Assault on the Valley
I don't own Kung Fu Panda
Sorry, this has been taking so long, but I've been completely swamped with other things lately.
Since they couldn't search during the night, Saber and Kiera waited until the next morning to return to the cliff to perform the grim task of searching for and recovering Dega's body for the funeral, scheduled for that evening.
"Well, this is the place," Kiera said. "Dega was shot and fell off there." She said pointing at the cliff.
Saber walked over to the ledge and looked over; he saw nothing but trees below him, the canopy below him was too thick with foliage to see anything else but tree tops.
"Kiera come on over here a second," He said crouching down next to the ledge, looking over the side.
"I'm fine here, thanks," Kiera said hanging back by the forest, keeping a hand on a tree trunk, staying well away from the cliff.
"Come on, it's fine," Saber said standing up, turning around to look at her
"No, I think I'll stay here," Kiera said.
"Wait a second," Saber said frowning. "Are you afraid of heights?"
"Yes," Kiera said nodding shamefully. "But, I never used to be until…I…"
"Fell off the Thread of Hope," Saber finished.
"It's my fault Dega is dead, I couldn't save him because I didn't want to get close to the edge," Kiera said still hanging back.
"No, it's not your fault," Saber told her walking over to her. "Whoever pulled that trigger is to blame."
"Come on, let's go check out the jungle down there,"
After about an hour and a half of hacking their way through the jungle, they found the place Dega should have landed and found nothing remarkable.
"There's nothing here," Saber said looking around.
"No kidding," Kiera said.
"No, I mean there's nothing here, where's Dega's body?" Saber said. "He should have landed somewhere around here, right?"
Kiera looked around, Saber was right, Dega's body was nowhere to be seen. Could he have survived and walked away?
"Dega!" Kiera yelled thinking he might still be in the area, injured.
"Dega!" Saber also yelled.
-With Dai and Tigress-
Tigress went to Dai's house and found the tiger searching around through some of his old things in his room, looking for something.
"What are you looking for?" She asked hanging in the doorway.
Dai stood up and turned around, Tigress saw a certain scroll in his hand.
"Is that..?" She asked.
"The Dragon Scroll? Yes," Dai said. "It's time for a new generation of Dragon Warrior."
"You kept it? But who..?" Tigress asked.
Dai stepped forward handing Tigress the Dragon scroll and whispered a name into her ear, she gasped and her eyes went wide.
"That name does not leave this room, understand?" Dai said. "If The Master finds out, the new Dragon Warrior's family would be put in grave danger."
"I understand," Tigress said holding the scroll to her chest. "But when do we tell The New Dragon Warrior?"
"You'll know the time," Dai said cryptically. "Just in case," He added putting a small vial into Tigress's hand.
She recognized it as a restoration potion, capable of healing a person on the verge of death, and highly illegal.
"Dai? Why do you have this? This is seriously dark magic." Tigress asked.
Dai didn't answer her and left the Academy to walk home for the night. It was a nice clear night, for now, Dai looked up at the moon, it shone brightly in the sky. An eclipse was starting, some called it a blood moon.
"Fitting," Dai thought looking up at the sky as it gave the moon a reddish almost sinister glow
"Dai Nakamura!" A voice yelled out from the darkness as he walked down the street.
Dai paused and turned around to see three ominous looking figures standing in the road behind him.
"Can I help you?" He asked.
"You can help, by dying!" The figure in the middle yelled sparking a pair of familiar looking blue staffs, the figures flanking him sparked an orange tomahawk and Dega's swords.
All three figures charged at the Tiger Master, forcing him to back up and quickly draw his Katana to defend himself.
All three figures wore masks covering their faces, hiding their identity. But Dai knew who at least one of them was Lupa, the others had to be The Master and his other unknown henchmen.
Dai caught the staffs on his Katana and shoved The Master back, slicing at his chest with the sword. As he did the other two attacked him, Dai ducked under Lupa's swords and punched her in the gut as the other attacked from his left.
"Lupa, stop this!" Dai yelled catching the swords on his Katana. "I know you're still in there, you have to fight it!"
"I'm afraid it's too late, she's long gone," The Master said.
Dai drew the Wakizashi from his Daisho with his left hand and caught the tomahawk as it swung towards his head. Slightly smaller in length than his Katana Dai preferred to use the Wakizashi with a reverse grip.
"Lupa, please don't make me do this!" Dai yelled as the eclipse started, making the night even darker. "Think about your father, you're the only family he has left!"
"Shut up!" Lupa yelled attacking the Tiger again swinging the swords at him.
Dai caught the swords on his Katana, the weapons sparked wildly, throwing green sparks everywhere.
Dai disarmed and kicked Lupa in the leg, forcing her to her knees in front of him.
The Master yelled and attacked Dai from the side preventing him from delivering the final knockout blow.
"I swear, I'm gonna kill you," he snarled spinning the staffs in his hands throwing sparks everywhere. There was something very familiar about that motion.
"I won't go down so easily," Dai said still in his fighting stance with his swords.
"Yeah," A voice said from behind him. Dai glanced behind him to see Kiro and Tigress, Kiro had already sparked his staffs giving the weapons gave the two an eerie glow the Dai turned back to the Master and his henchmen, smirking.
"What's the matter? Afraid of a fair fight?" He taunted.
"Far from it! You and the Masters are a dying breed!" The Master spat. "You will never stop us!"
"I've heard that before from other villains; Lord Shen, Sage, Grandmaster Feng, and Emperor Jow, so I'm looking forward to it already," Kiro said counting off the defeated villains.
"Where they failed, I will succeed! You will all die tonight!" The Master yelled and charged at them.
The six warriors clashed, it was old versus new, young versus old as they fought each time the power weapons collided, a sharp crack resonated through the town, like a clap of thunder.
-Back with Saber and Kiera-
"Dega!" Kiera called out loudly.
"Okay, okay jeez, what are you? My mom, I heard you the first dozen times!" Dega said emerging from the trees.
"Dega!" Saber and Kiera exclaimed.
"Nine lives baby!" Dega said. "Though, I'm probably down to four five by now… oh well."
"We probably should return to the town," Saber said looking back in that direction, hearing the faint sound of the power weapons colliding.
-Back with the Masters-
As they fought, a voice broke through the rain and chaos.
"Dad!"
Kiro paused thinking he'd heard something, he turned around and saw Dega rushing towards them with Kiera and Saber.
"Dega?" He questioned not believing his own eyes.
"No! Dega, wait! Stay back!" He warned.
Just as Lupa struck him across the face with her swords, spinning him to the ground.
"Dad!" Dega yelled, sprinting to his father's side. Before he got there, Lupa blocked him spinning the swords in her hands summoning a ballista
"Dega!" Kiro yelled as it fired.
Dega spun to the side narrowly avoiding the bolt, but it still sliced the skin on his back.
"Dega!" Kiro yelled seeing his son get struck by the weapon, he got up and launched himself at Lupa, tackling her off the top of the ballista, breaking her concentration, making the siege weapon disappear.
He wrestled Lupa to the ground and took the weapons from her and tossed them back to Dega.
"My babies! Oh, how I missed you!" Dega cried cradling the weapons like an infant.
Lupa snarled and punched her father on the side of the head.
"I'm sorry Lupa," Kiro said hitting a pressure point on his Daughter, paralyzing her.
"RAH!"
Kiro leaned back in time to see the tomahawk sail past his head, he glanced to the side and saw The Master's other henchmen standing there.
"Where did you get that? We locked it away," Kiro asked as the Tomahawk came sailing past him again.
"Why should I tell you that?" The masked figure said catching the weapon, throwing at Kiro again, forcing him to leap into the air, away from Lupa.
"I can do this all day…or night actually," Kiro said landing on his feet nearby.
He saw Dai and Tigress fighting The Master, something about his fighting style seemed very familiar to him all of a sudden.
A moment later he realized why…
"Dai, Tigress, back off! he's trying to draw you in!" He warned them.
At the same moment a thin blade sprang from inside The Master's sleeve, Dai just barely managed to catch it on his sword.
Under his mask, The Master smirked at him.
"Kai…?" Dai asked in shock.
The Master relaxed and pulled his mask off, letting it fall to the ground, revealing his face to everyone.
"Surprised? No?" He asked.
"B…But…" Tigress stammered, looking at her son in disbelief. "Why?"
By now the other Masters had heard the fighting and came outside to join them.
"It's over Kai," Dai said. "You're outnumbered."
"Oh I don't think so," Kai said amusement in his voice, He raised his staff above his head and waved it around in a wide circle.
At first, nothing happened, then the sound of marching feet reached the Master's ears.
"Actually, I think it's you who are the one's that are outnumbered," Kai said confidently as the soldiers marched into the town.
"CHARGE!"
The mass of soldiers collided with the Heroes, Kiro combined his staffs together into one long staff and was hitting soldiers left and right. Dai sliced at stabbed at soldiers with his Katana, Tigress punched, kicked and clawed the soldiers.
Kiera used a combination of her father's Wakizashi and her claws, Saber shocked soldiers with his lightning, managing to shock several soldiers at once.
"I haven't done this in years! It's so AWESOME!" Kiro yelled spinning the staff in his hands.
"Agreed!" Dai yelled back cutting down soldiers with his Katana, the blade almost seemed to gleam with joy as it got covered in blood.
Oddly, Kai was nowhere to be seen during the battle. The Heroes had other things to worry about though as more and more soldiers poured into the town, there seemed to be no end to them.
Finally, after hours of fighting the last soldier fell as the sun started to rise above the mountains, the eclipse had passed.
"Is everyone okay?" Dai asked.
"We're all fine," Kiro said.
A dull thudding sound reached Dai's ears, he looked up at the sky.
"Kiro! Shield!" Dai suddenly yelled seeing the cannon balls flying through the air towards them.
Kiro quickly summoned a bubble shield to protect them, the large half circle was something new Kiro had been working on
Seconds later the Cannonballs impacted around them, exploding upon impact, destroying buildings and houses indiscriminately. The barrage lasted for several minutes, leaving the town in ruin.
After another minute Kiro dissipated the shield, the ground looked like a moonscape, craters were everywhere, despite the rain, several buildings were burning, including the Academy.
"That's why Kai held back," Tigress said looking around. "He didn't want to get caught in that."
"This isn't over," Dai said. "Not yet."
"We should evacuate, while we still can," Kiro said.
"Retreat?!" Tigress asked shocked. "We can't!"
"Tigress, look around you, we won't survive another attack," Dai said indicating around him at the burning or destroyed buildings. "The Valley is lost, we have to fall back!"
"Dai's right," Po said. "We have to fall back, I don't think we can survive another barrage like that."
"I don't think Kai is gonna give us a choice," Dega said as the sound marching reached their ears.
"Where'd he get all these soldiers from?" Kiro said, "Is there like a bad guy convention or something where you can just get a fully equipped army from?"
This time, Kai was leading his soldiers with a now revived Lupa.
They stopped about twenty yards away from each other.
"I'm going to give you one last chance to surrender, no one else needs to die today!" Kai yelled over at them. Tigress looked sideways at Dai, waiting for an answer. The tiger looked uncertain, He wasn't seriously considering surrendering to Kai, was he?
"We'll never surrender to you or any Villian!" Tigress spat.
"So be it, I was really hoping we could come to sort of an agreement," Kai said disappointedly. "WIPE 'EM OUT!" He yelled. "LEAVE NO SURVIVORS!"
Dai shot a glare at Tigress as Kai's soldiers charged at them.
"Once more into the fray," Kiro said sparking his staffs once more.
Again, Kai seemed to be hanging back, away from the action to direct his troops. Looking up he saw Crane flying overhead, swooping down to attack his soldiers.
"Take that bird down!" He ordered, pointing at Crane up in the sky.
The crack of musket fire sounded through the town, Dai paused in time to see Crane plummet out of the sky and crash onto a rooftop. If the musket balls hadn't killed him, the fall certainly would have.
Dai growled, "Kiro! We gotta take out those muskets! Or they'll tear us apart!" He said getting the Tiger's attention over the battle.
Kiro nodded and tossed one of his staffs to Dai who tapped it on his chest creating a large blue outline of a Tiger, Kiro did the same making a red Tiger.
At the outskirts of the town, Kai smiled seeing the large outlines.
"Ready the cannons and Hwacha!" He ordered.
Dai and Kiro were tearing through Kai's soldiers when they both heard the sound of cannons firing.
"Kiro…" Dai said seeing the cannon balls streaming through the air.
The cannon balls hit them, exploding upon impact forcing the two tigers back. Kiro's outline flickered under the bombardment and went out, Dai saw the tiger fall to the ground just before his went out too.
Dai landed on a rooftop and slid down to the ground and checked on Kiro.
"I'm fine," The Tiger said slowly getting to his feet.
A screaming tore through the air.
"Oh, what now!?" Dai exclaimed helping Kiro to his feet.
He looked up and saw hundreds of arrows filling the sky, blocking out the sky.
"Scatter!" Dai yelled to the others
Dai quickly summoned a shield to protect Kiro and himself as arrows blanketed the area around them.
The barrage of arrows didn't last very long, and from what Dai could tell, no one had been seriously injured from it.
The heroes regrouped in the ruined town square, everyone seemed okay.
"We have to retreat," Dai said. "When Kai attacks again, and he will, we won't be able to hold him back, we already lost Crane."
"I…agree," Kiro said.
"No! We have to stand and fight!" Tigress said.
"Tigress, look around you, what's left to defend?" Dai asked.
"We've faced countless odds before and always have come out on top," Tigress insisted. "Kai is just another villain, and we'll defeat him just like Emperor Jow or Grandmaster Feng."
Dai bit his lower lip, thinking.
"We'll do whatever you think is best, Dad," Kiera said.
What do you think the heroes will do? Will they retreat and live to fight another day? Or stay to defend the Valley of Peace?