(19 years later)
It was a bright afternoon, in a small village, there was a hill near it, and on top of it, was a small temple, within a boxed wall surrounding it, with a gate,
Inside the walls, there were two young people, sparring in the centre of the temple yard, one was Gene, now 19 years old, was wearing a black training gi, as for the other one, was a young 14 year old girl,
She had light skin, long brown hair that was tied into a long braid; she had brown-gray eyes and was wearing a red acrobatic clothes that showed her belly button,
The girl's name was Ty Lee, Gene's adopted sister,
Gene was spinning this bo staff over his head and then swings it to the right to Ty Lee, but she quickly jumps back, dodging it, Gene steps forward and thrusted his staff forward but Ty Lee moved her body to the side and curved her back, dodging the staff as it misses her, and she then curves it further and does a back handstand and flips backwards and gets back on her feet, Ty Lee then threw her right palm at Gene, but he blocks it with his staff, Ty Lee then quickly threw a barrage of open palm attacks at Gene, but he blocks each attack with his staff, using great speed, Gene then thrusted his staff at Ty Lee, but she side-steps and grabs hold of the staff and then pulls on it, and delivers a right shoulder tackle, hitting Gene, making him let go of the staff and stumble a bit but quickly recovers, as he turned to look at Ty Lee.
Ty Lee gave Gene a playful smile as she twirls the staff around, playfully as before her drives the staff into the ground and then jumps up and lands on the other end of the staff, putting her right hand on it and balancing her whole body perfectly on it.
"Ooo, it's like we're dancing together, big brother!" Ty Lee said to Gene, smiling at her bother.
But Gene gave Ty Lee a serious look, "Take this more seriously, Ty Lee, Father put me in charge of your training, you should be more considerate." Gene tells Ty Lee,
Ty Lee then gives Gene a bored look, as she bent her right arm and launches herself off the staff and she lands on her feet, Gene walks over and takes his staff back, pulling it out of the ground.
Ty Lee then got into a readied stance, as did Gene, the two siblings stared at each other, before Gene made the first move as he charges at Ty Lee, and swings the staff at Ty Lee, but she leaps up and dodges the staff and then thrusted both her legs forward and delivers a double kick, but Gene quickly lifted his staff up and blocks her kicks, Ty Lee pushes herself off and back flips and lands on her feet, Gene ran to her, as she did the same, Gene held the staff with both hands and swung it, but Ty Lee quickly gets on her knees and slides and moves her head back, dodging passed Gene's staff, Ty Lee quickly gets back on her feet, and turned to face Gene.
"Enough!" The sound of a man was heard, which gets Ty Lee and Gene's attention, as they stopped sparring as they turned to look at where the voice came from.
The voice came from a 38 year old man, who was quite tall and had a very muscular build, with short wavy unkempt black hair, he was wears traditional Chinese clothing that was green, this man was Lee Pyron, master of the temple and Gene and Ty Lee's father.
Lee walked into the ring with a serious look on his face, as he looked at Ty Lee, "Your brother is right, Ty Lee, you treat your training like a game, you should take a battle more seriously." Lee tells his daughter,
Ty Lee looked at Lee with slightly sadden look, "But training with Gene is no fun, Father," She tells Lee, acting innocent,
Lee sighs frustrated, as he rubbed his temple with his right hand, before turning to look at Gene, "Gene, where is your brother? He was supposed to help you with Ty Lee's training." Lee asked Gene,
Gene looked at his father, with an annoyed look, "Likely asleep in that tree again," He told him on Espio's whereabouts,
Lee sighed in frustration, as he turned and walked to the exit, walking passed a 16 year old boy, who was wearing a loose green monk robe, had short green hair, this boy's name was Hiyoshi, Li's apprentice,
(A/N: For some of you who don't know, this character is Hank from part 2 of Rise of the 10 Rings, I'm changing the name to his Japanese dubbed name to fit with the time era)
Hiyoshi was sweeping the path that Lee walked passed him,
Walking outside of the temple, Lee walks over to a tall tree that was near the temple wall, he looks up it, with an angered expression,
Laying on a tree trunk, laying on his back, fast asleep, was a anthropomorphic purple chameleon with a yellow horn between his gold eyes, his muzzle and the heart-shaped pattern on his torso were tan in color, he has a ridge of three black spikes going down his spine and a coiled tail he was wearing dark purple shoes with black accents, metal-reinforced arm bracers, and white gloves with dark purple pads on the backs, around his wrists and ankles are bandage-wrapped cuffs with gold studs on the lower bands.
This chameleon was Espio,
Espio had the back of his head resting on his arms, as he slept,
Lee was annoyed at seeing his other son lazing around, as he looked down at the base of the tree and then delivers a powerful left kick, that shook the entire tree, that immediately woke Espio, as he awoke with a look of surprise and confusion, as he loses balance and falls off the trunk and falls face-first into the ground.
Espio pushes himself up as he looked up and sees Lee, who had a disappointed scowl on his face, as he looked down at his son.
"Wasting the day, sleeping in that tree again," Lee told Espio, with a serious tone of voice,
Espio rolled his eyes as he gets up and dusted himself off, "I was only taking a break from Ty Lee's training for only a moment." Espio said to his father, with a straight face,
Lee narrowed his eyes at Espio, "I put you and your brother in charge of overseeing and training your sister, but nearly every time I see her training, you are never around." Lee reminded Espio, as he crossed his arms,
Espio then began to walk off, with a grim look on his face, "If I remember, I didn't agree on training Ty Lee..." He tells Lee,
"As her older brother, you should be honored and happy to do it for Ty Lee, but instead you shirk nearly all of your responsibilities, wasting energy and your family's dependents on you, does that mean nothing to you, Espio?" Lee explained to his son, wanting him to understand his responsibilities to his family.
Espio stopped walking and turned around to face Lee, with a emotionless expression, "That means everything to me, but ever since Gene and I were babies, the villain and valley has had nothing but peace, it seems pointless to make us train Ty Lee skills she never use." He explained to Lee, bitterly,
"To be prepared for a possible fight is not pointless, if you forget that the valley has thieves, bandits and all sources of creatures, it may not seem like much to you, Espio, but I only had the safety of my children at heart." Lee retorted back at Espio,
Espio was annoyed by that, "I'm not a child, you've trained me to be a best fighter in the valley, but you never let me use those skills on those bandits at all, you only make me just train, study and waste away in the temple, I've never even seen the outside of the valley!" Espio ranted at his father,
Then, a hand is reached in and placed on Espio's left shoulder, which made him turn to look behind him, as the hand belonged to Gene, who gave his brother a serious look,
"Mother wants you, Ty Lee and I to go to the market to get food for dinner..." Gene tells Espio, with a calm tone of voice,
Espio looked at Gene, with a grim look, before shaking his hand off his shoulder and walking away in a huff,
Gene turned to Lee, with a straight face, "I'll talk to him," He said to his father, assuring that he'll talk some reason into Espio, as Gene turned and walked away,
Lee walked his sons walk away, as he had a scowl on his face,
"Are you two at it again (?)" The sound of a woman's voice was heard, as Lee turned around and sees a woman,
A 35 year old women with short black cropped hair and amber eyes, as she was wearing a cheongsam (A high-necked, closefitting dress), this woman was Lin, Lee's wife and Gene, Ty Lee and Espio's mother.
She looked at her husband with a calm and gentle smile on her face, "Espio was asleep in his tree again (?) Lin asked Lee,
Lee still had a serious scowl on his face, as he watches his sons walk away, "He never listens, he's undisciplined, he wastes his time and energy on sleeping in a tree!" He ranted in anger,
Lin walks up to Lee, putting her arms around his left arm, and smiles at her husband, as he turned to look at her, "Because ever since the day Espio learned to walk, you've been treating him like a soldier than your son." She tells Lee,
Lee looked confused on what she said, "What? I haven't done that," He retorts,
"You make him train every day, you hardly let him outside of the temple, and you hover over him." Lin listed down,
Lee still had his serious look, before he calms down a bit, as he had a look of somber,
Now in the village, walking through the busy market, Espio, Gene and Ty Lee were walking, observing the stands to which food they need.
As they were walking, Gene turned to look at Espio, with a straight expression, "Why do you feel the need to be neglectful to your responsibilities when you know it makes Father furious?" Gene asked Espio,
Espio had a serious look, "Maybe because that every time I do my responsibilities, Father will just pick apart the effort, saying that it wasn't good enough or that I didn't do it right, so I'd figured not to waste the effort." Espio explained to Gene, with a dull tone of voice,
"Putting effort into your family is not a waste, Brother, you should take more notice on that you waste your efforts on shirking off everything." Gene tells Espio, with a concerned face,
Espio narrowed his eyes at his brother, before turning to face forward, "I feel like I'm wasting my efforts just being at home, all our lives, we've never gone outside of the valley, never seen what's out there, Father found me in another land, yet he's hardly ever tells me about where I came from." Espio tells Gene,
Gene looked at his brother, with a understanding expression on his face, he has never ventured outside of the valley, and there was a part of him that wished to see beyond this village, but Lee has told them that outside the valley was bandits, thieves and dangerous creatures.
Ty Lee then puts her right arm around Gene, pulling her big brother close to her, as she had a bright smile,
"Enough with all of the 'Poor me's', if you both had forgot, that village festival is in six days! It's going to be the best day ever!" Ty Lee tells her two older brothers, excited for a upcoming festive.
Espio and Gene were less than enthusiastic than their overly positive little sister, the festival comes every year, to Gene and Espio it wasn't a big deal if you lived in the village as long as they have.
Espio sighed, as he turned to look at Ty Lee, with a straight face, "The festival comes every year, Ty Lee, what makes this year's any different?" He asked Ty Lee,
Ty Lee looked at Espio, "Mother says that I'm old enough to let a boy ask me to the festival!" She tells him,
Gene raised his left eyebrow at his sister, "Anyone asking?" He asked, wondering if anyone has asked Ty Lee to the festival.
Ty Lee turned back to Gene, with a confused look, "Not really, for some reason, a lot of the boys are just avoiding me?" She said, curious on why many of the boys in the village have been avoiding her,
Then walking up to Ty Lee, was a boy with a hopeful look on his face, "Uh, hi, Ty Lee," He greeted her, which causes her to stop and look at the boy,
Ty Lee smiled at the boy, "Hi," She greeted him back,
The boy smiled gentle, "I've wanting to ask you something..." He was about to say something, but then, as Ty Lee had a bright smile on her face, but sliding from behind her, was Espio and Gene, as they two of them had dark looks, as their eyes were glowing bright red, as they glared with piercing intensity.
Gene and Espio knew he was going to ask Ty Lee to the festival, and they quickly when into 'Overly-Protective Big Bother' Mode, the boy sees them and was quickly afraid, as he looks back at Ty Lee, with a nervous expression.
"... Uh... Actually, never mind..!" The boy said, scared and quickly turned around and ran away.
Leaving Ty Lee standing there, with a confused look, as she turned to look at her brothers, who quickly puts on straight faces,
"You see, usually boys won't leave me alone, I don't know what's happening," Ty Lee tells them, completely oblivious that Espio and Gene are scaring off all the boys.
Gene shook his head as he walks ahead, "You should focus more your studies; there are more important things than a festival." Gene tells Ty Lee with a straight face,
But then he looks up ahead, and he suddenly stops and sees, at a vegetable stand looking through the produce, was a 18 year old woman, who had long black hair that was tied into two braided locks, grey eyes, as she wore a dark green, plain Hanfu.
The girl's name was Jin, a friend of Espio and Gene since they were children,
As Jin was looking through the vegetables, Gene watched her from a far, with a entranced look on his face, as he just obverses her from every angle, completely focused on Jin.
Espio and Ty Lee notices this and Espio walked up to his brother, with a smirk on his face, "I see that the more important thing to you is admire Jin from afar (!)" Espio tells Gene, joking a bit,
Ty Lee jumps up and lands on Gene's back, wrapping her arms around her brother's neck and gave him a smile, "You're hoping to ask Jin to the festival!" Jin teased Gene, as she and Espio knows that Gene has always liked Jin ever since they were children.
Gene quickly snaps out of his trance and looked at his brother and sister, putting on a straight face, "Well... I mean... we know that Jin's been looking forward to the festival all year, it would be nice to accompany her to it..." Gene explains to them, plainly,
Espio crossed his arms as he looked up at Gene, with a smirk on his face, "Well, if that's the case, might I suggest a crazy idea to you, talking to is a better alternative than staring at (!)" Espio tells Gene, joking but also suggesting talking to Jin instead of staring from a far.
Gene stared at his brother, as Ty Lee let's go of him, Gene turns to look at Jin, as she walked off, which made Gene have a look of aspiration, he does have feeling for Jin and he does wish to ask her to go to the festival.
Ty Lee and Espio looked at their older brother, Gene sighs as he gives his siblings a small smile as he began to walk off, to continue getting food for dinner, while Espio and Ty Lee turned to look at each other and smiled, as they ran up to Gene to walk beside him.
(A/N - I set this story up and haven't touch on it for three years, like I say, I would put more focus into this story and Secret of Terra, I'll put spare time to Unity, but I'll put 70% focus in this story and Secret of Terra for a while, it took a while to get a cast of characters that were of Chinese origin but I feel like this cast is a good one.
(Please like, comment, give feedback and review, thank you)