Chapter 8: A New Mission

After the Turtles' explained to Shifu who April and Casey were and established that they weren't a threat, he, Po, and the Five welcomed them to the Jade Palace.

Now, the Turtles led April and Casey to a private part of the bunkhouse, where they then proceeded to explain everything that had happened.

To say April and Casey were surprised was an understatement.

"So let me get this straight," Casey started, "you guys were going out on patrol when you suddenly woke up in this dimension which you guys had been summoned to before…"

"Yep." Donnie answered.

"After-which, you met a panda named Po, who you later learned is this prophesied hero called the 'Dragon Warrior' and that you four are his legendary guardians…" April continued.

"Uh-huh." Raph nodded.

"And then you guys learned kung fu and helped teach the panda dude how to fight so you guys could fight this crazy snow leopard guy…" Casey added.

"You got it, dawg." Mikey beamed proudly.

"So then you beat this Tai Lung guy with Po and now your heroes of this valley with these other kung fu masters called the Furious Five?" April asked.

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up." Leo stated.

"Not gonna lie, that's pretty dope, yo." Casey gave a fanged grin.

The Turtle's collectively laughed a little at their friend's enthusiasm.

"Yeah, you could say that." Raph snorted.

"Why the heck didn't any of you guys call us?" April asked. "We've been worried sick!"

"Kind of hard to get a signal when you're in another dimension entirely." Donnie pointed out.

"Right." April said, mentally kicking herself for asking such a dumb question. "So, how is it you've been here for months when you've only been gone for over a week in our dimension?"

"Maybe it's that whole time distortion thing like with Dimension X." Mikey suggested.

The others blinked in surprise at the party turtle's suggestion.

"What?" Mikey shrugged. "Just saying."

Before they could continue their conversation the door to the door to the room slid open, revealing Tigress.

"Guys," She spoke seriously, "Master Shifu's calling for all of us to meet him in the courtyard. Says he has urgent news about our next mission."

Leo nodded. "We're on our way. C'mon guys." He said as he, his brothers, April, and Casey headed out of the bunkhouse and towards the courtyard to meet with Shifu, Po, and the Five.

"Are you familiar with the master of Gongmen City?" Shifu asked, holding a messenger scroll in his hand and Oogway's staff in the other.

"You mean Master Thundering Rhino?" Po spoke up.

"Yes." Shifu nodded.

"As in the son of the legendary Master Flying Rhino?" Leo asked, remembering seeing his armor in the Hall of Heroes.

"Yes." Shifu again nodded.

"Ooh, ooh, ooh! And the slayer of the ten-thousand serpents of the Valley of Woe?" Mikey asked excitedly.

"He's dead." Shifu stated.

To say Po, the Turtles, the Five, April, and Casey were shocked was a great understatement. How could this be?

"Oh." Raph said simply.

"That's impossible!" Crane said in disbelief.

Tigress furrowed her brows in agreement. "Rhino's horn defense is impervious to any technique.." She said.

"Well, what if it wasn't a technique?" Donnie suggested. "What if… it was something else?"

"Donatello is correct, this was indeed no technique." Shifu said, turning to face them from his spot at the top of the palace stairs. "Lord Shen has created a weapon that breathes fire and spits metal. And he has allied himself with a new partner that is providing his men with more advanced weaponry. Unless he and this mysterious partner are stopped, this could mean the end… of kung fu."

The Turtles, Po, and the Fives' jaws all hung open at that statement. This day just seemed to keep getting worse and worse… the end of kung fu? They all knew what that meant.

If kung fu was abolished, then Master Oogway's entire legacy would be wiped out, and the innocents of China would be at the hands of the unmerciful.

Po's shoulders sloped forward. "But I just got kung fu!"

"Yeah, us too!" Mikey cried, gesturing to himself and his brothers.

"And now you must save it." Shifu said fiercely, a grave look on his face. He then pointed his late master's staff toward the east horizon. "Go, destroy this weapon, find out who this mysterious partner is, and bring them and Lord Shen to justice!"

Raph scoffed a little. "Yeah, no pressure or anything." He said sarcastically.

"Yeah, let's go!" Po said, about head down the steps when he stopped. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second! How can we do this? I mean, how can we stop something that stops kung fu?"

"Remember, Dragon Warrior, your guardians and your allies will always be by your side. Anything is possible… when you have inner peace."

Without another word, Po, the Turtles, the Five, April, and Casey headed down the steps of the mountain.

As he watched his students and their two friends race down to the village, Zeng came out from the Hall of Heroes, flying down to the top of the thousand steps next to him.

"Zeng," Shifu said to the messenger goose, "I need you to deliver these three messages." He then handed the goose three scrolls.

Zeng looked over each of the three scrolls. "Alright, this one goes to the Lee Da Kung Fu Academy…" He listed the first one before opening the other two.

Upon seeing where the other two scrolls were supposed to go, Zeng's eyes widened slightly.

"Master Shifu…" Zeng spoke. "These two scrolls are supposed to go all the way to… Japan?"

Shifu sighed. "If what I feared is true, we will need all the allies we can get. Now go."

Zeng nodded before bowing. "Yes, Master Shifu. I won't fail you." He then took off into the skies as he went to deliver the messages while Shifu continued to watch his students go.

The people of the village cheered as the Turtles, Po, the Five, April, and Casey leapt down from the rooftops and raced through the streets.

The journey to Gongmen City would likely be one of their longest as they would have to cross hundreds of thousands of miles across China to get there.

"Must be nice getting all the hero worship for once, huh?" Casey asked jokingly as used his roller blades to keep up with them.

Mikey laughed as they ran. "You bet!"

As they ran, Po lightly closed his eyes, breathing in and out. "Inner peace," He murmured, "inner peace, inner peace… peace on!"

For a moment, Po felt a sense of peace as he ran with his friends while the villagers cheered them on.

He felt calm, collected, confident even. Like nothing could stop them…

"Oh, Po!"

… except for maybe his dad as the group all came to a screeching halt outside of Mr. Ping's noodle shop as the elderly goose came out carrying an enormous backpack that was at least twice his size.

"I got your travel bag," Mr. Ping said, setting the backpack down in front of him, the contents of the pack spilling out. "I packed you food for weeks; cookies, buns, vegetables…" He tossed a cabbage into the bag before picking up a small action figure, a Tigress action figure at that. "And I even packed your action figures."

"Ho, hoo hoo!" Monkey chortled, pointing at the action figure teasingly while Raph, Mikey, and Casey snickered.

Tigress simply shook her head, smiling to herself in amusement. She had received many awed and respectful bows from the citizens of the Valley, but had never seen an action figure of herself before. In a weird way, she felt flattered beyond words.

Po blushed slightly in embarrassment. "Oh! Uh, hey, I don't know what those are, never seen them before in my life…"

Tigress quickly pushed the others along, wisely deciding to give Po some private time to say goodbye to his father.

"Dad, you got scratches on my Tigress." Po said, gently taking the Tigress action figure.

"I also packed your paintings of our best times together, just in case you get lonely!" Mr. Ping said, holding out some portraits. "That's me and you making noodles… and that's me and you eating noodles… and that's me giving you a piggy-back ride." He then showed the picture, which was of course, a painting of the elderly goose being crushed under the baby panda. "Isn't that cute… on second thought, I think I'll hang on to this one."

"Hey, uh, they're waiting for me." Po said, gesturing to where the others were.

"Of course, of course…" Mr. Ping sighed. "You have a job to do… far from home… in a strange city, filled with strange people, and strange noodles…" He began breathing heavily as he began to panic. "Facing horrible danger from which you might never return! Don't go, Po!"

"I gotta go!" Po told him. "I'm the Dragon Warrior, it's kinda my job to save kung fu. And if I don't… what am I?"

"You're my son!" Mr. Ping cried.

Po stared at him, opening his mouth to reply, only for nothing to come out as his shoulders slumped forward, his expression crestfallen, which did nothing to reassure the old goose.

"... Right?" Mr. Ping asked nervously.

Before Po could answer, Tigress and Leonardo quickly strode up to him.

"Po, it's time." Tigress told him.

"We need to go now if we're gonna cover as much ground as possible." Leo added.

Po glanced at his adopted father, his expression still downhearted. "Goodbye." He mumbled, to Mr. Ping, slinging the heavy backpack over his shoulders.

As he walked away, Leo and Tigress glanced at Mr. Ping, seeing the worry on his face seeming to worsen the further Po moved away.

"Don't worry, Mr. Ping," Tigress told him with a small reassuring smile, "he'll be back before you can say 'noodles'."

"And we'll do everything we can to keep him safe." Leo added with a grin. "Guardian's promise."

With that, Leo and Tigress turned on their heels to follow their friends.

They were already far enough away that neither of them heard the forlorn goose murmur, "Noodles."

With all of them together now, Po the Dragon Warrior, the Turtles, the Furious Five, April O'neil, and Casey Jones bounded away from the Valley of Peace, and began their long journey toward their ill-fated destination of Gongmen City.