"Uuuuugghhh!" Her joints popped as she lurched her train of displaced vertebrae.
For the first time, the freshly trampled snake wanted no more than to throw the nearest item to the nearest wall for no apparent reason other than to allay frustration. Of course, she couldn't-because even when inside a den filled with remorseless souls, where murder was uneventful; where no one, absolutely no one, had the decency nor the slightest effort to help a girl like her; and where any poor, mistreated creature her size would get routinely stomped and flattened by large, dumb, attentiveness men…!
She was still a mannerly lady and that must remain unchanging.
The snake delved again into her meticulous search. Minutes counted slowly as she reworked through every corner of the den-another, she had a progress-less term.
Her determination began to defile, until she caught one lucky break. Across the floor—the people rifted like a parted sea, and through this clear and momentary configuration, was a clear shot of the rabbit.
A beautiful, small petite rascal with a yellow apron and monstrous little face! In two hasty launches, Viper reached the fellow, and wrapped herself around her like a rope winding a reel. The rabbit had not budged from the onslaught nor did she fight the snake's hold-only limped there and waited for the farce to subside.
"I got you! I finally got you!" The snake yelled feebly.
She snorted. "Yeah, and so did three other people before you."
The thrill of it all ended and careened Viper back to reality. "Wait." She released the bunny "What?"
"You're one of those Jade Palace warriors right?"
"Yes. Yes I am."
The rabbit stood, dusting herself. "You're late, ridiculously late. I'll tell you that. On the bright side, I can show you where your friends are."
"That would be nice." Viper slumped.
She launched a finger south. "Over there, to the left-no, no you're looking at the wrong left, lady. See that counter? You walk by it, till you see this big, big hole by the wall. It's rectangular shape. That's our stockroom. You hear me? Stockroom. There's a sign above it that says that, and that's where they're at."
For all the rabbit's painful baby talk through the guidance, the snake struggled to find anything across the optically noisy plane. "Do you mind leading me there?"
"Hell yes I do. I'm done for the night." The rabbit began walking away. "I've been twice tackled by two of you dink-headed adolescents. One of your little birds snatched me off the ground and manhandled me in the air like I'm the villainous wart you're all so stupidly eager to catch." Her voice faded off. "I'm all banged up because of you morons. And I'm on your side people!"
"We're sorry." Viper hastily parted. "And thank you!"
Pushing through disorderly feet, the snake pursued some straightway direction in the indicated locality. She squealed. Yes! As promised, Viper soon saw the definite figure of Crane and, coming closer, spotted Mantis perched by the bird's foot. Their heads were stretched inside the cusps of the darkened entrance, so focused that they had not noticed her reach the vicinity until she strained a cough.
"Viper! There you are." Crane whispered. "Did you happen to bring Monkey with you?"
"No. I'm all alone." Stealing a glance at the entrance, she too deliberated what it withheld. "Fill me in?"
Crane fiddled with his queue. "Nothing much to say. Tigress is talking to someone—Mantis says a bear. Turns out the rabbit was out there only by proxy."
She nodded. "So any more gives about our mission?"
"Well. Beats me. I half don't know what's going on." He scratched deep into his chest with his talons. "Sorry."
Me too. Viper shriveled in a timid laughter. "That's totally fine Crane."
"It's actually not." Mantis spoke. "We're incompetent. No doubt."
The recipient warriors glared at the bug.
Crane's eyes suddenly widened elsewhere. "As much as I want to insult you for saying that, I think we have to shut up now. Someone's coming out."
"Ah uh…" In a freakout, Mantis blurted. "Act normal!"
They collapsed in casual stature. Viper looked far, Crane whistled, Mantis stood there, his attempts of the same thing were futile since he remained miniscule and unseen anyways with or without the effort.
A voice intensified. "I just want to say what a great honor it is to be helping you out." Tigress rushed out of the room as if she was repelled by it. "This is truly an alliance you will not regret."
Back to the dark chamber, there materialized a pair of growing, incandescent eyes; it followed with a reverberating reply, "You better keep your word for it." Adjunct with this prophetic affair was a low growl coming from him. Anticipation grew as the amateur warriors pended his entrance, they uniformly gravitated towards his enigmatic character.
But all ended unmomentously when the object of interest, a bear turns out, abruptly accelerated out the doors and halted just before them with a screech. The motion of his whole spectacle was akin to the physics of a loaded wagon on sudden brakes.
The warriors scattered away from the man's sheer girth.
Crane recovered first, shaking his head roughly before appraising this beast. His head marveled upwards in his slow search for the bear's eyeline; the man was gigantic-tall enough that the ceiling joists gave him no clearance. Alas, the metrics of this gave only a temporary scare: at second glance, the bear's over-the-pants-belly and saggy arms proved to offset much of his would-be imposingness. Draped down his mouth were several cigarettes arrayed like fringes, pumped out enough smoke to obnubilate his own face.
Tigress looked at her gradually concerned colleagues, then bit her lip. "So. Ju Lung, what-"
"Hold on kid." The cigarettes flopped out his mouth as he talked. "That talk back there? Whew. Boring. I just need to let this out…" His sentence faltered midway by a ferally loud yawn. Again, the five stepped back as he took more space for his stretching limbs. The bear seemed to enjoy prolonging his repose to a pompous extent; the juveniles awkwardly waited for it to lapse.
He ended with a sigh. "So, Tiger—ess. Tigress! Where is this rag-tag crew of yours. Hmm? Are they over there? Are they those delicious looking tigers by the counter? Ooh, are they those young group of fighters over yonder?"
"They're right beside me." She deadpanned, indicating her surrounding companions. "That's Crane," the bird gave a curt nod, "Viper, and Monkey-who's missing, and then Mantis… Who's also missing."
Crane frowned. "Hate to intrude but I could have sworn he was just here."
"Bug? He might have been that cracking sound." the nonchalant bear upturned his foot. "Do you see anything? Can't really tell, belly's in the way. Yeah, see there's something green—might be snot though."
By the gods! Poor Mantis was but a broken splatter. Tigress dropped to her knees, peeling the bug from the bear's sole like a strip of adhesive. She rose, hands trembling.
Ju Lung inspected the critter between Tigress's pinched fingers, appalled by how it twitched but remained very much alive. "Oh god, what the hell is that!"
Tigress spoke. "This… this is Mantis."
"Don't worry, I'm used to this." The bug croaked, vainly fighting for consciousness. At last, with feeble yet dramatic effort, the bug passed out.
"Oh my lord!" Viper repeatedly gushed an airy stream till she reached hyperventilation. "What do we do? Pump his heart?"
Crane poked the bug with his feet. "I'm pretty sure insects don't have hearts."
Her words flew headlong. "So how do we resuscitate him-squeeze his thorax? Is that how we do it? My good ancestors!"
While the warriors occupied themselves in blind search for a rough and ready aid, the bear beguiled himself in a spell of probing. The teens' presented appearance was meager-very little good to draw from. First their was the bird: Ju Lung saw his strong wings but emaciated extremities withal. And in a conclusive grunt, the bear gauged the boy just below passable. More guttural noises ensued afterwards at the sight of Viper. He needn't to do further study of the snake-the tremendous, pink, bow that rested upon her crown dispelled all her worth at once. The mantis was an even more of a helpless case.
The only real force here was the tiger, who looked more or less like a monstrous rig of brute and lithe. But even she was very little avail, with her unsteady voice and quivering frame: indecisiveness permeated her.
Ju Lung stepped back, looking at the group collectively. He nodded his head. "Just how I goddamned envisioned."
The bear immediately pulled in a passing waiter, ordering several drafts of the strongest alcohol.
A feminine voice cried. "What happened to that grasshopper?" The head of a strange golden cat craned itself into the warriors' close huddle, intent of giving the spasming mantis a closer inspection. The sudden intrusion of the newcomer made the teenagers shuffle apart awkwardly.
A golden cat. Crane grasped his windpipe, feeling it narrow until only a thread of air could pass through it. Mei Ling? No it couldn't be. He rebounded forward, and, subtly approaching the cat intimately, inspected the cat. The several cross lights from the awkwardly lit den made her face suffer from the distorting refractions-but in a well ordered break down of every stripe and tuft there was on the cat's face, Crane finally rested his eyes from its exaggerated squinting. Not Mei Ling.
Viper, having witnessed the entire exchange, gently flicked Crane's ankle with her tail. "What was that?"
He looked downwards. "Nothing."
A deep voice promptly attacked Tigress's nape. "That's not a grasshopper, Rush. It's a Mantis."
Once more, all heads turned to the alien voice. It was a bull-a well-camouflaged one with his ebony fur and the cave's dark backdrop.
Tigress took a step back from the sentinel-like figure. "I'm sorry. Who are you?"
"The real question is, who are you?" The bull retorted.
A silent stalemate was between the two groups.
"Oh, that's where I jump in." At last, Ju Lung widened his arms to regard the sudden presence of outsiders. "This, my little friends, are my accomplices. The bull's Tung, and my girl over there is Rushi." They could only start their formalities before Ju Lung spoke again. "Keep in mind, these two bitches are real fighters." He grasped Tung's bicep. "You see the meat on this arm-?"
"Hey!" Viper whined. "We can fight too."
"Yeah…" The bear replied flatly. "I highly doubt that."
"But-"
"Don't be offended. Truth is you all look weird and slim. Especially you, you look like a fancy stick. Like one of those sticks I used to play with Wolfina. Did you catch that joke Tung?—I was being funny there!" Ju Lung raged.
The bull looked around helplessly.
The bear groaned. "Anyways, what I'm saying is that you guys need to look at a mirror and tell yourselves what the truth is. And the truth is… you know." To finish, he stuck his tongue out in disgust.
Viper gasped in womanliness. "Listen here bear! We may not look like much, but the next time you talk to us like that, I'll show you how I chain up my enemies with a single bow."
"Again, highly doubt your threats would actually transpire in the near future." The bear coughed. "But, please, keep talking like that because it's kind of turning me on."
Tigress couldn't bear hearing the altercation ascend to its now impregnable back and forth. She stepped from what was a failing interview (more or less), laying Mantis onto a proximate table before she fled into the anonymity of the crowd.
And she meandered through, every passing head only a blurry contour in her hastily yielded vision. She had not one foremost thought, but everything became an additive trigger for a growing outburst. What would Shifu think?
All her deeper thoughts disbanded when a flask from the nearby bouts came bowling to her; she evaded it, the wide side of the flask skimming across the skin of her nose.
Oh, crap. The tiger's perceptions widened and everything blasted at once. The shouts and music finally rose to its genuine decibels, so that the tiger's ear cowered downwards. Another burst of revels came after seconds of steady anticipation. Tigress cupped her ears, intent of locating the spectacle that was creating such boisterousness.
The fighter, rumored to be outsourced, congregated a massive amount of fans to the outlooks of the atrium, where they eagerly waited for the foreigner to perhaps display an exotic form of battling, one that could offset the 'The Beast's' impervious force-or at the very least, provide the giant a challenge.
This new fighter was Monkey.
"Beast?" The simian laughed while pacing the track surrounding the battleground. "I tell you this-I can knock him down just like that!"
A wolf, who had been watching the line of fighters incrementally enter the arena and ebb out disfigured and writhing on bloody gurneys, had enough of Monkey's iterated boasting for the past minutes. "Well they don't call him Beast for nothing, boy." He turned around completely. "Y'know it ain't worth it. Why consider this bullshit?"
"Well Sir, the reason is two-fold." Monkey played theatrically. "First of. I'm in a dire mission to save this city. There's this group of boys I talked to. They told me that if I were to fight 'The Beast', they'll be able to tell me this info of very, very very much great necessity."
The wolf pushed on. "Which is?"
"It's nothing really." He abruptly discharged with a shrug. "We're just looking for a rabbit."
"A rabbit?"
"Yeh! Just her whereabouts. She wears a yellow apron. She works here too."
He smirked. "You mean Xiu? I just saw her walk by."
The simian jumped at once. "What! Where?"
"She was with that tiger girl…" The wolf searched the area. "Well I can't see them now. But that should give you a hint. Easier to spot a tiger in this tough crowd."
"Oh." Monkey fell back; the jolting feeling was lost along with his sense of duty. He moved on with a dismissive wave. "Well I guess Tigress can take care of it-she was probably that tiger girl you mentioned."
After a prolonged silence, the wolf asked. "So… you still going to throw yourself in there?"
"Well I did say my reason was two-fold." He smiled cheekily.
"Seriously?"
"Yeh! Have you seen the reward?" Monkey envisioned his cupped hands holding a mound of trickling gold. "My handsome self likes to be paid just as handsomely."
The wolf grunted. "Well go on, kid. Give the crowd another shitshow."
"Don't worry about it!" Monkey said immediately, his eyes still trained on his phantom fortunes. "I do have a plan."
"And what is that?"
The simian shrugged, making his way to the line of fighters. "The plan is to make one up when I'm up there."
"Well…" now indifferent, the wolf looked away, "You do you."
"Pfft. 'You do you.' I'll do him alright." Behind him, a colossal boar was swept high into the air, plummeting down the side ditches of the ring. The collateral shock was enough to launch the simian stumbling a few inches. But, never looking back, the simian entered the queue with a deliberately puffed chest, a buffed stature, and still with the same unwavering confidence. "I'm going to win this."
Crap. How am I going to win this. That was Monkey's thoughts while he soared into turbulence. The floor reached him faster than he anticipated-head first he went, skidding into the ground as to make a mound of dirt against the direction he traveled. Well, Monkey, there goes your teeth. Grudgingly, he stood, spitting debris from his dirt laden mouth.
The gorilla made loud leaps towards the stationary monkey, his noises masked by the cheering crowd. With his massive hand, the ape clamped down his smaller opponent, lunging the shrieking simian a good way, once again.
Monkey, with no control of the situation but still very much indignant, rocked his fist for rebellion. "Do I look like a ball to you?"
Once landing, another skidding session developed; he spun on the loose loam as if moving on a sheet of ice, and ended his involuntary sequence of acrobatic stunts in a dizzying spin. Eyes opening, he saw the land was beveled from its proper axis. If the earth spins, does it get woozy too? The simian berated himself. Focus!
From the distance, a blurry vision of the gorilla came to him posthaste. Immediately, he stood and looked around. What was there to resort to? The walls were high and near impossible to climb. He scampered to the exits, rattled the lattice bars but was unable to unhinge them. Some guards prodded the blunt end of their spears unto the simian's forehead, pushing him from the gates. "Rude!" Monkey tugged a protruding hilt from its wielder, flipping his now acquired weapon blade-front and lunging it to the raging monster: a successful hit!
But the weapon broke. And that beast remained unscathed.
Monkey cried. "What the heck am I fighting?"
He swore he heard a familiar gruff, wolf voice yell from afar. "That's the beast to you, idiot!"
Now he felt the ground beneath him tremble. The gorilla was coming closer. Think, Monkey. Think! The simian grabbed a fistful of dirt, watched it fall through his fingers: useless. He looked out the air and saw its emptiness. There was nothing to use-nothing to cobble up. In vain attempt to keep distance between him and his opponent, the simian impressed himself into the furthermost breastworks. His eyes tightened shut, readying for defeat. No! You twit. Open them. He did, watched cast over him.
He inhaled a shaky breath. "Alright big guy, let's see what you got."
A last, quick ploy apparated. Monkey produced a final shriek before the gorilla came ramming head-first, breaking the breastwork into fractured webs. When backing from his impact, the gorilla grunted alarmingly at the simian's missing presence. Monkey, having had sidestepped from the vicinity in time, now absconded from immediate danger. "Hey! Moron!" He picked some ejecta and threw at the gorilla's back. "Right here!"
The gorilla spun and blindly ran upon sight of his target, fists thumping chests. The simian feigned an away sprint, instead making a headlong dive through the gorilla's legs the instant it was proximate. Monkey, in exhaustion, scrambled and propped himself to the same fractured wall. Again, the gorilla made a steadfast beeline towards him, and again, the simian evaded in time, leaving only the breastwork to bear the entire brunt of the enraged locomotive.
Turning, the gorilla saw Monkey far away, as if having accomplished such through some mystical teleportation. The tinier opponent taunted him with a victorious dance.
With a growl, the beast mindlessly thrust forwards. And thus, the pattern formed: a destructive to and fro chase caused greater damage for both the breastwork and the gorilla, but left the monkey unscathed. The cheers had evidently shifted to the simian's side, which succored his adrenaline enough to tough through the intervals.
Meanwhile, a throng of guards were pressed along the exit, laboring to enter through and intercept the already damaging fight.
"Come here." Teasing by the crumbling wall, Monkey gave a final hail. "You angry, grrr-illa!"
A scorning bottle nearly hit him.
Before the beast could give one last ruinous push and effectively collapse the entire arena, a hasty voice yelled. "No no stop!" With a giving creak the gates ascended-in came the group of men who immediately charged at the gorilla.
The crowd fell into a wave of 'boos'.
The most ornately dressed ox marched towards Monkey. "What are you doing trying to do, you! This may be a crapwork of a place but it cost us just as much as a crapton and you're not about to ruin it!"
"You didn't let me through the exit so I was making my own!" Monkey defended.
"Are you goddamn crazy boy?" The ox grasped the simian by his nape and pushed his forehead against his own. "Are you really that goddamn crazy?"
"I mean-" Before finishing, Monkey was promptly disturbed by a macabre, definitely pungent, scent. He looked beyond the ox's awkwardly close head, and saw in the background the gorilla being incapacitated by the wrappings of red-hot chains. The monster screamed, loud. Monkey ignored the ox's question all together, even pushing him out the way for a better view. The several armored men lopped furnace-fresh chains precariously over the beast's back, his skin sizzled upon their contact.
The gorilla howled, an unrestrained volume of saliva erupted from its mouth. It finally collapsed in a convulsing fit.
Monkey's mouth hung open. A playful epitaph, a dark joke, or even an earnest, sorry word: the simian couldn't produce a sentence. But as he watched the ape being barbarically dragged into some unlit chamber, he pursed his lips in a shameful line. That was something not to make fun of.
"Monkey." He whirled, nearly colliding against the speaker. He first saw black, pristinely woven slacks.
Oh no. I know those pants. He looked upwards, slowly; a guilty smile grew on him as he recognized all too well his fate. The simian looked at the tiger's fiery eyes, there variance of height felt emasculating. In a cautious approach, he said, "Well, hi there… uhm, buddy?"
"Now that's the kind of thing I like to see." Stump to palm, Ju Lung attempted an applause as the two silent warriors headed to the view deck. "It's funny. I really thought your little monkey dude was about to pass out as well. Would be bad if two of your mates are knocked out cold before the actual mission starts."
"It's funny you mentioned unconsciousness." She passed the bear, unconcerned.
"Well aren't you just full of the joys of hell." He retorted.
The tiger, who had nearly stopped in surrender, erected herself for reassurance. She continued up the atrium, the others trooping in for the exit.
Shifu's floating head arose in the tiger's faintest vision. "This is not my list! Where are the warriors that I sent for?"
"I-I don't understand. It must be an accident." She recalled saying.
Tigress groaned. Of course they were just random people in a random list; destiny here was distant, the universe is impartial—it doesn't care. She was too certain that after their fight with the boar, the grand deed of it would afterwards carry. That one victory had supplanted for her a prospective deal of successes—and she had relied on that too much, otherwise she wouldn't be here. The grand deed didn't carry after the fact, and this, this whole mission, was too big for them.
She looked back and watched her four companions travel in yet another close pack. As they moved, a large leopard drunkenly swung after them. In mutual yells, they sidestepped the man's prompt assaults; it looked almost comical. Viper wrapped herself around the drunk-head, wringing him from his midriff, before sliding off; Crane bucked the man over the rails.
The tiger thought again. Okay, perhaps everything is all right.
A/N
It's 2020! I hope ya'll enjoyed the holidays!
So I've tried to give the characters here (besides just Tigress) a little more personality. While this will be a Tigress-centric fic, I do want to develop the other members of The Five and show their unique identities. Hopefully they have stayed relatively in character in this chapter. However, one of my goals is to make them teenage caricatures of their movie selves, so they may be inevitably ooc at some points.
Also, I should prolly address my 6 months hiatus for those who read the first two chapters a long time ago. There's really no excuse for that. My procrastination is off the charts :i But rest assured, chapter four will be published very soon.
Please leave a review. Nearly all reviews gives me hype - thoughtful ones in particular help me grow :) That being said, thank you for those who had left a review: they are all extremely encouraging.
Much thanks to The Dragon Chronicle and The Great Ying for helping me out on this chapter! I couldn't have done it without them.
