some time. "So… when you said you liked me, you meant it in a romantic way, didn't you? Like you have a crush on me?", he inquired.
He took her silent, pained nod as a 'yes'.
"That's why you wanted me to succeed", he said, recalling her pep talk from before. "Heh, do you always fall in love with psychopaths? Middle-aged psychopaths?", he asked teasingly. His light-heartedness paid off when he got her to laugh just a little.
"No, not really. But you're different from most of the psychos I've met. I don't care that you're old", she replied, getting a laugh out of him for a change.
Except for once laughter wasn't the best medicine, because as soon as his chest started shaking, he recoiled violently and heaved underneath her, gritting his teeth, sinking a few fangs into his lip. He was so good at acting casual and normal, she had almost forgotten how much pain he had to be in, and how that pain was spreading through him like venom.
That tiny smile Zhong had coaxed onto her face vanished in an instant, replaced by fear and concern. And even denial. "Zhong, you can't do this. I mean, you haven't even finished your s- your 'you-know-what' yet", she insisted, desperately looking for a reason to convince him to hang on. As if he wasn't doing that already, and failing. At least she was still keeping his secret hobby a secret, even now.
"You can finish it for me. Maybe they'll play at it my funeral, if the city will let me have one", he suggested.
"I can't do that", she argued, shaking her head.
"Sure you can; you're a smart girl. Not to mention a pretty one", he said, almost chuckling but stopping himself before he made that mistake again. "I know we haven't known each other long, maybe like half a day, but I'm glad I met you", he admitted.
It was the most touching thing he'd said to her since she blackmailed him that afternoon.
The she-wolf wiped away her tears, leaned in close, and pecked him on the cheek. "I'm glad I met you too", she whispered, choking as she willed herself to stand up again. She really didn't want to leave him, but she knew there was still one last person he needed to talk to.
Po didn't know what to expect as Zhong beckoned him forward, he just did as the wolf asked.
When he got in close enough, Zhong reached out and grabbed his paw (this time, the action was so slow and drawn out it looked like he literally had to force himself to do it; it was cringeworthy from the panda's perspective).
"I was gonna do this this morning, but the bird got in my way. And I just kept putting it off", he explained, ears lowering in shame. "But now I'm all out of time", he said resolutely, fighting the urge he so often got to look away from the bear, wanting to keep direct eye contact with him this last time.
"I'm sorry for what I did to you and your people, your clan. Ever since I regained my sanity, there hasn't been a day gone by I haven't wished I could take it all back; but I can't", he admitted, as sincere as a man could be, before groaning. He shook off whatever wave of pain he had just experienced and continued.
"The fact you ignored all that though, and tried so hard to help me when you don't even really know me proves that you're incredible. An incredible man, and a far better one than me", he said in unashamed admiration.
A small tear rolled down Po's cheek before the panda shook his head. "That's crazy talk. What you did was harder than anything I've ever done. You sacrificed yourself, man. Twice. That's… pretty hardcore", he reminded him in equal admiration.
Zhong beamed. But not for the reasons Po thought. He was smiling at an ironic thought. "The Dragon Warrior – kind, loyal and wise. I never thought that could be you – a fat, flabby panda. But now I know the universe made the right choice picking you", he mused.
That was actually the last thing Po wanted to hear when he was about to watch someone die right in front of him.
That tear drop that left his eye before was now followed by quite a few more. And even though he knew it was pointless, Po couldn't stop himself from doing what he did next. "Zhong please, don't go", he pleaded, but the wolf ignored him, unable to hold on any longer.
"Thank you, Dragon Warrior, and good-bye", he said kindly. And then he was gone – his eyes lowering until they snapped shut, never to open again.
He'd passed away, like his friend Shen.
Except unlike Shen, he died an honorable and selfless death.
Unlike Shen, the Wolf Boss had atoned for his sins.
All was quiet as Po (trembling) released Zhong's limp, lifeless paw, letting both his arms rest at the man's side.
And then it was quiet no longer as thirty howls rang in his ears. Thirty wolves mourning their loss.
The Furious Five, not knowing what else to do, looked away.
Shu, unable to hold it in any longer, broke down crying, grabbing onto Po's shoulder for support.
The panda, however, didn't know whether he wanted to cry too or scream, out of a fury directed solely at himself.
Author's Note:
Let us all have a moment of silence to honor Zhong, who once again acted bravely and sacrificed himself to help his friends. From traitor to hero, we salute you Boss Wolf.
