Thud!

The wind was knocked out of Po the moment he hit the ground. A second later Tigress landed flat on his belly, adding to the pain already assaulting the panda's body. Stars danced in front of Po's eyes, and it took a few moments for him to regain his senses enough to lift his head to look at the feline.

"Sorry." Tigress's voice sounded pained as she slid off of Po.

Po took a few deep breaths and painfully got to his feet. He tilted his head upwards to look up at the crack they had just fallen through. They must have fallen about sixty feet. Po thought that they were lucky that they had bumped on the ragged walls several times on their way down, even if they were covered in cuts and bruises. He could barely make out Viper's head as she stared into the hole, frantically calling Po and Tigress's names.

"Viper! We're okay!" Po called up.

"Oh thank god!" He barely managed to hear her say. "Don't worry, I'll get help!"

"No!" Tigress yelled. She was leaning against a rock in a sitting position. "It's too dangerous to try to go back down the mountain by yourself! Stay where you are and we'll try to find a way out ourselves!"

"Alright! Let me know if you need anything!"

"Hey Viper!" Po called. "I wouldn't mind a tofu take-out!"

"Not until we get back home in one piece!" Viper called. "Can you see a way out?"

Po looked at his surroundings, or what he could make out: aside from the shaft of daylight shining through the hole, there wasn't much light. They were in a narrow cavern, surrounding by ragged walls coated in ice so that the air itself seemed to have taken on a pale blue color. Like a corridor, the crevasse appeared to go in both directions. Which one they took would have to be decided between themselves.

Po turned his attention to Tigress. She was still on the floor.

"Tigress, are you okay?"

"Yeah." Tigress replied dismissively. "I'm just not as padded as you are."

"You're not hurt are you?" Po knelt down beside her.

"No, I'm just a little sore." This time Tigress meant to reassure him. "Just give me a minute."

"Tigress, there are two paths we can take." Po said. "One of them might lead to a way out. Do you think we should split up?"

"No, it's too risky." Tigress said. "None of us should be alone, ever."

"In that case, let's check the left path first." Po said. "Can you walk?"

"Of course I can!" To prove it, Tigress got to her feet… and staggered. Po grabbed her arms as she instinctively reached out for something to steady herself.

"Tigress!" Po exclaimed, now convinced that Tigress was seriously hurt.

"It's my leg." Tigress muttered, either not noticing or not caring that she was gripping his arms in turn. "I knocked it a few times when we were bouncing off the darn walls."

"Is it broken?" Po attempted to ease her back to the ground, but she stubbornly remained standing.

"No, it's just bruised like everywhere else." Tigress said. "Once it stops throbbing I'll be able to walk normally again."

"Well for now, leave any acrobatics to me." Po replied. "Now let's find a way out of here."

"One minute." Tigress pulled off her pack and rummaged through it. After a minute she scowled and pulled out some twisted metal.

"Crap, the lantern's bust." She muttered and tossed the ruined lantern aside. "Po's where's your pack?"

"It sorta flew out my paws when I was falling." Po sighed. "I think it's still up there with Viper."

"Get her to toss it down." Tigress said. "My matches are still intact."

A minute later, Viper had tossed down the lantern. Tigress carefully set it alight, and suddenly the icy blue atmosphere had turned a warm orange.

"That's better." Tigress said. She winced when she put weight on her bruised leg. "Po, let's get moving. We have to get back to the surface before nightfall."

Together, they cautiously made their way through the narrow cavern. The ground was as rough and ragged as the walls, meaning that for every three steps at least one of them tripped. Tigress held the lantern out in front of her with one arm, the other gripping the wall for support, as her leg continued to ail her. Po, meanwhile was wincing in pain from the numerous stubbed toes he accumulated as he walked.

"Gosh darn it!" Po groaned as he struck another rock. "Not the little piggy who had none!"

"What?" Tigress stopped in her tracks, rubbing her shin.

"Just a weird rhyme my dad sung to me when I was a cub. Pretend you didn't hear that." Po replied with a flush of his cheeks. "How's your leg?"

"No change." Tigress said. She propped herself against the wall as she said this.

"I think you should rest that leg for a bit." Po said. "I don't think all this walking around on a crappy path is helping."

"Po, we have to get out of here." Tigress said firmly.

"I know that!" Po replied. "But we've been walking for half an hour and already you look like you're about to topple over. Maybe we should sit down for a bit."

"Po, no!" Tigress snapped, and she resumed walking. After ten steps through the cavern, which by now was so narrow Po had to squeeze through, before realizing that Po hadn't moved. She turned back to him with a questioning look. In the light of the lantern, she could see that his arms were crossed.

"Tigress, your leg won't get better if you keep pushing yourself." Po replied. "Either we stop for a rest or I'm gonna have to carry you."

Tigress's eyes became slits.

"You… wouldn't… dare."

In answer, Po made a beeline for her. Tigress leapt into a combat stance, only to hiss when the movement sent another throb of pain shooting through her leg. The distraction was all Po needed to get through her defense, wrap his arms around her waist, and lift her onto his shoulder.

"PANDA!" Tigress's voice echoed through the crevasse.

Po ignored her and started walking. Tigress beat her fists against his back in shocked outrage, but she may as well have been trying to smash a diamond.

"Po, put me down! Right now!"

Po didn't even turn his head. Holding her firmly in place with one arm, Po stepped over a particularly large rock, smiling to himself all the while. Ever since he had come to the Jade Palace, Tigress had made it a habit to lift and toss Po around like he was an overstuffed teddy bear and for some reason it felt good to have the tables turned for a change.

"Put me down this second!" Tigress was now trying to kick him in the face with the back of her foot. Po kept walking. Tigress's ears flattened and she clenched her teeth. "ALRIGHT WE'LL STOP FOR A REST! HAPPY?!"

Po stopped walking. Carefully, he set her down on the floor next to the wall. Tigress glared daggers at him, but the panda merely sat down beside her, setting the lantern between them.

"Yes, I am." He said casually. "In more ways than one."


The light disappeared as they fell through the floor.

"CRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRA-!" Mantis hollered, right before he and Crane slammed butts first onto cold flat ground, metal, wood or something else they couldn't tell. Before either of them could breathe, they found themselves sliding along the invisible surface, falling deeper and deeper into the darkness.

"CRANE!" Mantis screamed, his legs unable to gain purchase on the smooth rock. "CRANE!"

"TRY AND GRAB ONTO SOMETHING!" He heard Crane yell, right before the sloped ground disappeared beneath them.

Both men screamed as they tumbled through the abyss.

"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL-"

THUD!

Silence.

"Uhhh…" Mantis was the first to come round. "I am not doing that again. Crane?"

He heard the avian moan somewhere to his right.

"Crane, is that you? I can't see anything!"

"It's me!" Crane said. "Mantis, are you okay?"

"Yeah. I fell on my butt, though."

Mantis got to his feet and cautiously walked forward in the direction of Crane's voice, not daring to hop as he usually did. After eleven steps he collided with a thin vertical pole that felt a lot like Crane's leg. He felt the bird stiffen.

"Mantis, please tell me that was you."

"It's me." Mantis replied. "What, are you scared of ghosts?"

"No! Stop messing around and figure out where we are!"

"Alright, alright…" Mantis turned around on the spot to gaze at his surroundings. There was nothing but pitch black nothingness. "Do you think we should split up?"

"Certainly not!" Crane replied. "We may never be able to find each other again!"

"Then stay still till I find your shoulder!" Mantis retorted irritably. After three hops he managed to find purchase on Crane's narrow feathered shoulder. It wasn't exactly Monkey's broad, easy to rest on shoulder, but until they saw daylight again it would have to do.

"Okay, let's try and find a wall or something." Crane said, and walked forward, holding his wings out in front of him.

Mantis gripped Crane's shoulder with his arms out of fear, eyes staring straight ahead even thought he could see nothing. Never had he imagined that the simple act of walking could be so scary. At that moment, he felt like a stray child who had foolishly wandered into an abandoned tunnel. He wondered if Crane felt the same.

Child.

Mantis let out a yell that made Crane flinch.

"GAH! Crane!"

"What?!"

"Where's Su?!"


Su's injured knee throbbed as she stood up.

"Owww…" Su muttered as she turned around on the spot, trying to find the tiniest pinprick of light in the scary darkness.

Judging from the lack of broken bones, she hadn't fallen very far. She couldn't say the same for Masters Crane and Mantis. She had heard their cries fade into nothingness moments before she blacked out from her fall. She must have fallen onto a ledge or something that kept her from falling deeper with the others.

"Mantis?" She spoke timidly. "Crane?"

Even thought she had whispered, the darkness amplified her voice until it was almost a shout. Su didn't like the darkness. She hated how it blinded her, and often imagined scary monsters lurking in the darkness. What she wouldn't give for the little lantern her parents always hung from their front porch when night fell.

"Please be okay." She whispered, and felt the ground with her paws. It was cold like metal. It was metal. The cub slowly crawled forward.

"Mantis?" She called. Her voice became an echo. "Mister Crane?"

There was no answer.

Su continued to crawl. She slowly put one paw in front of the other, the metal floor or whatever she had landed on smooth and cold beneath her palms. She wanted her mother. Her elbow brushed against something narrow and made of metal. Su felt for the object. She recognized the shape. She quickly grabbed the spyglass and resumed crawling.

Suddenly her paw landed on nothing. Su stiffened. She had reached the edge of whatever she had fallen on. Carefully, she felt for the edge with her paws. It wasn't straight or smooth. It was curved, and lined in what appeared to be thick spikes.

What the heck had she landed on? It couldn't be a balcony or ledge. The rest of the fortress didn't have this kind of architecture.

Wait, what was it I heard Mantis and Crane talk about when I was coming into the room? Something about the machinery going down through the floor? Come to think of it, these spikes feel a lot like cogs.

"A gear." Su whispered as realization dawned.

And a big one. It looks like Mantis and Crane were right about the machinery making up the whole tower. Come to think of it, the floorboards didn't really break when we fell through. It more like… opened. Maybe we stood on a trapdoor or something.

As Su's thought process continued to run, her heart-rate began to slow. Focusing on logic and deduction, two things she thought only adults used, had a calming effect, distracting her from her imagination.

Of course! That's what the trapdoor's for! It's for maintenance! If all the machinery in this tower is connected, one broken gear could stop the whole system. The trapdoor is probably there so someone can reach the broken part of the system and fix it. The machine room is probably the heart of the system, which is why it has really big gears. And if one of those big gears breaks, they would have to make it easy for someone to reach those gears and replace it. And those big gears would be pretty hard to sabotage, so they wouldn't have to worry about that.

Su smiled, a little proud of herself. Reading the old schematics for the training hall during one hot and boring day had paid off after all.

But none of this explains what the system is for. Oh well, I can worry about that later. I should probably get out of here first and try to help Crane and Mantis somehow.

Su remembered how all the little cogs of the gears meshed together in the machinery below the twisting wooden serpents of Tigress's favorite stage of the training course.

If I can find the gear this one's connected with, I might be able to find a way out from there.

Su gripped the edge of the gear with her paws and began shuffling along. It wasn't long before her fingers came into contact with a second line of cogs, meshed with the first.

Su swallowed.

"Okay… you can do this…" Why was she whispering? "It's just like a climbing frame…"

Suddenly she felt the spyglass slip for beneath her arm. She reached out blindly, but there was a small scraping sound as it rolled across the surface and over the edge. Four seconds passed before she heard a tiny clatter below.

"A hundred foot tall climbing frame, crap!" Su muttered.

Terror slowed her movements, but eventually Su managed to safely traverse to the next gear. She crawled towards what she hoped was the center. Sure enough she felt a thick pole and wrapped her arms around it, breathing heavily. It was bad enough that she was having to do this so high up, but in the dark…

"Yeah, maybe I'll get lucky and fall!"


A crappy and not-so-well-written filler chapter, I know.