A/N: Hello! I'm back! Sorry about the late update. I have been promising myself to try to update every week, but it just won't seem to happen! Sorry!
Here is the new chapter! I know that you are all anxious about finding out what the surprise is! I would like to give a shout-out to sweetluckygirl who guessed correctly at what the surprise is. sweetluckygirl has very amazing stories. She even has a one-shot collection out right now! Check it out!
Thanks again to all my amazing reviewers, you guys are so awesome. Thank you for all the support!
Are you ready to find out what the surprise is? I sure am!
Don't forget to review! Remember, every 50th reviewer gets a shout-out!
Disclaimer: I sadly don't own Kung Fu Panda, I would be the happiest person alive if I did….
Chapter Fourteen: The Test
It took them all by surprise.
What the six fierce warriors were seeing was making their stomachs twist into knots of anxiousness.
Well, who wouldn't be nervous at the sight of seeing it?
There, literary thirty-two feet away from them…was the surprise.
The surprise, now that it was being revealed, was something that no one, not even Po, could have ever guessed.
In the center of the training hall was a group of eighteen small and rambunctious children. They were crowding together in a group with Master Shifu in the middle section of the room where Po and his friends usually talked with the Grandmaster. The children were a variety of geese, bunnies, and piglets. They hopped, flew, and spun around the room very noisily, extremely excited to be inside of the legendary training hall.
Po recognized a brown-spotted bunny named Quon. The panda had taught the youngster's class a few days back. The little tyke had successfully learned how position his feet in the proper sparring stance. Po had been very proud of him that day. It was always great to see the little ones learn something new.
Po waved to the bunny. "Hey Quon!" he called.
Quon's speckled ear rose when he heard his name being called. His big brown eyes frantically searched for the voice and looked up to the Dragon Warrior's smile. He bounced in excitement and scurried over to the panda. "Hiya Po!" he cheered.
The other children paid no attention to Quon running over to chat with the Dragon Warrior and the Furious Five. The little creatures seemed to be too busy messing around with the training hall's obstacle courses and Master Shifu's beard….
Quon hopped to Po and the others with glee. "Hey Mr. Dragon Warrior!" the bunny nodded to Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Crane and Viper, who were still gaping with their mouths open at the scene of wildness. "Hello Furious Five! How are you all?" he asked.
Po shook his head, remembering his senses. He stopped staring at the other children and 'Shifu's little problem' and dropped down to Quon's eye level.
"Hi Quon, how are you doing?" he asked sincerely.
"I'm doing real good Po!" the little cottontail swayed side to side and played with his green vest. "Are you ready to teach me new stuff today?"
Po narrowed his eyebrows together in confusion. He glanced at the others for knowledge. They just simply shrugged. They had no idea what was going on either. "I'm teaching you new stuff?" the panda repeated.
Quon nodded in comprehension. "That's what your Master Shifu said. He said that we're gonna help you for a testing!"
Po smiled. "I see what's going on now…" he looked back up at Shifu, who had managed to make the children sit down in a crisscross applesauce position. His old master had probably wanted to make sure that Po and his comrades would be ready for their Certification Test. Master Shifu had taken the time to visit with the children's parents and schedule a last minute class with the youngsters.
Po looked back to Quon's bright eyes. "Are you ready for us to teach you some new things, Quon?"
Quon bounced up and down excitedly. "You bet I am! I wanna learn how to do a butterfly kick today!"
Po laughed and rubbed Quon's soft, furry, head. "Come on buddy," the panda started to make his way to the center of the room. "Let's get started."
After making their way to Master Shifu, Po led Quon to a small group of children that were awaiting instructions from the red panda.
"Over there buddy. We'll teach you some stuff in a few minutes." Po directed.
"Yes, Master Po!" and with that, Quon bounced over to his classmates with anticipation.
Po circled around Master Shifu with Tigress, Crane, Monkey, Mantis, and Viper. He gave Shifu a surprised smile; he really didn't expect a surprise like this from his master.
Shifu nodded briefly to the Dragon Warrior. "Well, I assume you have all seen what I have planned for you…."
They chuckled awkwardly, not sure what to make of it all.
Viper raised her black patterned tail. "Master, do you expect us to teach a class right now?" she questioned.
Shifu gave a chuckle himself. "Yes," the red panda praised. "That is indeed what I want you all to do."
He pointed to each apprentice. "I want all of you to teach a class just like you will at Certification."
Everyone nodded in comprehension.
Shifu raised a finger and pointed at the 'little warriors in training'. "I understand that we have been practicing how the testing will be like at Certification on each other. But now, I thought that we could teach our skills with the children." He smiled heartedly. "Surprise!" he laughed.
The others laughed along with their master. But on the inside, Po was a bit intimidated at the whole idea of teaching a group of wild children like he would be teaching at Certification. …..
Certification Testing was a big deal and was only held once a year. You could not fail. You had to go through crazy workouts and seminars, but you also had to teach a class in front of judges…..
"Children!" Shifu called. The grandmaster motioned the children to stand still, walked over to them, and commanded them to take a seat. The little rascals did as they were told. "My apprentices are now going to teach your class." He confirmed.
The children nodded eagerly and a wave of excitement suddenly filled the room.
Shifu leaned down at the children's eye level and whispered softly. "Do your best as my students teach you; this is a very special class for them." He cocked his head to the side at an odd angle. "Do you understand?"
Eighteen small heads bobbed up and down in reply.
"Very good little ones, very good..." Shifu continued. The red panda nodded to his own students. "We will begin now."
Tigress, Crane, Viper, Po, Monkey, and Mantis bowed to their master. They were ready.
Shifu sat down at the back of the room and crossed his legs in a lotus position. "I will take note of your leadership skills and let you know what you need to work on for Certification Testing." He looked to his adopted daughter and the avian with the worn straw hat. "Level Three is to go first. Crane and Tigress, please decide who is going to teach now."
Crane turned to Tigress and shrugged. Tigress simply nodded back, and then the feline bounded up to front of the classroom. "I will teach first, Master." She informed plainly.
Her father nodded. "You may begin…."
Tigress turned to the little children and gave a slight smile. She took a little breath and began the serious speech she gave at every single class she taught:
"You children are China's future. You must work hard to attain perfection. You must be solemn, focused, and resolute. If you want to be a Kung Fu Warrior, you must keep on working even when the going gets tough…." She started fiercely.
As Tigress continued on, Shifu was watching her intently and taking notes of her work. Po couldn't help but smile a bit at the children. Although Tigress' words were inspiring, it seemed as if the children had heard the speech so many times that they were falling asleep from boredom!
"And with that said…" the tiger finished her presentation. "Are you prepared to do some Kung Fu?" she questioned.
At the sound of those words, the geese, bunnies, and piglets immediately perked up, excited to learn some new moves.
Tigress quickly ordered the children to go to their acquired spots and began to teach her class. Since the tiger was just starting the class, she began to do some warm-ups with the students.
The Kung Fu Cat-fighter brought over the panda wave master. "Alright," she said. "We are going to perform some drills on our little panda friend here." The little ones giggled and a few of the piglets pointed to Po, their other 'panda friend'.
Tigress smiled a bit as well. "No, no." she corrected as she tapped the wave master. "This one right here…"
One by one, Tigress instructed the 'warriors in training' to be in a single file line and watch her demonstrate a drill on the dummy.
"Today," she announced. "We are going to practice a sparring segment in Red Panda Style." She nodded in approval as the children gasped with awe.
"This Style is a very advanced Style. It is alright if you are uncomfortable at first. Red Panda Style is difficult to master."
The toddlers didn't seem to care if the Style was hard or not, they just seemed anxious to try out the coolness of Red Panda Style!
"We are going to be very fast on this bag." Tigress instructed loudly. The feline leaned quickly away from dummy, as if dodging out of the way of a strike. But then, quick as a wink, she hurriedly rammed two powerful and intense punches on the 'panda pal', forcing the wave master to fall to the floor.
The Kung Fu Master turned around to face the kids, whose eyeballs had literally popped out of their sockets, amazed at the Master's fascinating strength. The little ones always strived to hit the dummy hard, but they had never been able to knock it down!
Tigress pointed to her fallen enemy, "Did you see how I got out of the way and then quickly counter-attacked the wave master?" she asked receiving squeals of excitement from her students. Her eyes glimmered at their admiration. "I want you to do the same thing I did."
More excited squeals followed….
She continued on. "As you are coming up for your turn, remember to keep your hands up by your head! You don't want to get your head taken off by your opponent." She warned.
A few youngsters giggled at the thought and pretended to smack their skulls and fall down.
"Be quick and efficient like a red panda with this drill; that means no sloppy punches." The tiger continued. "Sparring stance!" she commanded.
Po watched with amusement as the bunnies, piglets, and geese jumped into their fighting stance and started bouncing with energy to face off the panda wave master.
Tigress watched them do the same drill she had just demonstrated. She kept use of the 10 Class Management Skills and gave thoughtful feedback and positive correction to those who needed it. Occasionally, when a child or two didn't have their paws, hooves, or wings up, she would tap at their head lightly to remind them of keeping their guard up.
Po smiled at Tigress' gentleness. When he had first arrived to the Jade Palace, Tigress had been extremely strict in her teaching style. She would be totally no nonsense and would punish the little ones (Po too…) with push-ups quite frequently. But over the years, the tiger master had seemed to find a balance in her way of teaching. She was able to joke around here and there and was a bit more open to the children's eagerness. But still, his friend just loved to be very serious. She was a complete perfectionist with everything….
After a few minutes of the sparring drill, Tigress called the students to stand still. The little rascals obeyed with a last punch to the dummy.
At that moment, Master Shifu called Tigress to say that her work was finished. The red panda had her switch places with Crane for his turn.
Crane fluttered timidly to the front of the room. His teaching style was very calm and easygoing. The avian just loved to explain things from head to toe. He could also be strict if he needed to get his point across, but it wasn't necessary.
The black-crested crane ordered the kids to a listening position and explained thoroughly what they were going to accomplish. "Okay everyone. Listening ears on…." The bird put his brightly colored wings around a piglet's ears and shook it playfully. "We are going to do some stretches in the form of Tortoise Style." The avian grinned as he received some 'oohs' and 'ahhs' from his audience.
Crane then led the little ones through a series of complicated and advanced stretches. He reminded the children to focus on their inner chi like Master Oogway would and told them to breathe and feel the world's energy move around them.
When finished, Shifu called Crane to stop what he was doing and had Viper, Mantis, and Monkey teach the sparring drills together.
After pairing up the students with a partner their own size, the three Level Twos all took their turn teaching a sparring technique.
Viper, as always, was the mother-hen of the group. She would always make sure that everyone was comfortable. She liked to praise the students and loved to show how each move they did had a meaning.
Viper smiled motherly and taught how to analyze someone's weakness from Leopard Style. She pointed to her partner, Monkey. "See how his hands are too close to his head?" she informed.
Monkey, funny as always, and an incredible sparring champ, quickly took over and taught how to attack their opponent with their own weakness from his own mastered style, the Monkey Style. The primate instructed Viper to take her tail and counter-strike over on top of his head, causing Monkey to rub his own shaved head in pain.
Mantis, who loved to be around the children and was the jokester of the bunch, hopped over onto Monkey's shoulder and demonstrated how to do the same attack Viper had just done, but with ridiculous speed in the form of Mantis Style.
Monkey rubbed his skull even more. There was probably going to be a nice bruise on his head in the morning…
Po anxiously awaited his turn. He smiled when he saw little Quon successfully attack his opponent, a piglet named Xi.
"Master Po."
Po's heart skipped a beat at the sound of his name.
Shifu motioned for him to stand up and trade places with Viper, Mantis, and Monkey.
Po obeyed and walked to his designated spot and waited for instructions from his master.
"Po," knowing that his student was a bit uneasy with teaching, the red panda spoke gently. "I would like you to teach the children their form please…"
The grandmaster watched as his youngest warrior bowed. "Yes Master Shifu." Po said.
Po bowed once again with the children and told them to go to their beginning positions for the form.
The panda took a deep breath and spun around to face the little ones. Up close, he could now see that all they wanted to do was to follow in the master's footsteps and become a warrior themselves. They wanted to learn. Po's anxiousness went away as he realized that the kids were just like him. They wanted to be like their heroes too….
The Dragon Warrior smiled joyfully. "Okay guys! Do you know what form we're doing today!?" he watched as they all shook their heads excitedly.
He chuckled. "We're going to be performing Panda Style for Master Shifu!" Po pointed to his master, who was still sitting in his little corner in the far section of the room with his notes.
The children gasped and stood up straighter, ready to take on the challenge.
"Ready?" he asked.
Then Po led the eighteen children through Panda Style form using various belly techniques and little trademarks. At one point, the panda had the children stop the move they were doing and had them say 'Skadoosh!' to their imaginary opponent.
Po didn't even think if he was doing anything wrong. He was having way too much fun teaching the next generation of Kung Fu. This was a dream come true. Not only was he a Kung Fu legend, he was a Kung Fu legend that could mentor other students! How cool was that!?
When finished, Master Shifu took his own place at the front of the room and dismissed the children for the day.
"Students," the master started as the last goose left. "I will now tell you what you did well on and what you will need to improve for Certification Testing…"
Even though Master Shifu and his own students had known each other for years, everyone was a little bit nervous at the idea of finding out their results from this little practice test.
Po saw out of the corner of his stunning, jade, eye that everyone, including Tigress, stiffened as Master Shifu approached them with the results of their teaching skills…
A/N: There you go! What did you think? Was it a good surprise?
Hopefully nobody's results are bad! We want them to be good!
Quon means 'bright' in Chinese. It was fun to make up my own little OC. Who knows, maybe Quon will return in future stories!
As you know, Certification Testing is a real thing! And so, I have based The Furious Five, Shifu, and Po on my instructors at my school! What do you think about that!?
If my head instructor is reading this right now, I hope you are pleased with all this Certification info, teaching styles, and fighting styles! Can you guess which character I based the other instructors on? You can put your own guesses in a review!
Please take your time to review, it means a lot to any author. It makes my day. I bet it makes your day knowing that you've made someone happy today by leaving what you thought on this chapter, even if the review is critical or not.
Remember, every 50th review gets a shout-out. Who's going to be the 200th reviewer? It all starts….now!
Thank you.
Catch you later!