Ying - Tigress
Yu Ting - Viper
Jia - Crane
Wu Cong - Monkey
Fan Hai - Mantis

A small tip: pay attention very closely to this chapter, otherwise things might become confusing.

"We work in the shadows." Ying said simply. "We tie together all the little things the government can't get done."

"And sometimes the things they won't get done." Wu Cong added. "Like the drug bust I assume you read on the news."

Po lit up at the mention of the infamous event that projected them into his life three years ago. "Of course I read that on the news! It was everywhere! You were even trending on twitter!" Po knew his face was probably split into the widest grin he'd ever had.

Fan Hai gestured to Po proudly. "A man of culture I see!" He proclaimed, poking Jia in an undetectable inside joke.

Jia gave him a pointed look. "I still don't like twitter. Its only purpose these days is to dig up decade-old racist tweets from C-list celebrities."

Yu Ting turned to Po boredly. "And here you have the pessimist of our group." Though her voice still held an incredible amount of fondness, making Po question again how close they all were.

"Some tweets are pretty funny though." Ying added, to Jia's disappointment.

He patted her arm sadly. "Thing one and thing two, A.K.A, Cong and Fan," He side-eyed the aforementioned. "have been a terrible influence on you."

Cong spluttered, outraged. "We are a good influence though!" He protested, reaching over the table and taking Ying's other arm protectively. "If it weren't for us then she wouldn't know the ways of the internet!"

"Okay you guys are losing me," Po said quickly trying to get them back on topic. "you were talking about the drug bust?"

"Oh yeah, the drug bust." Cong said as if remembering a lost memory. "Well, that was a huge operation, and the government were just letting it slide."

"It was annoying," Yu Ting said. "they definitely knew about it because the moment CCTV caught us there were suddenly all these officers and journalists!" She closed her eyes as if meditating, swallowing her frustration.

"Ugh, that was awful," Jia muttered. "if they hadn't got there then we probably wouldn't have this problem on our hands."

The faces around the room slowly morphed from casual discomfort to shock to wincing at the scandalous statement.

"Uh, hello? Still here you know." Po grumbled, sounding a slightly more annoyed than what was intended.

"Ah, sorry." Jia stuttered uncomfortably. "Didn't mean to – to offend – I was just saying that… well obviously this is a problem right now but – I didn't mean you were the problem – I mean I guess it depends on how you view this – uh… you know what I'll stop talking." He finished quickly pulling his hat over his now blushing face, and clamping his mouth shut.

Yu Ting hid a badly disguised laugh behind a cough while Ying openly sniggered at him. "Bro you're actually useless…" Wu Cong covered his face with his hands like an annoyed parent.

Fan Hai snorted. "And everyone says I can't keep my mouth shut." He remarked.

The inhabitants of the table sighed.

"But me aside," Po started again, desperate to hear the story. "how did you guys get caught? Can you tell me that?"

"Oh, well that… that's a long story…" Fan Hai grimaced, and the others hummed in agreement.

"It all started with me," Wu Cong said loudly, shushing all other competitors. "I was watching everything…"

It was a stroke of luck or perhaps a rookie mistake that the door was left unlocked. Cong cracked it open and took a peek. Almost instantly, one of the guards aimed a weak punch to his face that would have caused minor bruising at worst. He refrained the urge to laugh and ducked to avoid it. As the guard fumbled, he dove onto the floor and rolled through his open legs, clutching his bag close to him.

"Hey kid! Get the fuck out!" Another one yelled, getting up from where they'd apparently been playing a game of cards.

Cong ignored him and gave the room a rapid once-over, deciding where he could jump and get to higher ground while kicking the first guard face-through the open door. The desk space below the TV screens was cluttered, but not bad enough that he couldn't quickly kick all the rubbish out the way. So he made that his call, and scrambled. The other two guards seemed to be just as useless as the first, as when he climbed onto the desk and readied himself into a kung fu stance, they both grappled round their weapon-filled belts. Are there no morals here? Before he had two guns aimed to his head, Cong decided he'd just have to take them out quickly, meaning no fun fighting. Sad times. Sighing, he jumped into a split-kick, hitting their heads deftly and knocking them out.

"Bullseye." He muttered, when two satisfying sounds of bodies hitting the floor came to his ears.

He turned round and examined what CCTV provided him. The TV screens weren't exactly of high quality. A grey and white gritty scene of the active warehouse was not to be desired. There were quite a few more cameras than Cong had previously thought, and it took a lot of squinting and concentration to find where his friends were. Fan was in the screen on the far right. He looked like he was holding a fairly awkward conversation with a couple of other guards. Cong could have laughed at him, he was always the one made to go undercover, despite finding it boring as hell. Ying was on the bottom row, and seemed to be trying to pry open a wooden crate. Good idea, he thought, at least one of them was actively trying to find the drugs. Jia was nowhere to be seen, maybe he was hiding behind one of the many racks. Yu was the only one who looked to be in need of assistance, but Cong couldn't resist teasing her first.

He raised his wrist and talked into his watch. "Hey Yu, any luck behind those barrels?" He sniggered, watching her glare through her mask at the camera on the screen.

"Shut up and help me find a vantage point." She whispered.

He allowed himself a laugh before maturing for her sake. "Alright, alright," He said quickly, and moved the camera, scanning the area. Things were not looking good. Guards were everywhere.

"I can't imagine why, but there are loads of guards around you, too many for just you to take on, I'd say go stealth mode and wedge yourself between those two shipping containers on your right, it's small, but you'll fit."

She was lightning fast, and no one spotted her running the distance to the containers. She squeezed herself in the tiny gap and whispered into her watch again. "Now what? If they catch me then I'm done because I can hardly move."

"Okay, um…" Cong glanced round at the other screens.

This CCTV system was seriously confusing. None of the screens were ordered in a way that geographically made sense, no wonder the previous guards in here never saw them sneak in. He glanced around the room and found a confusing but useful sort of guide to the camera system. It was helpful enough that he moved the view of one of the cameras around to scan the room he knew someone was in.

Finally finding a solution, he gave Yu an answer. "Jia's pretty close, I'll send him over."

He changed the radio on his watch. "Hey Jia, buddy, on your right there's a line of small crates, get behind them and crawl until-"

"Wait why?" Jia interrupted. "I'm trying to find the drugs here."

Cong gave him a long, loud, drawn-out sigh and said what he knew would make him move. "Yu needs help, she's in the next room over."

Wu Cong stopped his storytelling. "In hindsight what I said was a little…"

"Misleading?" Jia suggested, crossing his arms over with annoyance.

"I would say stupid but then again, you also didn't make a very smart move afterwards." Fan Hai commented, to which Jia glared at him.

Po merely blinked at their exchange. The story was already slightly confusing, as it was painfully obvious he was the first person to hear a detailed account of this. (But this did not stop the fact that on the inside he was absolutely freaking out)

"But everything turned out alright in the end, eh?" Wu Cong grinned optimistically.

"That's pretty debatable, considering what happened." Ying remarked, and Po had to scratch his head at even more secretive jokes.

"No Ying, he doesn't mean that." Yu Ting said pointedly, shutting her down quickly with a hand Po was slightly grateful for.

Fan Hai opened his mouth. "Well, what I think happened next was-"

"Fan Hai! This isn't about you!" Yu Ting interjected, giving him a scathing look. "If anything, it's Jia's turn to tell." She turned to Jia expectantly.

He smiled at her gratefully. "Alright Po, here's my side of the story…"

"Yu needs help, she's in the next room over."

Jia shot up, instantly alert at Cong's statement. In his quick movement, he'd been clumsy enough to knock a cardboard box holding who knows what onto the floor. He watched with bated breath the as other, neatly stacked boxes teetered on the edge of the storage rack, finally wincing as a domino of them cascaded painfully down. And why oh why was this warehouse so prone to amplifying noises? The loss of boxes and the loud tumble exposed his hiding place behind the storage racks, and suddenly all eyes were on him.

"It's one of those kids!" Came a shout, and Jia froze. "Get him!"

Oh shit. Jia ran out into the open space, though it meant he'd have nothing to cover him or use as a shield, he didn't want to be trapped behind those storage racks. On the inside, he felt a few butterflies at what Shifu's reaction would be to his… openness. They'd managed to be discreet up until then, sneaking past the hundreds of guards (Jia questioned the sheer amount, did they really need that many?) and separating into different compartments of the warehouse to find the drugs. In hindsight, that was a bad idea. So far, no one actually found anything, and the only progress they'd made was Cong infiltrating CCTV.

Guards were coming for him from all directions. They weren't exactly hard to take on. It seemed as though their training in hand-to-hand combat was severely lacking. Jia's kung fu style wasn't the most powerful on its own, the majority of moves being defensive, but due to the unorthodox punches aimed his way he was able to use his defence as offense. The first two guards came ready with weak fists, and he used a fan kick to easily propel the one closest to him into the other guard's head, simultaneously injuring the guard's arm judging by the crack he felt. Another carried a taser, and shot it out, aiming for his heart, Jia realised later. Jia dived out of the way and it hit the guard behind him, completely clueless to what was bound to happen. He stood up, all too ready to celebrate.

Jia turned round for a split-second and came face-to-face with a glinting revolver.

It was one of those moments when he could truly say that his heart dropped into his stomach and his stomach tried to make its way out his mouth.

He ducked and sent the gun flying through the air with a hit from his forearm. A deafening gunshot reverberated off the wooden walls and concrete floor. He thanked his lucky stars his reflexes stayed loyal, if he'd been a moment too late it would be a definite death. In his peripherals he spotted another guard be thrown back by the bullet. No blood, thank god for bullet proof vests, but he was sure the guy was owed an apology later. For good measure (and partly out of frustration), he skidded his leg in a circular motion underneath the guard's feet, knocking him to the floor to land him on his back painfully. Jia almost smirked, serves him right for trying to shoot me. He got up from his crouching position and half stumbled half ran towards the other storage room where Yu was hiding. The aftershock of a near-funeral made him tremble. He shook his head, stay focused! Now was not the time to ruminate. Skidding round the bend and making it to the cramped hallway he let himself breathe, he was still alive.

Except something extremely heavy slammed itself into him and sent him falling face-first onto the concrete. He felt two strong hands grip painfully around his ribcage and squeeze, apparently not caring for the sensitivity of a teenager's sensitive bones. Jia let out a loud yelp in pain, but the guy still didn't let go. Luck was still on his side though, as he was quick enough to turn his head to the side and avoid a broken nose. His chest and knees took most of the impact, as well as his lungs as the same (very dedicated) guard with the gun landed right on top of him. Though he had sufficient muscle to be decent at kung fu, he was still a skinny guy. And this guard was probably twice his weight.

Summoning all the strength he had and spurred on by sheer motivation to get to Yu, he bent his right leg, lifted his hip and hooked it round the man's two legs. Using this leverage, he pushed himself up on shaking arms and twisted them both so he was sitting on top. Before the guard could fight back he jumped up, turned and pressed a strong foot to his chest. Jia knelt down, careful to avoid pressing his knee into the guard's throat, and delivered a sharp downwards strike that instantly knocked him out. Wasting not a moment longer, he continued his running to find Yu.

Jia massaged his ribs absent-mindedly, as if remembering the pain. His side of the story was horribly jarring, and Po could do nothing but sit in awe-struck silence.

"Okay, I think it's my turn to take over the story." Yu Ting said excitedly, ignoring Po's lack of addition. "I was hidden between the two shipping containers…"

Standing on her tiptoes and trying not to breathe too hard, Yu raised her watch to the side of her face, hoping the poor microphone would pick up on her speech. "Now what? If they catch me then I'm done because I can hardly move."

There was a tense silence where Cong was obviously trying to think of a solution. "Okay, um…" Some fumbling around was heard and a long "err" made its way across. "Jia's pretty close, I'll send him over." He said finally.

Yu let her hand fall, the knowledge that Jia would soon come to her aid was comforting. Splitting up seemed like a good idea at first, with such a large warehouse the drugs could be hidden anywhere. Covering more ground in less time was appealing, no one wanted to overstay their welcome. While the place had quite a few guards on the outside, the number was fairly small, so everyone was confident in their abilities to be able to take them on solo. But, she guessed, they got a little cocky.

She glanced at her watch. Jia was really taking his sweet time. Exhaling proved to be a bit painful as her lungs pressed against the hard metal of the shipping containers, instead she settled for hitting her head against the container behind her with a dull thud. She instinctively gasped, a swear word hot on her tongue upon realising the container was metal and metal made noise.

But none came. No echoing metallic clang or vibrating walls. Just the thud she'd previously expected. She frowned. That didn't seem right. Tapping the metal with her knuckle her guess was confirmed. She stared in front of her at the other container and tapped that one too. It made the same sound.

They were full.

Cong's words played in her head, there are loads of guards around you. She shifted her shoulders downwards and shimmied her body so she was almost lying on the concrete. The tiny printed words at the bottom of the shipping container read Class A, confirming her suspicions.

"Ying, I think I've found the drugs." She whispered to her watch as loud as she dared.

It came to life almost immediately. "Where? Some boxes?" Ying sounded out of breath, what had she been doing?

"No, shipping containers, I'm in the same compartment I went to when we split up. Come over here and I'll get on top of them as a vantage point." Right after saying that she peered up and realised how tall they were. Why did I say that? How am supposed to get up there?

"Thank god you found them, I'll get there soon, stay hidden."

Yu gritted her teeth, now there was no going back. The only option was to use pure strength to get herself up. She raised her toes up and pressed the balls of her feet against the container in front of her, and simultaneously pushed her back into the one behind her. Putting both hands on the metal wall either side of her hips, she stepped her feet up a little so she was completely suspended between the two. She took a deep breath. Okay, you got this. Her trainers provided some much-needed friction, in contrast to the hoodie, whose soft cotton material she felt would slip any minute. Bit by bit, she edged herself up at a snail's pace.

An ear-splitting gunshot broke her concentration, and what little progress she made came undone as she fell hard to the floor.

"What was that?"

"There's an intruder!"

"More than one! There's still no response from CCTV!"

The pain she contracted was suddenly very insignificant as the overwhelming urge to vomit took her. A gun shot. Whoever got hit would be injured horribly at best. Or most likely… die. She clasped a sweaty hand under her mask to her mouth, trying hard not to hyperventilate. Her conscious screamed at her to stay calm. Stay calm! You have to stay calm! This was not the time to panic. She sent a silent prayer that everyone was still alive as her eyes started to fill with pre-mourning tears. Looking up again, she swallowed. She had to get up there. Then fight whoever fired that fucking gun.

"I was mad mad," Yu Ting said with the utmost seriousness. "I don't usually get mad, but when someone whips out a gun… that really gets me." She uttered those last few words with so much venom that Po had to stop himself from flinching.

This was apparently a common occurrence, as the others were unphased.

"And this is where I take over." Fan Hai said proudly. "I haven't been mentioned yet, but hold your horses Po, I'm very important to the story…"

In a way it made sense that he was always the first choice to be forced to go undercover. Because Fan was not the shortest member of their team. Yu took that title. He wasn't even the second shortest, that was a tie between Cong and Ying. The tallest ended up being Jia. But why he, Fan Hai, the one with the loudest voice (seriously, it travelled very far) was made to go undercover way more than the others was a little baffling. The height kind of made sense, though Cong would still be a better choice, but his deep voice was a little jarring to most people. He was supposed to be inconspicuous. Unnoticed and unseen. The voice did not help. He didn't even look generic, as he was a little more muscular than your common Chinese twenty-year-old male (something he was very proud of, thank you very much).

Thankfully, the guard uniform he was wearing certainly did not do his figure justice.

He was able to avoid engaging in any sort of conversation that would cause the other guards to realise that they'd never met him before. Being the first one to go in the warehouse already caused him a trembling amount of pressure, he didn't know if he'd have the ability to say anything non-incriminating. As he shuffled around the different areas of the warehouse he muttered various pieces of information to attentive ears (who were probably sitting in the car having a grand old time) into that handy little watch. He quickly found the CCTV room, that would be the first to go to. Cong happily agreed on the other end of the line, and Fan purposely distracted some of the guards with mindless small talk while Cong crept behind them. He knew Yu and Jia were already on the move to two different parts of the warehouse.

Once the news of the CCTV room reached their radios, Fan quickly volunteered to go investigate, simultaneously distracting a group of guards from Ying creeping up behind them. Once reaching the room he opened the door and had it immediately slammed in his face with the intent of hurting someone.

"Oi! It's me!" He pounded on the door, annoyed that Cong had the urge to just slam it like that when he had full knowledge that he was coming.

Cong's apologetic face appeared and let him in. "Ahaha, sorry dude." Fan shoved him good-naturedly and closed the door behind him.

"Any luck?" He asked. "I didn't want to appear to suspicious and start asking around for where they're keeping the drugs."

Cong turned to the numerous TV screens, expertly stepping over the three unconscious bodies on the floor, and pointed at each one. "Yu's between these two shipping containers, Ying's going… somewhere, and Jia – oh SHIT!"

They both gaped and paled at the sight of glinting metal in the camera.

Jia, (god knows how) managed to fight back fast enough to hit the gun away, and a distant shot accompanied the sight of another guard getting thrown back.

Cong was gripping his arm, and Fan didn't realise he'd done the same thing. "Holy shit." He breathed.

"That was terrifying." Cong nodded, sounding just as relieved as Fan.

The action on the other screens happened almost instantly. Yu fell from where she'd apparently been edging herself up the two containers, and Ying stopped her running completely, slowly raising her watch to her mouth.

Cong swallowed. "We should go help them, I think everyone's done with being secret."

"Agreed." Fan put a hand to racing heart and breathed slowly. Jia you really gave us a scare.

Cong blinked a few times and ducked down, retrieving his bag. He wiped his eyes discreetly and handed it to him. "Here you go, it's got the mask and everything in there."

Fan took it and busied himself with wriggling out of the heavy guard uniform to distract himself from the horrible what ifs. Once clothed completely in black, they both put the masks on and looked at each other.

"I'll go to Jia, you go to Yu, agreed?"

Cong nodded. They shared a small bro side-hug and ran off to their respective places.

Fan raced down three flights of stairs before hearing the sound of a body hitting the floor, followed by a loud, familiar-sounding yelp. He stopped in his tracks and ran towards the noise. The fall sounded painful, and he hoped dearly he wouldn't have to give any serious medical attention. Speeding up, he almost fell over on his way round the bends and ran right into someone with a loud "Oof!"

Fan let out a massive sigh of relief at the sight of a confused Jia, mask half off. "DUDE!" He groaned, and hugged him tightly. "I'm so glad you're still alive!"

Jia hesitated, but hugged him back. "You heard the gun shot, huh?" He said, patting Fan uncomfortably.

"Everyone heard it!" Fan exclaimed, how could he be so nonchalant?

He held onto Jia for a little longer than was necessary, and gave him a last squeeze. "Man, if I hadn't been watching the CCTV then I'd be so worried."

"Thanks for caring about me," Jia started, peeling Fan off him. "but Yu needs our help."

"Ah, right," Fan adjusted both their masks. "she's probably crying already, so let's go!"

"You know what, that was one of the most terrifying things I've had to witness." Fan Hai commented, putting a hand to his heart and the other gesturing towards Jia.

"Funnily enough I felt the same, Fan." He responded drily.

"No, honestly, I'd actually miss you if you died." Fan Hai said sincerely.

Ying snorted. "What a way to put it."

Po could only breath in awe, still taking in the story. "What was it like going undercover? How did you manage to distract the other guards?"

Fan Hai frowned in thought. "I don't think too much about it, I just try to engage in small talk. You know, mundane things."

"Now that I think about it, I don't know how you manage to stay undercover." Jia said slowly, peering at him from across the table.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you are a bit too talkative, a blabber-mouth, if you will." Yu Ting said carefully, gauging his reaction. "I always have to make sure I don't tell you anything too secret."

"Yeah because you tell him something and then he goes and tells Cong who has no filter." Ying tutted.

Wu Cong huffed. "I do have a filter."

"Uh, I only tell Cong because he's my right-hand man!" Fan Hai said as if it was obvious.

"So?" Jia raised an eyebrow. "You know Cong can't keep secrets. We found out about the almond cookies after only two weeks, remember?"

"Cong is right here, you know."

"Wait, hold up, for just a second?" Po waved his hands frantically. "You guys keep going off on your own little conversations. Everything is so chaotic!"

Fan Hai shrugged. "Dude, it's just how we are."

"How do you get anything done?"

"I can't tell you how long I've been asking myself the same question." Ying muttered.

"I'm pretty sure Shifu dies a little on the inside whenever he interacts with us." Jia added.

Who? "Okay slow down," Po interjected quickly before they could start another pointless conversation. "you guys keep mentioning this Shifu guy, who is he?"

Fan Hai coughed loudly, hiding his speech behind it. "A terrible father." He muttered discreetly.

Yu Ting aimed a kick for him under the table, but missed and hit Jia instead. "OUCH!" He yelped, rubbing his shin. "Can we please not resort to violence! Po just wants to hear the story!"

Yu Ting hushed a quick apology to him while Po tried to get them back on track. "Back to the gunshot-"

"Again, I want to clarify that I would miss Jia if he died." Fan Hai repeated.

"I'm glad you guys appreciate me." Jia said, a hint of sincerity under the sarcasm.

"But it was very scary though." Yu Ting added, and turned to Po. "I didn't even know who'd been shot, that was the scariest part."

Po nodded slowly, holding his breath in anticipation for the next part of the story. "What happened next? Did they make it on time?"

"I think it's Ying's turn to tell, she was in the thick of the action." Yu Ting said, giving Ying a look.

Ying opened her mouth but stopped at a loud ringtone.

Po felt his heart drop into his stomach as he watched the vibrating phone on the kitchen countertop. The contact photo was visible from where he sat and the memory (which now seemed so distant) of leaving the noodle shop that morning came back. "It's my dad! He must be so worried!" Po jumped up to take the call but Ying wrapped a surprisingly strong arm around his torso and pushed him back down to the sofa, going down with him.

She recovered quickly from falling on top of him and kneeled up on the edge of the cushions, straddling his leg. "No! He cannot know about us!" She had both hands on his shoulders and it was the most they'd made eye contact since he'd woken up. "Please Po, do not take that call!"

Po wished he could say he was fine, but Ying was definitely stronger than she looked, and he was slightly winded. Still, he persevered. "I – wheeze – I have to! He'll get – wheeze – he'll get suspicious! – wheeze – oh god that hurt…" He inhaled and exhaled quickly, trying to regain some of his lung capacity and dignity.

Ying frowned slightly, her lips caught between her teeth and her nails clicking together. She looked completely torn. Po could only guess it was because she didn't trust him not to spill. If he had to be honest, in her shoes he wouldn't trust himself either. So he couldn't really blame her for the disbelieving looks she was shooting him.

"Okay, take the call." She spoke finally. "But please, say what I tell you."

She looked so desperate Po had to comply. Someone, he didn't know who, passed him the phone. He was almost scared to answer, lying was never his forte.

"Hey dad."

"PO! Where have you been?! You said you'd be back by seven! If you hadn't noticed it's already NINE!" Po physically had to hold the phone away from his ear to not be deafened by the crescendos of yelling, and Ying took this opportunity to tap the call onto speakerphone (as if it wasn't already loud enough).

"Okay I know I said I'd be back by seven but – " He stopped abruptly at Ying whispering intently into his ear. "but something uh – came up."

She glared at him and mouthed something along the lines of "what the hell are you doing?" angrily.

"What's the something? Don't be secretive with me Po!"

Ying whispered into his ear again, and this time he obeyed. "I'm uh – out with friends. And we're in the city and we decided, you know, to – uh – have a guys holiday… sort of thing." Po face-palmed, this was not going to work.

"Which friends? Have I met them?"

"No no no! They're just some guys I met at – uhhh…" He motioned desperately at Ying to give him an answer. "Jade Palace! Yeah, I see them there a lot and we've been out for drinks and stuff." Ying, surprisingly, proved to be pretty helpful, he supposed it was from all the secrets she was used to hiding.

"But won't you need any of your stuff? A change of clothes?"

Po's eyes widened, the lie had started to catch up on them. Ying, it seemed, was also at a loss.

"Hello? Are you still there?"

"Say you'll pick up some stuff tomorrow, but you're borrowing some clothes for tonight because you're too tired!" She hissed.

"Po? Who is that?"

Ying mouthed a silent swear word while Po swooped in to save their skins. "That was just one of my friends! I'm borrowing some – clothes, pajamas – for tonight because, you know, it's getting dark now and I'm tired." To add to the rapid explanation, he yawned realistically on the end of his phrase. "I'll swing by tomorrow and pick up a bag – okayIgottagonowbyedad!" He hung up abruptly and cringed at cutting off his dad's next sentence.

He looked up to the others, who all gave him varying wide-eyed stares. "How'd I do?"

"That was…" Fan Hai faltered, apparently not finding the words to describe how it was.

Cong made a face. "Well I guess if he bought it…"

"It wasn't that bad, right?" Yu Ting looked round hopefully, but was met by faces of disagreement.

Jia tilted his head and grimaced. "Ehhh – you need – some work," He said, sounding like he didn't really believe it himself. "… maybe a bit more than some."

Po looked at Ying expectantly, surely she had something to say?

She was frowning again. She did that a lot, so much that Po wanted to smooth out the lines around her eyebrows with his thumb. Sliding off his leg and onto the floor, she turned away from him. "You really want to keep him?" She asked them, sounding a little sad.

"What other options do we have?" Fan Hai said as if there was no hope. "There's no way to just silence him forever."

Po didn't know how he felt about their observations. He couldn't tell if their complete openness with the obvious frustration over the current situation annoyed him. On one hand, it was pretty dis-heartening that his idols were so… upset at his forced stay. But on the other hand, what they had seemed special. It was sappy, but the hidden identities, the undercover missions, that was rare. It wasn't something you'd want to lost to some stupid guy who got too close for his own good.

"I say we train him." Yu Ting said with determination, sparking a glimmer inside Po, one he couldn't extinguish. She sounded serious.

"Shouldn't we wait 'till Shifu gets back?" Jia started uncomfortably.

Cong rested his elbows on the table in frustration. "Shifu obviously doesn't care about this enough to clear his schedule, so I agree with Yu."

Ying shook her head. "Shifu must care, he knocked Po out the first time, remember?"

"That was Shifu!?" Po spluttered, unable to hold his silence but finally able to put a face to the mystery name.

"Yeah…"

"Yep."

"That's him."

"My man really hit you hard." Cong shook his head apologetically, smiling slightly. "He can be harsh when he wants to."

Po gaped at them (he was doing so much gaping he must have looked like a damn fish).

"He's our kung fu master," Yu Ting said quickly, sensing his surprise. "technically our spy master as well if you want to put it like that."

The thought that the old man was passing on knowledge to younger students was awesome. "That is… seriously cool." Po breathed.

"Speaking of Shifu, he wanted us to get an early night," Ying got up and dusted herself down, still not facing Po. "so we better get to bed." He almost grabbed her hand to stop the abrupt finality.

"But what about the ending of the drug bust?! You can't leave me hanging!" He called after her retreating back.

She turned round and fixed him with the same stare she had when he first woke up. "I'll tell it tomorrow, when I've given it some thought." And with that cold statement, she left.

"Again, Ying's always gonna get her way." Fan Hai repeated, with a small ounce of fondness.

Po had felt a great amount of confusion all day. But now his curiousity was piqued at levels he couldn't even comprehend. He didn't even care that the Furious Five had him hooked on every word. Nothing else seemed to matter anymore.

AN - This and the next chapter were originally going to be one chapter, but it got far too long, so enjoy this cliffhanger.

You might be able to tell that I took inspiration from Crane's fight with Kai for Jia's fight with the guard. I've watched the scene endlessly, but I couldn't really figure out how Crane managed to twist Kai around like he did. So I went for a version that's a little easier to digest. Coupled with the fact that I actually acted this out on my bedroom floor to see if it was humanly possible.

I didn't really do extensive research on kung fu, I feel like it's very easy to fall into the rabbit-hole of trying to get every move perfect. And I've got a lot on my plate at the moment, so it would be a bit time-consuming for my perfectionist arse.

A couple of readers asked early on what they look like as humans. That's honestly up to you, the person reading this. You can imagine them as your favourite K-pop idols or just normal Chinese people. I don't want to do full-length descriptions on the way they look because that's not relevant to the story (apart from their body types/height) and hair/eye colour would all be pretty much the same anyway. There's only one character who's looks really matter, but that won't come up until the penultimate chapter for story reasons.

I'm honestly trying to keep this story really concise and top it at ten chapters, but man there's so much to tell in this universe! It's all word vomit at the moment.

Thank you for the interest in this weird, convoluted story :)