Kung Fu Panda fanfic6
Conspiracy
"Hey! Hey guys!" Po called, as he scurried up the staircase to the Jade Palace.
He kept a careful eye out for the treacherous pebble that he was sure was just waiting to jump him, to slide right underneath his foot and trip him, causing him to tumble all the way down. Sure, even though it was discarded before, he had still ended up bouncing down the steps to the bottom, mostly it was Mantis's fault. Still, by now, it was probably mocking him still. Stupid pebble!
"Hey, hold on! I'm here!" He said, as he reached the top of the staircase, only to find Tigress and Crane standing motionless as they starred through the open doors to the courtyard. "Hey guys, what's up?"
Neither of the two skilled masters responded, both seem bewildered, shocked, and transfixed by some stupefying sight before them. The curious panda stood straight and strolled over to them, standing right beside them, as he looked in their same direction, before falling silent and immobilized himself.
The training courtyard was a mess, and not the usual, typical daily mess as seen around occasionally, it was the remnants of a bloodbath. Where should he start? All through everywhere he could see modern firearms all around, several satchels, some filled with Palace treasure, and even a few discarded limbs around, but most of all, it was all covered in blood. It was an even more disturbing sight than the ashy remains of the carriage, back at the bottom of the stairs.
"Well, I - uh... I guess this concludes a murder last night," Crane said, feeling slightly sick to his stomach, "and that modern weaponry is being smuggled and supplied in China, and illegally in the traditional lands."
"Wait, something's very odd here," Tigress pointed out, "there's blood and left behind weapons, but no bodies out here. Not even on that carriage back to the village."
"Uh... maybe Fray was very modest about the whole thing and tried to clean up the mess," the panda suggested, "or at least get rid of the bodies to make things a little easier."
"No, you're wrong Po," she told him, "Fray couldn't have done this. It's not like him, he's not that person - anymore."
"Yeah, but I don't think he's the same guy from your childhood, he's been known to change several times, and he just got out of prison, and prison can really change somebody, so-"
"Shut it, Po!"
"Okay, uh..." the panda began, hesitating to change the sense of the subject. "Yeah, you're definitely right. Fray's probably - no, without doubt - wouldn't have killed them, it's not like he would need to. I mean, sure, there's blood everyone, but I don't think that means anything. Maybe he knocked them all out, one at a time, and tied them all together in the main hall."
"Yes, but what would that have to do with the blood?" Crane asked, poking a hole in his logic.
"Look, I don't have all the answers," Po told him, "let's just check out the main hall, see if we can find any clues, I mean, these thieves were obviously trying to steal the Palace treasure" - he picked up the treasure satchel, ignoring its blood-stained features - "so we might find something inside while we're putting it all back."
The three investigators sauntered across the courtyard and made their way up to the Sacred Hall's large, heavy doors. Upon reaching the foot of them, they pushed them open as the sunlight was free to shine into the main hall. However, as it cleared the hall's darkness to clear their vision, they all gasped, Po almost felt like he would throw up, almost, for the hall looked even worse than the courtyard.
Not only was their more blood and weapons, there were bodies - everywhere, all were skinned of flesh, showing only the rotting corpses of boars, and they were hanging but a single rope, strung up from the ceiling, that tied around their ankles. The Sacred Hall of Warriors, from the looks of it, had been redecorated into a slaughter house. Just as the Marshal had said in his report.
"'Tied up,' huh?" Crane repeated the panda's previous suggestion.
"Hey, they are tied up... they're all just - tied separately... by their feet... and skinned and hanging from the ceiling..." He placed a paw on his stomach as he covered his mouth with his other, "Oh man, I think I'm gonna lose it!"
Tigress ignored their chatter and took further steps down the hall, inspecting all of the skinned corpses hanging everywhere. She couldn't believe it, she denied it no matter what, Fray wasn't a killer with this particular style, it just couldn't have been him. She approached the skinned body in the middle of the hall - an ox - which was missing a head.
She took a careful observation of it, as blood continued to drip dryly from its headless neck. Sure, she should have been utterly disgusted and horrified by it all, but her request for the truth neutralized the feeling. She looked at the neck, it had been separated in the center of the throat - by a blade at least 30-inches long. Po appeared by her side, still feeling nauseous.
"Well," he swallowed, "I guess he could've killed them, they did have modern guns with them, so he probably wouldn't have a choice. But - I dunno why he'd spend any of his time to do all this... to redecorate the place. So, we can say he did kill them to protect the palace, he just didn't know what to do with the bodies."
"Tigress, Po," Crane called them, "I think you should look at this."
They both gladly turned their attention away from the skinned, headless ox to have a look at the avian's sighted clue, and it was yet another skinned corpse, however, it wasn't a boar, it was a dog - one of the Jade Palace night guards.
"Ah geez! Crane, if I see anymore of this, I'm definitely gonna lose it," the panda complained.
"Don't you see, this wasn't one of the bandits, it's one of our guards. And it's not just this guy, there's a few others over there," - he pointed to the other side of the hall - "and they're more guards."
"But that doesn't make sense," Tigress said, "whoever did this killed the bandits but also a few of our guards, and hung their bodies here like slaughterhouse meat, but it's only these people, I don't see any servants here."
"So?"
"So, if we were really dealing with a mass serial killer, wouldn't he have taken the whole palace, not just these people and a few guards?"
"Sure, but all of the bandits are dead, a few guards, and their weapons lying on the ground, untouched by blood. We know the guards and the bandits didn't fight, no bullet wounds on anyone. So what's the deal?"
"I do not know. But Crane, I want you to go back to the Imperial Palace and report this to Shifu. Tell them that there are modern weapons being illegally smuggled, and its spreading throughout the Valley and the traditional lands."
"Should I tell him about Fray and the murder?" He asked.
"No. We don't know if Fray is truly responsible for this," she exclaimed, her denial still plain as day. "Just tell him about the weapons and murder, and tell him we'll check out the prison after we're done looking here."
"Alright," the avian spun around and began flying into the sunsetting sky.
"Okay, so while you're looking around here" - Po began to slip out of the main hall, his black-and-white face now turning green - "and I'll go... have a talk with the servants."
With that, he bolted out of there in a flash, leaving Tigress all alone with the scene of dead, skinned bodies all over the place. In her investigating time, she looked all over the place. No way Fray could have done all of this, and what reasons would he have to leave everything like this? It just couldn't be.
After a long time of searching throughout the Black Market of Li Rai, Viper slithered and leaped along rooftops until she met up with Mantis, landing right beside him. "Any luck?"
"Naw, I saw and heard nothing," the praying mantis replied, shaking his head, "Whoever's in charge of this smuggling thing is pretty good at staying discreet."
"We have to keep looking, Master Shifu is counting on us."
"Okay, okay! Just be quiet and let me listen." Mantis sat and curled his legs, closed his eyes and perched his antennae. In merely a few moments, with sight - the dominant sense - shut down, every other sense became more accurate, specifically his hearing.
All around him, he could hear almost every heartbeat in the market, and as he focused on the verbal socialization all around, he could hear every conversation. He breathed silently, listening to several merchants speak loud enough to gather people's attention, and some others speaking in regular and nearly silent voices, on the intention of selling food or illegal spices and drugs.
He listened carefullly, sweeping his attention along the coversations of crime and robberies, until a different subject appeared, "Are you Alu?" asked a silent, suspicious voice, "the one Chief Ho mentioned about getting the modern arms shipment through?"
"Modern arms shipment?" Mantis repeated, as he and Viper looked down below them into the alley, where two figures stood in the shade and out of sight. "This outta be juicy," he whispered to the serpent, as they hid low and eavesdropped on the two cloaked suspects.
"That depends who's asking," said a female raven dressed in a dark cloak.
"I go by Lang, but the name's not important, I'm here for the appointment, to get the arms shipment discretely across China, to the Xi rebel territories," explained the wolf, "are you or are you not the person I'm suppose to see for the job?"
"Well, I am the only person fit for the job, I doubt any other can transport your modern weaponry around without law enforcement knowing. Stashing your crates aboard my cargo ship and simply making my way to Ho's villages is easy, but there's a good question as to why I should. Can you provide an answer?"
The wolf - Lang - reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of coins and jewels, "Will this get the shipment to its destination?"
Alu took the coins and counted them, "Yes, but I can't say they'll get there on time - or without any damage..."
Mantis watched as he sighed and reached into his pocket, "How about this?" he said, pouring twice as much gold in her hands.
"Expect your shipment in well condition and on schedule," she said, smiling as they both turned away from each other and walked away to their devious plan.
Mantis and Viper looked at each other, they had heard the whole thing. "Well, it looks like we've conclude about the modern arms smuggling," the serpent, "we've got to let Shifu know this."
"Wait," the insect hopped in her way, blocking her path, "that's not all we've found out. That Lang character, he's the general of the Lang Shadow Army, and he just so happens to be delivering a shipment of modern weaponry to the rebels. That's big news, don't you want to find out more?"
"What more is there to find out?"
"Just think about it, we now know that the Xi rebels and the Lang Shadow Army are involved in something, don't you wanna find out what it is? Or who else is involved?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, it's obvious something big's happening, and the Lang Shadow Army and Xi rebels are definitely conspirators for some alliance and some cause, I want to know what it all is and who the other conspirators are. Don't you?"
"Well, yeah... but where do we go from here?"
"Easy, we know the illegal cargo is here somewhere, and Lang will lead us straight to it," Mantis plotted, "Once we've found it, we'll slip inside a crate, and smuggle ourselves into one of these rebel villages."
"That's pretty smart, Mantis. I'm impressed," Viper said, "Alright, I'll go find Monkey."
"Well, you don't need a master plan to succeed in that; just follow the banana peels..."
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