Ying - Tigress

Jia - Crane

Yu - Viper

Cong - Monkey

Fan - Mantis

'"There's been no escape in the last fifteen years."

Jia's words caused a chasm in their heads, a small explosion where they should have had filled information and a fresh lead on their killer. After he spoke they simply stared at him, speechless, only silently questioning what on earth had gone wrong.

"I… what?" Was all Ying said.

"It's what the chief told me and he runs the damn prison!"

Ying blinked a few times, letting the information set in slowly.

"And he definitely wasn't lying because there wasn't anything in the archives." Cong added.

Fan skidded the car round a corner, trying to concentrate on driving while keeping an ear out for the conversation they were having.

"Do you think the council made a mistake?" Yu asked worriedly as they drove, leaning forward from the back seat of the car.

"I hope the council made a mistake!" Cong exclaimed, the stress obvious in his voice. "If we were the ones who made the mistake – "

"Then fucking hell we're dead." Fan finished for him. "Well, more specifically, you and Jia."

"Please don't put it like that." Jia grimly with a sigh, covering his face with both hands.

"What a way to make everyone feel better." Yu deadpanned.

"Yeah but they had one job."

"Oh shut up –"

Ying ignored their back and forth. "But the council never makes a mistake!" She persisted.

"They've lost their reputation then haven't they?" Cong quipped idly.

Ying reached forward to the front seat of the car where he sat and slapped the side of his head.

It wasn't long before their car swerved to a messy stop in a parking space next to the motel and they scrambled out, still holding the adrenaline of Cong and Jia almost getting arrested. They were almost out of breath as they reached the room and didn't stop to rest, the recent information driving them forward. Ying immediately rummaged around in one of their bags and pulled out the laptop. She perched it on the rickety table and sat on one of the uncomfortable wooden chairs. They joined her, gathering round so they could see the screen.

"I'm calling Shifu." She said, opening Skype.

"Bet on him not picking up." Fan said immediately.

Yu gave him an annoyed look. "Now's not the time." She muttered under her breath.

And after two rings, he picked up, looking as tired and haggard as he always did, seated in their kitchen. Po was nowhere to be seen.

"Is everything alright?" He said, voice glitchy and digitalised over the poor connection.

"Um, yeah well, we've got a problem." Cong started hesitantly.

"What sort of problem?"

"The thing is… we went to the prison today, you know the one you told us about? And er… we couldn't – couldn't find… anything." He finished lamely.

Shifu furrowed his eyebrows and they held their breath. "What are you talking about?"

"What he's trying to say is that we couldn't find any record of any escaped prisoner." Jia butted in, delivering the bad news somewhat bluntly.

Shifu's eyes widened and he gave them his usual frustrated look.

"As in, there's literally nothing." He continued despite Shifu's look telling him to stop talking. "Like, I even talked to the guy in charge, he told me there hasn't been an escape for fifteen years, and – and we looked and we couldn't find anything at all – so… what we're saying is that –"

"We think the council got the wrong prison." Fan finished for him in a much calmer tone. "Well, we don't think – we know." Normally he would never speak of the council in that way, they were powerful, and intelligent, and never, ever made mistakes. Though this was a special circumstance.

"So, what do we do now master?" Yu asked, breaking the short silence.

Shifu simply stared at them. His facial expression illegible.

"Ah I – I er, I must talk to the council then." He said finally. "You're right, there must have been a mistake, sorry students."

They looked at each other, slightly astounded at how quick he surrendered, still not setting their nerves at ease.

"For now, see what tickets you can get home, I'll sort this out." He shifted in his seat, reaching his hand out to press the red button that would end their call.

"Do you want us to call the council ourselves?" Yu offered.

"No!" He exclaimed, causing them to flinch in shock.

Jia frowned. "Why not? You're training Po, so you've probably got your hands full." He questioned.

Shifu raised a hand up to stop them. "No, no, it's best if you don't make contact with the council," He gave a controlled sigh. "leave this with me to deal with and follow my instructions."

"O-okay master." Yu answered quietly.

"Is that understood?"

"Yes master." They muttered together.

He eyed them carefully then the line went dead and the pixelated image of him disappeared.

Jia was the first to break the silence. "Well, I guess we get packing then." He said nonchalantly and turned away from the laptop to start picking up the clothes they'd left on the floor.

Yu followed his lead, and Ying after her, albeit reluctantly. Fan and Cong were a bit more hesitant, always the last to discipline themselves.

"So are we just… leaving?" Cong asked, eyebrow raised.

Ying shrugged. "You heard him, what else are we supposed to do."

Cong wanted to protest. Ying was most stubborn out of all of them, it was so unnatural of her to backdown so quick, especially when they came all the way to Malaysia. "Don't you think there must be something going on here? We wouldn't have been sent here if there was absolutely nothing, right?"

She shook her head. "We have to listen to Shifu." She said simply.

Fan sighed hearing this and went in the direction of the double doors leading out to the balcony with Cong hot on his heels. They stood outside together in the tiny space provided. Though small it was enough to look out onto the dingy alleyways that surrounded the motel. Down on the road Cong silently watched people go about their day while Fan idly scrolled through his phone.

"It just – it kinda seems like a waste you know? To just go home after going all the way here." Cong spoke, and Fan grunted in agreement. "Me and Jia basically risked our lives for this, we actually sacrificed so much for nothing."

He stopped for a second. "Well, I guess it's only nothing if we go home, because I think realistically, we can find this killer."

"I guess Shifu just doesn't believe that we can." Fan sighed, still looking at his phone.

"But he won't even give us the chance -!" He stopped when Fan gasped loudly. "What?"

A phone was stuffed in his face. "Look at this article!"

Cong took the phone from him. "Doesn't this sound familiar to you?" Fan asked, excited.

"Holy shit." Cong breathed, reading the title. "This must be the guy we're looking for! We have to show this to the others!"

They rushed in, and the five gathered around Fan's phone.

"Is everything alright master?" Po asked tentatively from the doorway of the kitchen.

He'd heard commotion while attempting to meditate, familiar commotion, the sound of the voices that usually filled the house. And Shifu's stricter tone to accompany it. With all the noise (because for some reason the volume was turned all the way up) he broke any small ounce of concentration he had for meditation and took a peek at what was going on.

Shifu heaved a sigh before turning round to face him. "Yes, everything is fine."

"How are the Five doing?" He couldn't help himself, he was still eager to learn what went on in these missions. He could picture action-packed adventures, filled with tons of hand-to-hand combat, awesome parkour and close get-aways. As much as they downplayed it, the Five were ultimately cool, and Po was almost dying of boredom with Shifu for company.

They'd been training, but slowly, and Po was itching to get a taste of the kind of stuff he'd seen in movies. But Shifu seemed desolately half-hearted, as if he didn't care too much about Po's progress.

"The Five will be coming back within the next day." Shifu said dismissively.

"I – wait, what?" Po was taken aback, he could have sworn they told him this mission would take a week? "They've only been gone two days! I thought this was a long and important mission?"

"Well the mission is cancelled," He said with finality. "shouldn't you be meditating right now?"

"Yes master." Po said hurriedly. "but I wanted to ask, when – when does my real training start?"

Shifu raised an eyebrow.

"As in, the actions stuff, real kung fu! And the spy stuff! Like sneaking around and picking locks and parkour – "

"When you are ready." Shifu interrupted him.

"But didn't master Oogway say –"

"Oogway made a mistake." He interrupted again, much firmer this time. "Just do as I tell you and –"

The laptop came to life, the screen showing a bright blue skype logo. Text telling him he had an incoming call and a loud ringtone cut through what he was about to say.

Shifu groaned and turned round to take the call. "What is it now?" His impatient tone did nothing to deter the voices that came from the other end.

"We think we know who the killer might be!" Came Fan's excited voice, his face taking up the screen.

"Hi Po!" Cong said, waving from behind Fan.

Po waved back hesitantly, realising that he was in view of Shifu's camera.

"You're getting ahead of yourselves here," Shifu argued with them. "just leave it to me."

"But we found this article, look!" Ying turned on her phone and showed him her screen, a paper white background with paragraphs of writing. "They said a criminal escaped a high-security prison a week ago, this is definitely the guy we're looking for!"

"No, absolutely not." Shifu shut them down quickly. "You don't know who the killer is and you're not going to find out, and that is final!"

"We need to contact the council immediately and they'll help us find him!" Yu added.

"I will not repeat this!" Shifu bellowed. "Leave. It. To. Me."

They fell silent, until –

"No." Came Fan's voice. "No, we – we won't."

"He's right," Cong spoke. "we came here to get a job done, and we're not going home until we do it."

"I jumped off a building for this, I'm not just letting this guy get away." Jia added stubbornly and Po couldn't help the impressed gasp that fell from his lips.

"You're all being ridiculous." Shifu muttered.

"Yeah? Well let's see how ridiculous the council think we are." Ying challenged, and swiftly hung up.

Po's stomach dropped to the floor in fear for her, hanging up on Shifu was something he'd never dare do. "Master? What's going on?" He asked carefully.

Shifu slammed the laptop lid down in rage. "The Five think they can go after the killer themselves, well they can't, and they won't listen to me."

"But surely they can take this guy on?"

"No, they can't and they're not meant to!" Shifu growled. "I know you think they're some sort of dream team and while they're incredibly skilled and powerful, I can't put them in this sort of danger…" He stopped for a second, looking at the floor. "I… I just can't, they're too valuable for that…"

Po was almost tempted to re-phrase Shifu's words. Despite seeming to be increasingly critical of the Five during Po's time with them, the way he spoke of them sounded as if he actually cared. And not just about their training and progress, but about their health and welfare. As much as he was tough, there was certainly love there, and Po couldn't deny that. He just hoped they noticed.

"Shifu thinks we're not good enough for this," Ying muttered angrily as she typed in the contact details of the council. "well we'll show him, we'll show him…"

"I wonder what he's doing with Po." Jia muttered out loud.

"Good luck teaching him," Cong scoffed. "I seriously doubt we'll have someone who can do any ounce of kung fu when we get back."

Yu elbowed him in the ribs, drawing a loud swear from him. "Don't be such a dick, anyone can learn kung fu." She said harshly.

"Yeah but can he be a spy?" He pressed on, despite the pain in his side.

Fan shook his head instantly. "God no, could you imagine him in a life or death situation? It'd be chaos…"

Ying stopped her typing and turned round to face him. "You say that as if you haven't also caused us chaos in a life or death situation." She growled.

Fan spluttered in mock outrage and glared at her.

"You may like him more than we do Ying but honestly, he doesn't look like he has any potential." Jia added

"Neither did you when we first met." She said shortly, and turned back round to the laptop, ignoring his irritation and starting a video call with the master's council. "Right, everyone be respectful…" She muttered, more to herself than them.

It took quite a few rings before they picked up, and Ying worried they almost weren't going to.

"Good afternoon Masters." They chorused.

"Good afternoon students." Said Master Rhino.

The Master's council was comprised of Masters Rhino, Ox and Croc. They were the heads of the underground organisation of spies, and some of the best kung fu masters of their generation. No one knew their real names, and no one knew what the story was behind their code names. All they knew was that their orders came from the council, and the council took their orders from the one and only Master Oogway.

Considering they were such important and powerful figures, the Five hardly spoke to them.

"What is it you needed to talk to us about?" Master Croc asked.

"Well we're currently in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Shifu sent us on a mission to find an escaped serial killer." Ying said.

"Ah yes," Rhino nodded. "yes I remember telling Shifu about that one."

"Are you calling to ask about the new developments?" Ox asked them.

"Er what – what new developments?" Jia questioned, confused on what they were talking about. "Do you mean the viral news article?"

"The one about the escaped killer from a high security prison?" Yu chimed in.

Rhino nodded.

"Yes we were going to ask about that –" Ying started before he could talk. "if you knew what prison this was?"

Rhino frowned. "As a matter of fact we do, not sure why Shifu didn't get that to you, we already got the information to him yesterday…"

"I – what?" Ying stopped. "Shifu – Shifu knows what prison this is?"

"Yes Ying, it's not a light subject for him." Ox said firmly.

Ying didn't even react to Ox's tone like she usually would, she was too lost in her thoughts. The others exchanged a worried look.

Yu cleared her throat. "Can I ask what prison this is?"

"Chorh Gom prison."

A collective gasp and exclamation went round the room.

"You've got to be kidding…" Cong deadpanned, eyes wide at the realisation.

"We're not kidding," Croc responded. "and I'm guessing your assumptions are correct, the killer is Tai Lung."

Having it said out loud did nothing to help their dread.

"But…. He can't have escaped… everyone said he would never…" Yu looked to the others for help, but they were as struck as she was.

"This is crazy, this is crazy…" Cong said to himself.

Ying gathered herself and turned her attention back to the council. "Thank you very much for your time masters."

"My pleasure," Rhino said. "good luck on your mission." And they hung up.

With the council gone, an uproar went round the room.

"What the actual fuck!" Fan exclaimed.

"This is CRAZY OKAY?!" Cong yelled, putting his head in his hands.

"This makes no sense!" Jia groaned. "What the fuck are we going to do….!"

"We can't possibly go after him! He's Tai Lung." Yu wrung her hands in dread, looking to Ying for help.

But Ying never responded, too busy with going through the bag they used to carry any weapons and spy gear. Sounds of metal and hard plastic clanged together as she tossed them around, seemingly not caring about damaging them in her rush. She muttered to herself and ignored their hysterics at the news. Sure, Tai Lung was a notorious murderer, and Shifu's former student. But, weren't they also his students? Not quite having enough respect to their name that Tai Lung did, but with a decent amount that they were somewhat renowned across the Council of spies. Ying was absolutely positive they could take him on.

She stood up to face them, holding a pocket sized dagger disguised as lipstick.

They went silent, looking at her with a mixture of shocked and alarmed faces.

"Fuck sake Ying," Fan muttered, walking up to her and attempting to take the dagger from her hand. "we can't, we just can't."

"I don't care," She said stubbornly, dodging him. "this is what Shifu trained us for."

"He'll kill you," Jia said seriously. "Shifu hid him from us for a reason, okay please, for once use your brain and don't fight back!"

Fan grabbed onto the dagger and they had a small tug of war at it while she retorted back to Jia. "I don't care! Shifu underestimates us, he always thinks we can't do things and we always prove him wrong!"

She finally shook Fan off with a loud grunt, panting heavily. "I – I know I sound crazy okay, I get it. But please guys, I need to do this."

The tone in her voice spoke a thousand words and her eyes held long-kept secrets and insecurities. So much that Yu spoke up.

"Well, if you're going, then I'm going too." She said bravely.

"Again, you'll die!" Jia repeated in an annoyed tone.

Cong shook his head. "I'd rather die trying than not at all. Ying? I'm in."

A smile she fought away crept onto her face. A small wordless thanks.

Fan groaned. "Fine fine!" He exclaimed, his annoyance dissipating at the agreement. "I'll go too then."

Cong grinned and fist-bumped him. "That's my guy!"

They all looked to Jia for the final say. He gave a deep groan and rolled his eyes. "If I die, I'll make heaven hell for you." He said grimly, and smiled despite his words.

"So lads, what's the plan?" Cong asked, a newfound spirit taking over them.

Ying opened the laptop once more and started typing rapidly. "I'm emailing the council to ask if they have any current leads on Tai Lung."

Yu bit her lip worriedly. "What if they tell Shifu?"

The question hung the air thickly. Neither of them quite knew how he'd react. The reaction he'd had to the article they'd found was… aggressive, to say the least. And that was only when they'd become mildly close to finding the truth. Of course they knew how sensitive of a subject it was to him. Everyone in the spy community knew. The faded tale of a baby boy adopted by Shifu, trained and cultivated to be the next greatest spy. Then his bitter ending was not quite as glorified as Shifu had hoped…

Chorh Ghom prison was meant to hold Tai Lung forever. Well, they weren't sure on the exact details of his sentence, but he it would surely be too risky to set him free. He knew almost everything there was to know about the undercover community of spies, and considering his last interaction with Shifu, there was no doubt that he'd do anything to kill him.

What would Shifu do if he found out? He was bound to though, wasn't he. Ever perceptive, he'd obviously notice they never took the plane home, and then he'd definitely contact the masters council, who'd tell him everything, unaware of the private drama stretching between them. Then would he travel to Malaysia? Stop them from making what could be a massively stupid mistake. Would he take Po with him? No, no surely not. He'd only be a liability.

Fan broke the speeding trains of thoughts they were having with a long sigh. "I guess we cross that bridge when we come to it." He said, as if he didn't have a care in the world. "For now, we focus on getting the help we can from the council and start forming a plan."

The others nodded in agreement.

Jia dragged one of the grey-ish looking plastic chairs the motel provided them with towards him and sat down, resting his knees on his legs looking intently at them.

"So, do we know what his goal is?" He started. "That'll make it easier if we know where he's heading, then we can stop him before he gets too far."

Fan mirrored his actions and took a seat on the bed opposite. "I'm guessing he wants to kill Shifu, or possibly Oogway." He said thoughtfully. "You know, the whole avenging thing he's all about."

"So he needs a mode of transport to get to China," Cong frowned, sinking down onto the bed also. "unless he's hitch-hiking, I'm not sure how he thinks he's going to get there."

"But don't all the stories say that he was immensely strong, had the best stamina, and could withstand any weather and go for days on foot?" Yu said, kneeling down to sit cross-legged on the floor.

"That must be a myth." Cong scoffed. "The guy was a criminal, not some invincible being."

"Yeah but he's powerful," Jia said pointedly. "we still need to stay cautious."

"It's five versus one, I think we have the upper hand here." Ying showed a barely concealed smirk, joining Yu with the laptop still in her hands.

Jia raised his eyebrows at her confidence but said nothing.

"Where do we start though?" Fan asked. "He escaped over a week ago, he could be on the other side of Malaysia by now."

"God this is all so hard without Shifu." Cong muttered. "He just gives us the information we need and everything is so much more simple –"

"Hey! The council responded!" Ying interrupted after a ding came from the laptop.

"I take it back, the council are so much better." Cong said quickly.

She opened the email, showing a large map of Mayalsia with various red circles and arrows connecting them. Each circle had a little collection of text, including a date and time. Ying zoomed in and found that the circles were all the places there had been possible sightings of a man bearing resemblance to Tai Lung. They probably weren't all accurate, as there were some distances that would have been immensely difficult to travel in the time stamp given. But it was almost daunting, how many security cameras had caught him entering various dark alleyways. After a more detailed look she finally found what she was looking for.

Ying spun the laptop round so they could see the screen.

"Here, this was the last place he was seen." She said, pointing to one of the circles. "And here is where he's been seen in places in the closest proximity to each other."

"Hmm, he doesn't seem to stop in one place for very long." Fan added thoughtfully.

"He's smart, definitely knows what he's doing." Jia remarked.

"So you're thinking that he's maybe staying around that one place there?" Cong pointed vaguely in the direction of the collection of circles.

"It looks like quite a run-down area doesn't it?" Yu took a closer look by zooming in on the buildings. And sure enough, everything on the ground was old, derelict and almost painted the perfect picture of a ghost town. "Do you think he's using it as his place to stay?"

"There's only one way to find out." Fan clapped his hands together. "Let's say we stake him out."

A collective groan went round the room. Stake outs were the worst. They consisted of waiting, watching, concentrating, waiting, hiding, waiting, crouching, boredom, and waiting. Everyone frequently complained of sore knees if they were forced to crush themselves into small spaces. Usually, they were unable to stretch their legs unless they got any action. Which was so unbearably rare.

Fan was the only one of them who had enough patience to sit through a stake out and not get himself caught or fuck it up. At one point in their spy careers, everyone except Fan had royally messed up in one way or another. Once, Cong got so restless he started attacking a random man after waiting in the corner of a dark alleyway for two hours. Unable to see him properly in the dark, he had no idea it wasn't the criminal he was meant to be stalking. The whole situation required a lot of explaining and didn't earn them the best reputation from the council.

"I hate stake outs." Cong muttered.

"Really? You've never mentioned it before." Jia teased lightly and Cong kicked him in the shin.

Ying ignored their banter and located the spot where the red circles were on Google maps to get a closer view. And as quick as ever, she formed a plan. Perfectly measured and if it was perfectly executed then they'd make it out of Malaysia with an imprisoned Tai Lung and completely unscathed.

That's what she hoped, anyway.

*comes out of hiding place* h-hey guys... yeah, it's been a while...

Since I last posted a chapter, I moved halfway across the country to go to uni and am officially living on my own! So most of my time has been spent either working or taking care of myself haha (let me tell you cleaning a kitchen is damn time-consuming). And I had the wooooorst block, absolutely had to force myself to write this chapter so I hope it's not too bad.

I have no real author's notes to add to this chapter? Apart from the fact I'm so sorry this chapter isn't terribly well written and I'm so sorry for my absence. I've got to the part in the story that I've been dreading for so long because it's way harder to write, but I'm pushing through!

Please continue to leave comments and let me know what you think! It means the world to me :))