Life's Full Of Surprises.
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Ahh.. I know what you're all thinking, 'you've been on the ball lately with these updates..'. And yes, yes I have. (Sorry, I had to get some pride into one of these entries..) Anyways, I loved the way this chapter turned out; and hope you do too! Please review to let me know!
"Tigress!" she heard a worried Po yell aloud.
Suddenly, she opened her eyes to the feeling of Po's hand on her shoulder; in a daze as she blinked her vision back to clarity. 'Wh-what's..?' she started to think as the double-image in front of her formed into one. She could now see a glowing green light coming from Po's left hand; the one rested on her shoulder. She glanced up to see the room deteriorating and falling apart at the seams. She could see that Po was wielding a gigantic boulder above his head; presumably one that was about to hit her.
'Wha-What's g-going on..?' she summoned the energy to think. Po continued on, striking and throwing every block that fell toward them.
'Yo-your chi.. It's completely depleted... I'm transferring some of my own into you now.. But-uhm..' he stopped momentarily, feeling a break in the transfer of chi, then shook it off. '-it-uhm, it won't last long; not after what you just went through..'
'I-Is this all actually happening?' she struggled to let out.
'No. This is your mind, remember? Don't worry, it's not actually falling apart.. It's just 'crashing'.. You hardly have enough chi left to keep yourself intact. Within a few minutes, we'll have been caught in the ruble of this universe; and trust me, we don't want that.'
'Wh-why? What will happe-'
'Tigress! We'll both be killed..' he interrupted, while punching what must've been a 300 pound boulder into nothing but rubble.
Finally, she clicked into what was happening.
With this, she jumped to her feet, as his hand fell off of her shoulder. He tried to reach her again, but she stopped him before replacing it, 'Don't worry about it- Let's just get out of here!'
He winced, and nodded, 'Alright, alright.. Settle down. Follow me.'. Saying this, he dashed through a nearby wall, and, to her surprise, actually broke through it, into the overly-bright outdoors. She followed him as quickly as she could, feeling more exhausted than she had ever before. Upon passing through the hole, and adjusting her eyes to the white-light above her, she heard him call again. 'C'mon, let's go!' she glanced down to the grass in front of her, as he curled his fingers in her direction and she started to run, trying not to show her exhaustion.
The next she saw of him, was standing still in the arena, as he continued to lure her in; when abruptly, she fell. As she hit the ground, an explosion could be heard in the palace behind her, and a low rumble traveled through the shuddering air.. as the palace started to tip in their direction. Po stared down at her in shock.. having never seen her fall before. Suddenly, he snapped back into the moment, and made wise moves based off of pure instinct.
He started by slamming a palm at the center of the arena, 'Ignasia alemag!', could be heard, as a black portal opened beneath him. He clumsily hoped to the side, then looked over to see that Tigress still hadn't gotten up. A boulder fell to her side as another explosion was heard, Po's gaze found its way to the palace, as his face went blank. It seemed the last explosion was enough to throw the palace completely off balance; and it was falling toward them-FAST.
He dashed to her side, as she coughed more blood into the grass, grabbing her stomach in pain. Unsure of what to do, he threw her arm over his shoulder, and nudged his way toward the now-closing portal. As Tigress stepped, she stubbed her toe on a large rock, and yet another explosion was heard; along with an unfamiliar creaking sound. Po glanced over his shoulder one final time, and panicked at the site. The palace was only about 20 feet from their heads.. And they were about 25 feet from the portal.
He walked faster, trying to reach the portal in time, and seeing Tigress quickly beginning to fade. But as he looked over at her, he felt time begin to slow, she coughed another two handfuls of blood, and the residue stained her cheeks. He felt a tears well in his eyes, as he fixated them on the blurred portal in the ground. After rapidly lifting his forearm to wipe his eyes, he tensed up, and focused his energy around the hole. They stopped dead, the palace continuing to barrel down toward them.
He shut his eyes, and summoned up the last of his chi, feeling a heated sensation around him. He kept his eyes shut and continued to concentrate, not even breaking it with the feeling of the palace balcony lightly gracing the fur on his head. At this time, they disappeared, and reappeared above the half-sized portal, being forced into it by the rubbled palace that came crashing down.
***Meanwhile***
Shifu was fast asleep. Well, not asleep, but in a deep meditation; preying for Po. Suddenly, his focus was broken, with a familiar voice's scream.
"Tigress!"
His eyes shot open, as he immediately dashed toward his door, and down the hall; recognizing Po's voice.
Upon reaching the still-open doors of the 'Hall of Warriors', he saw two trembling figures lying in the center of the room. He rushed to his daughters side, as he tried to grasp her paw, but upon touching it, received a tremendous shock. 'What just..?' he thought, as he peered down at his hand. It glowed a bright shade of green for a second then faded, as his eyes squinted upon his pupils. '...Pure chi..' he observed in disbelief '..Tigress must be in trouble..'.
Knowing the most he could do was sit and watch the events unfold, he sprinted to the kitchen to prepare some 'special' green tea. He slammed the doors open, paying no attention the the amount of noise he was making. Soon, a few misty-eyed students came walking down the hall, particularly Mantis, Viper, and Crane. They tiredly watched him run frantically around the kitchen. He slammed cupboards and drawers, and clashed plates and glasses; rushing to prepare the tea in time.
Soon, Viper yawned, "What are you..?" she tried to interrogate as he flew by her. Suddenly, she realized where he was going, and darted her eyes open. "Po!" she called out, alerting the students around her, who looked at each other, then simultaneously awoke from their dazes. Crane and Viper immediately followed Master Shifu's tracks, while Mantis ran to the other's barracks.
After tearing open Monkey's room, he called, "MONKEY, GET UP, SOMETHING'S GOING ON WITH PO!" to which an initially bewildered Monkey jumped to his feet, and ran with his arms flailing over his head toward the 'Hall of Warriors'. Mantis grinned, satisfied, then rushed to Mei Ling's room; not even thinking to knock.
After opening her door, an "Aww.." escaped him at the site of her snuggling a teddy bear, and sucking her thumb. He watched her for a second, then snapped out of his adoring stare. "Oh, Uhmm- Mei Ling!" he said in a loud whisper, which was well past enough to awaken her acute sense of hearing.
She yawned, "Wha-what..?" she asked while sitting up and stretching her arms overhead.
"It's Po. I think he's waking up!"
She jumped to her feet with the news, not realizing that all she was wearing were her undergarments, until she noticed Mantis's blushing smile. "Oh, Whoops!" she called while pulling a robe over herself.
"Whatever! Let's just go!" he yelled, already missing the site he'd just witnessed.
"Oh yeah, of course!" she giggled.
As they ran through the doors of the 'Hall of Warriors', they found a group crowding a safe distance around the still passed-out couple. No one said a word as they stared down at them. An occasional flinch was received from the two, that was exaggerated ten times over by the jumpy group around them, but nothing quite enough to arise any suspicion of their upcoming awakening.
Finally, Viper broke the silence, "What's going on Shifu?"
He looked over to her, but before he could answer, the couple both jumped to a seated position, as Tigress inhaled a deep, petrified breath of air. Her eyes were wide as Po struggled to place a paw upon her back in his exhaustion, then tried to comfort her.
It took them both a moment to realize their shocked audience; and it took the audience even longer to grasp the fact that they'd finally awoken.
"Po!" called out Mantis, as he jumped to his chest, causing him to fall to the floor. "Did I put on weight, or..?" he asked sarcastically.
The rest of the group laughed, and all but Mei Ling hugged the duo. It took Po a second to realize she was even there, and, although as far as she knew they had never met; he called, "Mei Ling!". Then reeled her in with a paw. She quickly looked over at Tigress, and to her delight, she nodded in approval. As she hugged the two warriors, she avoided actually touching Po by putting Crane between them; much to Tigress's contentment.
After the group redispersed, Shifu's eyes quickly examined Tigress, trying to find any problems; and he noticed one. "Tigress.. Your mouth.. Is that blood?"
Everyone glanced over at her, and were shocked to see what Shifu was referring to. There was a small droplet dripping from the corner of her mouth, but she wiped it without a second thought, "That's.. That's nothing."
Shifu glared at her briefly, but trusted her judgement. "Alright, as long as you're sure you're okay." he shot her a smile, as everyone else stared momentarily, then smiled as well. "A-anyway, you two are probably exhausted." he said while handing them the tea, then directing his attention toward Tigress. "Drink this, it'll help.. But your chi levels have reached an unbelievably low point. Usually the body would not have allowed this to happen. You should have been feeling exhausted a while before this time, and your thoughts should have fallen apart slowly.. Alas, with your training, I fear your body may have adjusted to depleting all of your energy before feeling any or most signs of exhaustion.."
With this, he veered toward Po, "You; on the other hand.. I've always sensed unusually high amounts of chi radiating from you. But now.. now I feel close to nothing. I know you were transferring some to Tigress, but it's impossible that you could have transferred that much chi in the amount of time you would've had.. What happened?"
At first, Po had forgotten his teleporting, as he thought back to the cloudy events that had just occurred. Then, with a snap of his fingers, he realized, "Oh! I teleported! Which is kind of weird considering I had no idea that I could.."
Shifu's eyes widened at this, as he glared toward Tigress, "Is this true..?"
She struggled to find the energy to respond, after sipping her tea, "Y-yes.. I-I think so..."
He stood, aghast. "Po.. How.. How did you do it?"
He shrugged, "I dunno.. just kind of did.."
Shifu looked disappointing, "Do you remember anything?"
"I uhm.. I remember closing my eyes.. Holding still.. And envisioning the portal, my destination, in my mind... Then, the next thing I knew, I was there.."
Shifu stared him down with his mouth open, and eyes wide. "Do you realize what this means..?"
Po shrugged again, "Not really.. It's just a technique from a past life isn't it..?"
"No Po.." he shook his head and rubbed his eyes with his right hand. "It's far more than that.." he lowered his hand, and opened his eyes. "You've managed to perform a technique that no one has performed for over 10 000 years. It was thought to have become impossible.. It was stuff of legends. Much like yourself." Po smiled, with a twinkle in his eyes. "Aside from that.. We are extremely pressed for time. We have about four more days-tops."
Po interrupted, "Wowowow, four? I thought we still had six."
"Yes, but it's at least a two-day trip to the forbidden palace. Which is the emperors residence, and the tournaments location."
The group nodded, and Po yelled, "Then let's get to work!" as he hoped to his feet, then fell to one knee.
"Actually, Po.. The sun hasn't even risen yet.. It's only about mid-way through the night. And I'm also pretty sure you and Tigress are in no condition to train.." said Viper, through a courteous smile.
"Oh.." said Po.
"She's right Po.. About everything." mentioned Shifu, grinning. "Mainly that you two, above-all, need a very restful sleep. I shall let you sleep in, but we have work to do; so I'll be waking you both before noon." Shifu turned to walk away, then stopped to say, "Oh, and one more thing.. Mei Ling's sleeping in your room. So you'll have to stay here."
Po gave a look of disappointment to Mei Ling, who simply smiled in return. "Alright, alright.. I'll stay here."
"Good. As for the rest of you, back to your sleeping quarters." said Shifu, as the group turned, acknowledging his request.
"Actually.. Master, I am quite exhausted, and was wondering if I could remain here, with Po.." said Tigress, blushing at the site of the grinning students that had re-turned to listen to her.
"Well I could have someone carry you bac-" Shifu started as he noticed her blush, "Oh, I see.. Well, seeing as you're exhausted, okay. You may remain here with Po." he said in a kind fatherly tone, that quickly changed to an equally-fatherly, stern one. "BUT- No 'funny business'."
Suddenly, Tigress's white fur turned pink, "Of-of course, master." she finished with a bow.
Shifu grinned, then walked his way by his group of students, which smiled at the couple, then followed.
After a few moments, they were finally alone.
"P-Po..." she paused to think of her the question most important to her, "Uhmm...what did the rest of the scroll say..?" she whispered as an arm folded around her, and pulled her close. She blushed as he started to snore. He'd already fallen asleep.
Well, there it is. I would absolutely love to hear what you all think. Good or bad. :) So as I always request, PLEASE REVIEW!
