Tigress covered her eyes with her arms as she noticed that Tai Lung have immediately began to become feral. She could feel it through her own fur, and it even passed through a bit of her whiskers, and her heart rate grew in response to the amount of danger she was sensing from his. The others response was just as noticable, mixed amount of fear, curiosity, wonder, and outright annoyance as a whole. But really showed up on most of those expressions was fear; there was no denying that most of them are feeling very afraid of Tai Lung right now, and were wondering what to do about it.

Whoever must be behind this must be the one responsible...yet still... Tigress thought with narrowed eyes as the intensity of Tai Lung's aura began to die down, yet there wasn't the single bit of decrease on the overall threat he posed while like this. She didn't relax for a moment, because she was fully aware that what would happen next would surely be a cause of serious pain for all of them, and they had to bear it for the time being. They must of realized this, because as much as they were surely afraid right now, they didn't back down for a moment.

Tigress didn't know what to think. Because for all intents and purposes, Tai Lung had them all grossly outclassed in more ways than one. She didn't really high hopes for victory, knowing that her brother would inevitably attack them on sight from the amount of killing intent being released from him. And yet they were going to face him anyway. She honestly didn't know weather or not they were brave or foolish. She considered that they were both; they've done stupid things before regardless of their intelligence.

Tai Lung sighed as he lowered his arms, opening his eyes which were perpetually slits now. He smiled as his claws extended from his paws. "Haaaah...haven't felt like this in a long time...never thought have thought that being off my mental leashes would feel so rewarding..." He soon turns towards Tigress, a savage smirk growing on his muzzle. "Hm...Tigress. Why the hostile look? I've simply had my mental restraints...released for the time being...all of this worry and all of this concern...completely gone...now that my mind is clear of doubts, I figured out what my problem was." Tigress didn't respond to him all, simply keeping her trained eyes on him, not willing to abandon her guard for even a moment. "It turns out, it's rather simple. You and Shifu are the biggest emotional roadblocks in my life...the only ones holding me down. So if I simply go ahead and kill the two of you right here and now, then I won't have anymore limitations. I'll be able to ascend my strength to my heart's content."

Tigress immediately noticed that the magic-sensing the unnatural force surrounding him-was not only making him feral, it was also bringing out his darkest emotions, and twisting them into ways that would benefit the one responsible. This is going to be rather problematic for everyone, as she knew that as much as she preferred it, Tai Lung was not joking. That was fine, humor was something Tigress doubted she would ever master. She'd leave that to Monkey. Speaking of Monkey:

"Welp...I see pain and suffering if we try fighting him..." Monkey muttered with a dark laugh while getting into a stance. "And running away isn't really going to help matters, either..."

"He'd probably just hunt us all down and make it even worse..." Crane also muttered while spreading his wings.

"Probably...though that still doesn't make things easier for us...not even a little bit..." Viper narrowed her eyes while hissing slightly.

"Right guys! So here's our current objective...try to stay alive! That's easy enough, right?~" Mantis laughed uneasily while standing atop Crane's hat.

Tigress chuckled to herself. They had no delusions about actually winning this encounter either, yet they were going to try anyway. Supposed she and Po rubbed off on them a little bit.

Tai Lung chuckled as he spreads his arms a little bit. "Hmm...suppose you all won't let me have some heart-to-heart with my dear nephew?~"

"Peng. I need you to stay back." Tigress ordered almost immediately. Peng blinked a bit. While he did consider fighting Tai Lung alongside his Aunt, the intense wave of concern he felt from her gave him several moments to reconsider.

"Come now, sister. Peng's a growing boy...he should be able to make his own decisions.~" That was the only warning Tigress received as Tai Lung appeared right in front of her with a feral grin with his arms swaying a bit. "You oughta quit coddling him.~"

Tigress cross her arms, not fooled by his nonchalant tone of voice in the slightest; she threw a punch that made contact with her crossed arms, but she was sent dragging backwards while making skid marks in the ground. She might not have felt the pain in her arms, but the shock of the blow definitely resonated through her body. She figured as much; though she still needed a few moments to catch her breath, time that her friends graciously provided.

Monkey and Mantis both dashed towards Tai Lung from opposite sides, intending on attacking him simultaneously. Tai Lung chuckled at the effort of the two as the swiftly went up to try and attack him. Effort be praised and graded highly. Success, however...that was dictated as a fail, the moment Tai lung swifty dodges both of their admirably swift kicks; he then responded with one of his own. A swift spin kick while they were both still airborne, striking the, both and sending them flying in two different directions.

Monkey landed painfully on his side, coughing slightly as he tried getting up while wiping slight blood from his mouth. Yup...I hate being right about things like this. Pain and suffering...one kick and I feel like my arm's gonna snap in half...oooohhhhh this is gonna be fun, oooohhh joy...

Alright...can the world stop spinning for a few seconds, that'd be great... Mantis lamented having thought that, but that's exactly how it felt. All the wind being knocked out of him and left him struggling to breathe.

Viper slithered swiftly up to Tai Lung, who just began noticing her. He was quick to jump upwards and come back down for a heavy axe kick to crush her head. She just barely manages to dodge it by swerving her head to the side, before she makes her way around is leg and across his chest, quickly wrapping up his arm while see also coiled around his neck, and began constricting him. His eyes widened briefly in surprise as the pressure around it was more than he expected.

"You need to calm down, Tai Lung! I don't want to do this to you!" Viper pleaded, but she didn't let up on her grip.

The snow leopard gave her credit. Fu Xi had certainly taught her well. Once the prey is caught, never let up until they're unconscious or dead. She definitely has the iron coil for it, as he was in serious danger of suffocating.

However...

It was simple enough to do the uncoiling himself. The paw she had wrapped up unsheathed it's claws and clamped down onto her body. Viper yelped from the pain, temporarily disrupting her focus, which was all he needed. In less than a second, he spun around enough in the opposite direction as she uncoiled, then was sent flying face-first into the nearest pile of debris.

The next one involved being blasted by a gale of wind, which was the first attack to send him flying a considerable distance away. Though regardless, he was able to land on his feet like the feline that he is. Crane soon caught up to him, hovering above him while flapping his wings.

"Tai Lung, can you just listen for a second?! We're your friends! The way you're attacking us doesn't really spell out 'friendly'! Whoever or whatever is doing this to them, you need to fight it off, before you do something regrettable!"

"I've done plenty of things that can be considered 'regrettable'. Since I'm like this, I might as well consider adding to the list." Tai Lung grinned before he crouched down for a moment, then suddenly leapt upwards, closing the distance between himself and Crane in no time at all. The latter squawked in surprise, but quickly recovered as Tai Lung was intent on striking at him midair. He attempted to kick at the snow leopard, though the snow lepoard shifted to the side and grabbed onto the leg. Grinning madly, he began speeding back towards with Crane frantically flapping his wings, until they both landed, with Tai Lung slamming Crane through the ground, leaving a crevice within the place of impact.

Tigress leapt towards Tai Lung and struck him in the chest with a palm strike while he was still grinning over Crane's crevice, and was sent skidding back a few feet like he had sent her. But she didn't let up from there, for she pounced again. Tai Lung easily caught it, and then began almost casually deflecting all of the other rapid punches coming his way, while Tigress' fierce eyes locked onto Tai Lung's calm yet bloodthirsty ones. After a moment of indulging her for a bit he caught her fist again, lightly twisting it back towards her. To her credit, she didn't appear deterred by this delay at all. It amused him slightly, causing him to raise an eyebrow.

To his surprise, she used her other paw to unsheathe her claws and jabbed all of them into his chest. He roared from the attack and his own focus disrupted, which Tigress took advantage of; she clenched her other fist and punched him in the abdomen, causing him to double over and leave him vulnerable to a vicious headbutt that caused a bit of ringing in his ears. He held his head and stepped back a bit while stepping backwards to regain his bearings, while Tigress glared towards him, not minding the blood on her paw at all. While Tai Lung was dazed, the others began to recover. Monkey and Mantis returned with slight limps, Viper uneasily slithers up to the others with a soft hiss, and Crane pulled himself out of the ground while coughing up a bit of dirt.

Besides those things, they were mostly fine.

Tai Lung wipe"d blood from his mouth while ignoring the wound on his chest, grinning after having time to acknowledge the situation as well as his sister's abilities, and even more impressed by her friend's willingness to stand against him despite his superiority. "Alright then. This is a rather impressive turn of events...you all are definitely worst my time after all...however, don't you wish to face me on your own, Tigress? Finally overcome your brother with your own sense of skill and strength...?"

"I'm not falling for that." Tigress stated strongly as she stands strong, lightly adjusting her scarf while her comrades stood alongside her. "The 'Furious Five' is a team name for a reason. Fighting together is not a requirement for us, it's our nature."

"Plus, a one-on-one with anyone of against you is kind of suicide." Monkey shrugged, earning a tail-slap from Viper.

"Ah. I see. Your honor towards camaraderie is vastly superior to your honor as a warrior. Not many wish to boast that. In that case...I'll stop pulling my punches...~"

Shifu chose not to waste any time making his way to the Emperor, because he was more than concerned about what Pai Mei might actually do to him. His personal history with Pai Mei coincides with him attempting to murder the Emperor and prove himself to be the greatest Kung Fu Master of all time. Obviously he was incredibly deep into his hubris, to the point of freely letting it blind him. Though the moment hat hubris began endangering others, that was time for him to be taken down. And Shifu was the one to do so, and put him under arrest. But now, it looks like he got out and is causing even more harm to everyone than ever before. Which is why he's taking it upon himself to take care of the threat before it worsens.

As if things weren't already tense enough, I'm surely becoming slightly too old for this chaos...but then again, I'm always surrounded by you who seem to enjoy basking in exactly for the sheer joy of it...I suppose that explains Crane's sarcastic approaches to matters such as this...suppose they've been rubbing off on me in ways I'd rather not admit. But I can't really think about that right now, I have to get to the Emperor as quickly as possible-

Shifu's eat twitched for just a second. That was more than enough time for him to stop in his tracks, just enough for him to avoid a kick that smashed a large crater into the ground. He narrowed his eyes as he reacted quickly, blocking an incoming kick with one of his own. He narrowed his eyes as he noticed the one who was heading to attack him. It was his desired target. He jumped away from the opponent in question, sliding back while looking defensive.

"Pai Mei..."

"Ahaha...you're still here, Shifu. How fortuitous!" Pai Mei cackled as his mustache danced along with the wind, as well as Shifu's cloak. "Thank goodness for that! It's great that you haven't already been killed in the explosion! I knew you'd find a way!" He narrowed his eyes. "I wouldn't want to throw away my chance of killing you, with my own two paws!" Pai Mei leaped forth as he struck at him with him with glowing paws. Shifu immediately knew the danger, and avoided the strikes at all costs. He retaliated with a skyward kick right when Pai Mei hovered over him. He landed on his feet while wiping his mouth away. "Your skills haven't dulled...good. Had you grown weaker, the victory wouldn't have been sweeter...but it would have been sweet enough."

"You're causing so much unnecessary chaos for petty revenge?!"

"Oh, it's not just MY revenge! My partners have their own reasons for doing this, and most of them d involve killing the Emperor and his family. But even if it hadn't been part of the plan, I would have done it anyway!~" Pai Mai grinned as he charged at Shifu again. "Because it would have been moore than enough to draw the likes of you off and kill you! And you've actually been making friends outside of your jurisdiction...after it's been completely destroyed, of course."

"I will not be guilt-tripped by that tragedy again. The best I can do is simply take responsibility and protect and lead the youths under my care." Shifu responded as the two exchanged fists again, though he was caught off-guard by Pai-Mei smacking him upside the head with his tail. Shifu recovered on his paws, though it was interrupted via kick to the back, sending him back once again. Shifu recovered regardless while balancing on his paws and kicking him in the head. Pai Mei jumped away from him and vice versa. "You won't crush me with words alone. In fact...yu won't be crushing me at all. Not with ambition as weak and petty as yours."

"Call my ambition weak, shall you?" Pai Mei cackled as he struck out at his hated enemy once again, a chaotic gleam in his eyes. "You seriously expect me to be swayed away from my desired revenge from something like that?"

"No of course not. You're far too mentally unstable to back down from anything regarding something like this." Shifu narrowed his eyes while standing strong. "On seriousness, why is it that you're working for whoever is responsible for this? What is their intense grudge with the Emperor? What has he done to whoever is responsible and why does the grudge run this deeply to place the entire Imperial City in danger?!"

"Do you truly wish to know? Let's just say that the fellow leader is someone who was deeply wrong by the Emperor, and they do wish for their retribution in the most painful of ways. I'm surely fine with them killing the Emperor, so long as they let me kill YOU. And they COMPLIED!~" Shifu immediately dodged as Pai Mei kicked at him. This one was swifter than the rest, and Shifu was only able to dodge it by half a second. Though Pai Mei smirked despite missing the kick. "And that's exactly what I shall do!~"

Shifu blinked in confusion, until he looked at his side to see at least three glowing paw marks on his right side, and six on his left which began glowing brighter every second. His eyes widened as he noticed this mostly immobilizing him, though he did struggle or several seconds while Pai Mei watched from a distance with a sadistic grin of glee. Shifu groaned, knowing that he would have no choice but to brace for the pain, there wasn't much he could do about it.

Five-Fingered Blast Punch...curses!

A blinding explosion engulfed Shifu, and succeeded in yet another large crater within the city that took up a majority of the streets. The smoke cleared as Pai Mei grinned triumphantly while looking into the crater, where Shifu lies collapsed, his cloak in tatters, and his eyes went blank white. Smoke emitted from his body, and burning pain pulsed throughout his body.

...No...I...I mustn't give in...I can't sink into the darkness here...Tigress...Tai Lung...Po...Fenghuang...they...need me...I must...get up...but I...

...Fufie Stay with me, please! You can't give in now! SHIFU!

Mei Ling...no...I definitely can't fall...not when we just...I...

...His heart stopped beating.

"Should be getting closer to the tower by now..." Po huffed as he was carrying Mr. Ping over towards the Emperor's Palace, where he was sensing the most disturbance throughout the entire city. It was quite risky for him to bring his father with him, especially since he didn't have his prosthetic anymore, leaving him with only one arm. Knowing this, Mr. Ping latched onto his back as best as he could so that Po didn't have to push himself too hard. Po has already been through a lot at this point, he didn't really need this added to his list of problems. "I don't know what's going on, but we've gotta get to that Palace! The feeling's not goin' away, so I wanna see what's causin' it as soon as I can!"

"I don't get it, but I'm trusting you, son!" Mr. Ping nodded while looking over Po's head. They were getting closer to the Palace, not really knowing what might be ahead for them, except that they were going to approach it with seemingly reckless abandon. Unfortunately those that usually do the rational thinking aren't nearby, so they were temporarily on their own for the time being. As they were slowly gaining on the Palace, heading right into it's courtyard, his eyes widened as he briefly tapped Po's shoulder. "Po! Look ahead!"

"What is it?" Po asked as he too looked ahead. He looked surprised when he could see his friend Lu Kang tied to some strange chair with an even stranger contraption connected to his head. Lu Kang looked confused and maybe even scared for everyone involved in this, and was gravely concerned for their safety. "Lu Kang? What hap-" He began, but his eyes widened as he noticed that Shen was lying a few feet to the side, looking charred and beaten to near-death. He immediately made his way towards him and wrapped his one arm under his head, lifting it up. "Shen...? SHEN! What happened?! Who did this to you?!" He asked rapidly, lightly shaking him and hoping he would answer soon.

"...Panda...?" Shen groaned as he cracked open one uninjured eye to see the bear standing over him with concern in his eyes, and a lack of prosthesis. "You...bloody moron...I just got you that thing and you already let it get destroyed...?"

"Nevermind that, I'm more worried about you! Who did this to you, buddy? C'mon, we need to get you and Lu Kang outta here-"

"I'm afraid that's not going to happen, Panda."

Po lifted his head and turned around to see a siamese cat standing a few feet behind him with her hood finally pulled back, her blue eyes staring into his jade ones as the solar eclipse officially began in full. She sighed while shaking her head, which made Po narrow his eyes.

"I'll admit, I'm impressed with you. Many of those with weaker wills immediately fell under my spell. I didn't sense much IQ from you so I thought that brainwashing you would be easy. But it turns out that even among those decades older than you, your willpower is truly and surely monstrously large. Unfortunate that it will not help you."

"Who are you? What do you want? And why did you beat up my friend?" Po asked seriously as he gently sets Shen down and turns his full attention towards the opposing enemy, readjusting his scarf. "What's your game, Ms...uh...Miss...what's your name again?"

"My name is Pang Bing. As for what I'm doing and why I'm doing it? Well, I could kill you. Or I could tell you my whole plan and reasoning coming up with it and then kill you." The one known as Pang Bing pretended to think over it, until she chuckled and shook her head. "No. I think I'll settle for simply killing you.

"...That escalated quickly." Po commented nonchalantly. His eyes widened as he suddenly picked Shen up and jumped away from a powerful blue blast that created a crater within the ground. Po again sets Shen down while glaring back at Pang Bing. "Hey! Don't you think you hurt him enough for one day?! Leave him alone already!"

"I don't need to read your mind to know that this man used to be your enemy. The one who personally lead the slaughter of your people because of something he feared might happen. And yet here you stand before him, defending him from any more harm." Pang Bing narrowed her eyes. "Why...would you defend someone like that...?"

Po narrowed his eyes. "Look, all I see is someone hovering over the body of one of my beaten friends, and that's the only thing I'm focused on right now! Those questions you just asked have nothing to do with it!"

"...Fine. I don't wish to understand your foolish way of thinking. You feel like a complete man-child and yet I cannot bring you under my control, like many others, while you should have been one of the easier ones to brainwash. That's fine though. Truly. I'm a woman of improvisation." Pang Bing snarled as her eyes began to glow and she began levitating in midair, glaring down on the panda.

"Panda...exercise caution...she's an incredibly powerful mystic..." Shen coughed as Mr. Ping hopped off Po's back and tended to Shen, dragging him away to a somewhat safer distance.

"So she has some special powers? Thanks for the heads-up, buddy." Po nodded as he prepared to fight. One-armed or not, Po wasn't backing down from this. I don't really get her because she's definitely not gonna tell me. But she's seriously intending on hurting everyone in the city, even outright kill most of them. I gotta take her down ASAP!

Pang Bing slowly raised her paw as her eyes glared a brighter blue. "Very well. If you will not be my slave, then I have a far more efficient role for you...as a corpse."

As usual, this took far too long to get out. Mostly due to laziness or some bits or writers block, or my focus simply being on other stories. Bleh.

But one thing that CAN be assured, is that the next two chapters will be big in many ways. And you'll expect a great showing from our cast doing their best, because each of their battles are FAR from being over. Not to worry, the promised moment will be coming soon. And they'll be pretty long chapters too, so hopefully that'll somewhat mitigate things.

...

...

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...By the time this battle ends, the foretold Dragon Warrior will finally be born.