*Ben POV*

After a careful analysis of Dr. M's fortress, Bentley came to the difficult conclusion that his demolition skills just weren't gonna be enough. If we wanted to get inside the Cooper Vault, we'd have to recruit a full-time demolitions specialist. However, Bentley's proposed candidate was a bit of a surprise that left us all quite uncertain; The Panda King.

Despite Panda King being quite the talented demolitions expert, we were still unsure if it was a good idea to bring him into the group, due to his status as a former member of the Fiendish Five and his acts in burying villages in snow. Even though he ultimately helped give us the clues we needed to confront Clockwerk once and for all way back when.

Thankfully, Bentley revealed that Panda King had since left his life of crime behind and was now a monk living the life of quiet meditation high up in the mountains. Despite our odds with the idea, we all knew that he had the skills needed for the job. So, we packed up some quick disguises and headed east to China.

Upon arrival to China, the gang had to walk roughly 3 miles uphill to the Panda King's shrine. When they finally got there, they could see his pagoda from above.

"Okay, we need to get up to that central pillar," Sly said. "Anybody got any ideas?"

Bentley rubbed his chin. "Hmmm, it'll take some doing, but I think I see a way to get the team up to his shrine."

"Good! The walk up here tired me out. I don't wanna turn around now." Murray panted before sighing sadly. "Man, I miss the van... we never had to walk anywhere back then."

"Murray, you're up first. If you can get to the top of that pillar, you should be able to use your Ball Form to bounce all the way up to the Panda King." Bentley said to his Hippo Pal, who smiled and nodded.

"Okay... bouncing is a lot easier than more walking. Seriously, do you guys wanna see my blisters?"

"Bloody hell no..." Neyla said, wrinkling her nose in disgust as Penelope shared the sentiment.

"No way!... Is he serious?"

The Guru spoke to Murray in his Aboriginal tongue as the Hippo Beastkin nodded.

"Yeah, okay, master. Bouncing, pillars, piece of cake!"

As Murray went to do his part of the job, the Guru chuckled as he turned to Ben and Bentley.

"We hear ya. Sometimes, ya gotta be firm."

"No, seriously, was he for real about the blisters? Cause I, I don't know it's... yeesh!" Penelope cringed as Neyla sighed, pinching her forehead.

"Ben, love, do you have anything in your bionic arm that can erase certain memories from a person's brain?"

"Nope, technology is not that far advanced yet. If Mz. Ruby was here, she'd have helped with that. But that's for another story."

After Murray reached the Panda King's shrine, Penelope used her RC Car to shoot down the bamboo shoots so that Sly, Ben, and Neyla could use them as vantage points to get across. With Murray's help, Sly knocked the pinwheels loose so that Bentley could light them with his darts, therefore allowing Guru to use a few guards to get up on top of one of the buildings and launch a pair of rockets to hit the pinwheels, causing one to knock down a sign to make a makeshift bridge to Panda King's pagoda, the other to serve as a makeshift elevator for the others.

After everyone grouped back together, Guru, Sly, Ben, and Bentley approached Panda King. Guru rubbed his beard in thought as he inspected the Panda King's state.

"Yeah, he seems pretty high on the zen. Anybody got any ideas?" Ben asked.

"Yeah, let's just shout into his ear," Sly suggested, causing his blood brother to smack him upside the head.

"No, to break him out of this trance, we'll need to delve into his mind." Bentley pointed out.

"A hacksaw then?" That got Sly another smack upside the head.

"Forget it, you're not taking this seriously, Sly. Let me see if I can bridge my mind with his." Ben said as he turned to the Guru, who nodded as Ben made some Aboriginal hand signs before his eyes shined purple, forming a link with the Panda King.

Guru helped Ben out with his own potent Aboriginal magic to keep the bridge between minds stable. Murray walked up and saw Ben's state with interest.

"Awesome, Master! I knew teaching Ben the Dreamtime Mind Bridge technique was a good idea!"

After what felt like hours, both Ben and Panda King awoke. Whatever happened between them in the Dreamtime landscape seemed to have helped out immensely.

"Nice to see you again, old man. So, wanna talk about what you've been doing since we last saw you?"

*Sly POV*

The Panda King recounted to us how he lost a member of his own family. His daughter, Jing, had been kidnapped by General Tsao, a ruthless general who reigned over a good portion of China through force and fear. He intended to solidify his rule over the entire area by forcing Jing to marry him and had exiled the Panda King to keep him from interfering. Panda King had entered his deep meditation to try and find why he hadn't been able to bring himself to fight back.

Considering the old motto of 'Enemy of My Enemy', we agreed to help Panda King in rescuing his daughter and taking General Tsao down a peg. I still was on the fence about everything but considering the Panda King had helped us stop Clockwerk and had been the one who helped me meet Ben, Murray, and Bentley at the orphanage when we were children, I figured it was the least I could do.

Next Time: Chicken Run!

The Gang gets to work on causing problems for General Tsao and rescuing Jing King from his evil clutches!