What up, peoplezez

Before we start, we'd just like to say that this is the halfway point of the story… or not, depending on how my mood is at the moment

Enjoy

Tigress, Nathan, and the female peacock found that getting through Gongmen city was difficult during this part of the day. There were so many people in the streets that they had been forced to abandon the cart they were in and walk through. Adding the fact that they had to carry the still unconscious Colin with then, they couldn't make their way through until it was almost midday. When the four made it back to the palace they were greeted by Ox and Croc. When they spotted Colin though, they swore.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Ox asked.

"We think Myrkor caught him and almost brought him back to the village, Nathan and I scared them off and got Colin...?" Tigress began as she heard Colin moaning. Everyone looked to Colin as he began to stir.

"Huh...wha...Ah!"

Colin scrambled out of Nathan's grip not knowing it was him. When he finally made contact to the ground, he hit him in the family jewels. Nathan doubled over moaning to himself.

"Really?" Colin snapped out of his panic to Nathan's voice. "Nathan? Is that you?" Colin turned around and saw Tigress, Croc and Ox, Nathan and someone he didn't know. "Ah, damn," Colin muttered.

"Damn is right Colin." Ox said grabbing Colin by the neck, releasing a low squawk. "We're gonna have a little talk, runt," Ox grumbled picking Colin up and taking him into the palace. The door slammed loudly behind them. Croc turned to the other three after a moment of silence.

"Thank you, both of you," Croc said. "Heh, you should be thanking her, not us," Nathan turned and gestured to the female peacock. Croc stepped to her, extending a hand in thanks. "Well thank you Miss..." Croc froze.

"Lorelei," she spoke quickly then said nothing else. Croc rubbed the back of his head in the silence. Finally he cleared his throat. "Right then, well feel free to stay here Lorelei, you definitely deserve it," Croc said finally, simply earning a nod. With a sigh of surrender he turned back around. "I'm gonna go see how Ox and Colin are," he said quickly opening the door then slamming behind him. Nathan and Tigress turned to Lorelei.

"Oh we forgot to prop-"

Nathan was interrupted by moving tail feathers entering his mouth, causing him to spit a little. As quickly as she entered, she went into the palace also, leaving Nathan and Tigress alone.

"I'd uh, best get inside too, looks like a storms coming," Tigress laughed taking quick steps to the palace doors, delicately closing the behind her. Nathan looked up and saw the dark clouds approaching.

"Oh," Nathan saw the storm and ran inside also, even bumping into Tigress, causing the two to laugh "Heh, sorry," Nathan laughed awkwardly.

The rest of the day went by with loud screaming from Ox and Croc, scolding Colin for abandoning the Jade Palace and the others, nearly getting captured by Myrkor and jeopardizing the balance of the world. Colin certainly wasn't a slouch, yelling that it was no one's business what he does, that he could take care of himself, Myrkor getting lucky, the works. From the sound of females shouting as well, it seemed that Tigress and the Soothsayer were trying and failing to break up the argument. All the while a thunderstorm had picked up.

When night finally arrived, the argument had finally died off. Nathan was looking out the window at the falling rain when a knock came on his door. Nathan went to the door and saw Colin. "Oh, hey Colin," Nathan was surprised he came.

"Hey dude, mind if I come in?" Colin asked. Nathan nodded and the two sat down, looking outside at the storm.

"So how'd you're training go?" Colin asked Nathan.

"Oh, it went fine, learned how to actually fight…"

"You ran off crying, didn't you?"

"What?"

"Oh come on, it's too coincidental that you and Tigress were there when I was attacked," Colin laughed. "Besides, I can still see the tear stains".

"It was coincidence and coincidence only" Nathan said. "How'd your training go?"

"You know me..."

"You gave up, didn't you?"

"-!"

"Tigress said the cave was a last resort in case Shifu ran out of ideas," Nathan said. "Considering that you're here, I'd say he sent you there and it ended in an epic fail".

Colin had the nerve to argue but chose not to. Considering they were actually talking instead of fighting, he let it slide. Instead he chuckled and nodded. After a moment of silence Colin spoke again.

"Hey Nathan, how do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Just...how do you be so...you...how do you just roll with everything?" Colin finally found the right words.

Before Nathan could say anything, the door opened again and Tigress and the Soothsayer came in with the last person they were honestly expecting: Wolf Boss.

"What… how the hell did you survive?" Nathan asked.

"Oh, come on now," Wolf Boss laughed. "Shen couldn't kill me when he tried. What makes you think I was going to let a stinking cult do me in?"

"Yeah well, it's not really important how our friend survived," the Soothsayer said. "The masters and I were trying to discover what the poison in the darts that knocked you out came from. They weren't able to find any clear markings on it, and nothing I know of can tell me where it came from. That is why we've come up here. Did you happen to see the identity of your attackers?"

"Only their feet," Colin said. "Not enough for a positive I.D.".

"Well this is just great," Tigress groaned. "Not only do we have no idea where the cult is, but the only clues we have are these darts".

With that, Tigress pulled one of the darts out of her pocket and held it out in the open. When he saw it, Wolf Boss' eyes bulged out in surprise.

"That is the dart of the Mamunia shaman," he said.

He, Tigress, and the Soothsayer immediately began a rather hushed conversation between the three of them. Colin and Nathan just stared at each other, both sharing similar expression of confusion as to what was going on.

"The whatey-whatan?" Nathan asked.

"Mamunia is a nomadic tribe about an hour northeast of the city," Tigress explained. "The Mamunia shaman, or medicine man, has openly protested against your presence here".

Nathan let out a slightly audible gasp when this information came out. Apparently he didn't like the thought of people having a problem with him being somewhere. Colin, although initially just as surprised as Nathan was, quickly fell back into the usual scowl he was known to have.

"Has he now?" he asked in mock surprise.

Heh, heh, heh… gotta love those inside jokes

R&R plz

NITRO PSYCHO OUT!