Chapter 5: The Story of Kai
Arriving on the rooftops, Shifu's staff clashed against the creatures of jade as the others fought them off as best they could.
Crane swooped down from the skies, kicking one of the jade creatures away. One of the creatures attempted to swipe from behind, but Donnie quickly came to his friend's defense, deflecting the strike with his staff.
One of the jade creatures fired an arrow at Tigress, who quickly caught it as she was fighting off another jade creature while Leo jumped over her to kick the other jade creature away.
Raph blocked a sword from one of the jade creatures with his sais before kicking it away as he stood back to back with Casey.
"Enemies of justice! Prepare for wa-" Po started, leaping in to join the fray when he suddenly recognized one of the jade creatures, which looked like a large badger. "Are you kidding me?!" He exclaimed, so distracted that he crashed into the roof. "Ow!'
There was an awkward silence as everyone stopped fighting, even the jade figures, as they watched Po slowly get up.
"What's the deal with the green guys?" Po asked, joining the fight as it resumed.
Tigress flipped backwards as she kicked one of the jade creatures. Viper quickly wrapped herself around the jade figure, keeping it in place long enough for Tigress to punch it.
Tigress winced as she felt a bit of pain surge through her paw, which surprised her. "Some kind of jade zombies." She said.
"Jade zombies?" Both Po and Mikey said as the orange clad turtle batted another jade creature away while Monkey landed near them.
"Jombies!" Po, Mikey, and Monkey all exclaimed. They then turned and pointed at each other. "Jinx!"
Just then one of the 'jombies' roared as it tackled Mikey while one of the badger jombies tackled Monkey.
Mikey quickly kicked the jombie off of him, flipping back to his feet. However, his eyes widened upon getting a closer look at the jombie. "Oh man, Rahzar?!" He exclaimed, recognizing the mutant zombie wolf even in this jade zombie-like form.
April kicked away a jombie who seemed to resemble a gorilla before several precise strikes hit her in the back, knocking her down. Rolling onto her back, April just barely managed to block the jade kodachi aimed down at her with her tanto. "Tatsu?!" She exclaimed, recognizing the large man in the hannya mask with the Foot emblem on his shoulder.
Casey swatted the jombie who looked like a komodo dragon before he was suddenly grasped by a giant jade hand. "Erg. Ho Chan?!" He exclaimed, spotting the ancient ghost turned jombie grasping him.
Leo quickly kicked the jombie Ho Chan away before clashing with another jombie, one that when he recognized it, shook him to the core. "And…" He spoke, almost choking, "Shredder?!"
Right there, clashing blades with the blue clad turtle was none other than the Shredder himself. Instead of looking like a disgusting undead entity that was his zombie self, or the grotesque muscular being that was the Super Shredder, he instead looked almost exactly like he used to when he was human. He had his human form back, complete with the same armor and weapons, the only difference was that his entire body including his armor was made out of the same crystalline jade that the other jombies were made out of. He even seemed to wear Kuro Kabuto in all its original glory, but like everything else, it seemed to be made of jade too.
Leo barely had time to jump out of the way as the jombie Shredder aimed a kick at the blue clad turtle. Leo was forced on the defensive as the former leader of the Foot Clan lunged at him.
Down below, Li Shan's eyes widened with worry as he spotted Po dueling with one of the badger jombies on the rooftops.
"Lotus, be careful!" Li Shan shouted worriedly.
"It's okay, dad, I do this everyda-" Po was cut off as he was struck by the porcupine jombie and slammed into the roof.
"Whoa, I recognize these guys!" Po said as Crane fought off the two badger jombies as he blocked their strikes with his swings before attempting to retaliate with a few kicks. Unfortunately, one of the jombies grabbed his leg and spun him around before throwing him away. "The master Badger Twins… with their crushing gong technique!"
Right as he said that, the Badger Twins both leapt into the air and slammed their staffs down on Po, knocking him deeper into the roof before they both ran off.
Po groaned as he climbed out of the hole. "Yep! That's the one." He said. "And that guy…" He gasped as he watched Shifu clash his staff with the porcupine jombie's bow before the jombie threw the red panda into Tigress. "No! Master Porcupine!"
"I thought he died a hundred years ago!" Monkey exclaimed as the Porcupine jombie shot an arrow at Po, the simian deflecting the arrow and throwing it back at the Porcupine.
The Porcupine jombie didn't even flinch as the arrow hit him. "These guys are legends!" Po exclaimed as he got up, Monkey charging at the Porcupine and engaging him in combat.
"This is not the time to be fanboying, Po!" Donnie chastised, clashing his staff with the jombie Tatsu's kodachi. "Though I gotta admit, beings made of living jade are pretty cool. Wish I could study them."
Leo grunted as he pushed the jombie Shredder back. "Study them after we smash them into a million pieces!" He then slashed at the jombie Shredder's throat, but there was not even a scratch as the blade on Leo's katana snapped in half.
"Or not." Leo said before blocking the jombie Shredder's claws with his remaining katana.
Po quickly dragged a painter onto the roof. "Hurry! Get a quick sketch of us!" He then rushed over to the Porcupine jombie, dodging and blocking a few of its strikes while the painter drew frantically before Po grabbed the Porcupine into a half hug and made a peace sign.
The Porcupine quickly kicked Po in the face before flipping away. "Did you get it? Did you get it?" Po asked, running back towards the painter.
The painter, who was now trembling wildly, slowly showed Po the picture.
"Aw, I blinked." Po groaned in disappointment. "Can we get another one?"
Suddenly, the Porcupine jombie tackled him through the roof as they crashed into the panda's bedroom at Mr. Ping's Noodle Shop. "I'm being choked by Master Porcupine! This is so cool." Po fanboyed even while being choked by the jombie. He then pulled down his Porcupine action figure from the shelf. "Ooh, ooh, look! It's you!"
Shifu jumped down into the bedroom. "Po, focus!" He told the panda, knocking the Porcupine off of him as the fight continued.
"'Message from the universe'?" Mr. Ping grumbled, furiously chopping up a radish. "I'll give you a message from the universe… stay away from my son!" He said, tossing the cleaver knife away and folding his arms.
Just then, Po and the Porcupine jombie crashed down into the courtyard of the restaurant, startling the old goose.
"Sorry, dad! I'll clean up later." Po said, grabbing a pan to use as a weapon.
"Whoa, whoa, not my good pan!" Mr. Ping cried, snatching the pan and replacing it with a ladle. "Take this one."
The fight continued in the courtyard as the Turtles, the Five, Shifu, April, and Casey leapt down with the other enslaved masters.
"Lotus! Watch out!" Li Shan cried as he ran into the courtyard.
Po deflected a blow from the jombie Tatsu before swinging the ladle at the jombie Rahzar, which broke instantly.
The jombie Rahzar then swung its claws at Po, forcing the panda to duck as the jombie mutant wolf slashed at a poster of Po behind him, causing Li Shan to gasp in fear.
"Dad, check out my dumplings of doom!" Po yelled, kicking over a table and launching several dumplings into the air, which he all caught in his mouth.
Viper then wrapped herself around Po's stomach as Tigress pulled the serpent's tail back, making Po spit out the dumplings at the jombies like a machine gun.
The jombies tried to block the dumplings, but it was too much for them as they were forced back.
"Hey, jombies! Taste explosive pucks!" Casey yelled, taking several explosive hockey pucks out of his pocket and punting them at the jombies, the explosion blowing them all into a corner.
Gathering together, Po, the Turtles, the Five, Shifu, April, and Casey managed to pin all of the jombies down, though it took a lot of effort.
"Gotcha." Po smirked.
Suddenly, all of the jombies eyes began to glow as an eerie laugh rang out from all of the jombies, much to everyone's surprise.
"I see you." Kai grinned, looking through the eyes of his jade servants, his voice coming out through their mouths. "Your chi will soon be mine."
He then shifted his eyes over to the Turtles, seeing their looks of shock, confusion, and even a bit of fear. "And you," he said, "you are all not quite what I expected you to be."
"Is he talking to me?" Po asked in confusion as the others looked creeped out.
"Which one? They're all talking." Tigress said.
"Whoa, you're right. That's so scary." Po said in awe. "We should try that, too. Maybe it'd be scary back at them."
"Okay, but we gotta plan what we're gonna say first." Mantis said. "Otherwise, it won't be scary, it'll be just stupid."
As they spoke, nobody seemed to notice Leo, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey hold their heads slightly as that familiar surge of pain rushed through all of them again, but they tried to ignore the pain as best they could.
"It's not them talking, you idiots!" Kai's voice spoke through the jombies. "It's me talking through them, Kai."
There was a long awkward silence as the group glanced at each other confusedly.
"Who?" Leo, Po, Raph, Donnie, Mikey, Tigress, Viper, Monkey, Crane, Mantis, Shifu, April, and Casey all asked.
Kai rolled his eyes. Typical. But then again, what was he expecting?
"Okay, okay, okay, enough." He sighed, shifting his hands as they glowed.
Before the group's very eyes, the jombies slowly converted into small jade pendants before soaring into the air, leaving a trail of green mist behind them while leaving Po, the Turtles, the Five, Shifu, April, Casey, Mr. Ping, and Li Shan behind.
"Did you see that? Did you see–?" Po stammered, at a loss for words.
"What just happened?" Leo said, shaking his head as the pain quickly faded.
"The green smoke just poof… and then poof!" Po said in shock. He then turned to Shifu. "Sh-Shifu, what was that?"
"Kai. Kai. Kai…" Shifu muttered. That name sounded familiar, like it was on the tip of his tongue. But… "Nope. Never heard of him."
"Another thing, how is it this… 'Kai' person brought all those masters back when they've been gone for so long?" Viper asked.
"Yeah, ancient kung fu masters who died long ago coming back as jade zombies is crazy enough. But guys like Tatsu, Ho Chan, Rahzar, and Shredder? Something's going on here." Donnie stated, sheathing his staff.
Going back to the Jade Palace, the group immediately went straight to the palace library. Shelves upon shelves of scrolls lay inside. Some were old scrolls, some were new ones. Some contained the secrets to ancient powerful technique, while others had the instructions to a basic move.
"Kai. Kai. Where is it? There's so much wisdom in here, I can't find anything." Shifu groaned as he searched one of the top shelves. He then picked up a particular jade scroll, "Yes!" He exclaimed.
He then leapt down from the shelves, carrying the jade scroll in hand. "Behold." Shifu said, holding the scroll out for everyone to see. "All the answers will be found within."
Shifu then opened the jade container and took out the scroll. But when he unscrolled it… "What? It's blank?!" He exclaimed incredulously. "Are you kidding me? Not again."
Tigress, Raph, Casey, Monkey, and Crane all facepalmed, Leo, Donnie, and April all collectively pinched the bridge between their noses, and Mikey, Mantis, and Viper all groaned.
Shifu was about to put down the scroll when he noticed something on it, "Wait, wait. Hold on. Sorry. Oh okay, here we go." He unrolled the scroll slightly as the others crowded around him, Li Shan and Mr. Ping standing nearby.
"It is written in Oogway's hand." Shifu noted before he cleared his throat. "'Long ago, I had a brother'-"
"Oogway had a brother?" Monkey asked in surprise while everyone else looked taken aback.
"In arms. In arms." Shifu quickly added, unrolling the scroll a little further. "Sorry. He says brother in arms."
"Can't you just unroll it all at once?" Raph questioned.
Shifu gave the red clad turtle a blank look in response before he continued. "'I was an ambitious young warrior…'" He read, "'...leading a great army. And fighting by my side was Kai, my closest friend. One day, we were ambushed, and I was badly wounded. My friend carried me for days… looking for help. Until we came to a secret village, high in the mountains. An ancient place of healing. A village… of pandas.'"
Po, the Turtles, the Five, April, and Casey all gasped in shock.
"Pandas?!" Po exclaimed.
'Yes, pandas.' it read in the scroll as if to respond to Po's question.
"'The pandas used the power of chi to heal me.'" Shifu read. "'They taught me how to give chi, but Kai wanted the power all to himself. He saw that what could be given could also be taken. I had to stop him. Our battle shook the Earth until finally, I was forced to banish Kai to the Netherworld, a place in the Spirit Realm meant only for the evil and wicked, as much as it pained me. But should he ever return to the mortal realm, he can only be stopped… by a true master of chi.'"
"True master of chi?" Po asked before he gasped, pointing at Shifu. "Like you!"
"Me?" Shifu questioned. "I can barely make a flower bloom. I'd need at least thirty more years, and a cave."
"We need a chi master." Viper said.
"He will continue to steal chi until he has consumed it all." Shifu stated.
"Then we have to stop him." Leo said.
"Yeah, no duh, fearless." Raph said sarcastically.
"If we don't, he'll get more and more powerful with every master he defeats!" Crane said worriedly.
"Which means he'll be unstoppable!" Donnie added. "Who knows, if he consumes all the chi on this planet, what's to stop him from taking all the chi in the universe? What if he finds a way to cross dimensions and take chi from there?"
"Well, he escaped the Spirit Realm, so it might be possible." April said.
"There is no choice. We fight." Tigress stated.
"But dudes, how are we supposed to learn chi? We don't even really know much about it." Mikey pointed out.
While everyone was talking, Po gazed at the scroll, particularly at the image of the pandas healing Oogway through the power of chi.
"I can teach you, son." Li Shan piped up, speaking directly to Po, and getting everyone else's attention.
"You… can do this?" Po hesitantly asked.
Li Shan smiled. "Well, of course. I'm a panda." He replied.
"That must be why the universe sent you here!" Po exclaimed. "Okay, so what do I have to do?"
"You have to come home with me." Li Shan replied, much to everyone's shock.
"What?" Mr. Ping asked in shock.
"To the secret village?" Po also asked.
"Yes, son." Li Shan answered. "You must rediscover what it is to be a panda. You have to learn how to live like a panda. Sleep like a panda. Eat like a panda. Those one hundred-three dumplings? Hmph… I was just warming up."
Po smiled happily. "I've always felt like I wasn't eating up to my full potential."
"You can't take Po away from me!" Mr. Ping protested, glaring up at Li Shan. "No, no, I want a second option. Shifu, open another scroll or something."
"I think he should go." Shifu said, much to Mr. Ping's surprise.
"It should be easy for Po to learn chi since it was the pandas who discovered it in this dimension." Donnie pointed out.
"Fine. A third option." Mr. Ping grunted before looking to the others. "Monkey? Viper? Tigress? April? Casey?"
"Dad, you heard what Shifu said Oogway said." Po said to his adoptive father. "This guy can only be stopped by a master of chi, and I can only master chi by knowing who I really am. Well… I'm a panda."
Mr. Ping sighed sadly. "I'll pack your lunch for the road."
The others couldn't help but gaze sympathetically at the elderly goose.
"Poor Mr. Ping." Mikey whispered.
Leo glanced at Li Shan and back to Po before he stood up. "If it makes you feel better Mr. Ping," He said, "I'll go with Po and Li Shan to the secret village."
That little declaration surprised everyone, Mr. Ping and Li Shan especially, as they all looked towards the blue clad turtle.
Seeing his older brother volunteering, Mikey narrowed his eyes determinedly as he stood up as well. "Me too!" He said, walking up to Leo's side. He then grinned. "Besides, I think it'd be pretty awesome to learn what it's like to be a panda."
Raph snorted. "You would." He muttered to himself.
All of them looked to Li Shan who almost seemed to shift uncomfortably before he smiled. "Well, you're both welcome to come along." He said.
"So what about the rest of us?" Viper asked curiously.
Leo turned to them. "You guys stay here and try to find out all you can about Kai. In the meantime, me, Mikey, Po, and Li Shan will get ready to go."
The group all collectively nodded before they set out to do their respective tasks.
Kai sat perched on the deck of the abandoned boat he found in the dried up sea, clutching the jade Oogway pendant in his hand.
He thought back to when his servants had found Oogway's disciples, and even though they had managed to defeat his jombies (and like everyone else who was unlucky enough to come across him, none of them had heard of him) but he finally managed to identify those four strange presences.
Those four presences were those four turtles.
When his jombies had been close, Kai had done something he had never managed to do before. He managed to peak into each of those turtles' minds, seeing their memories, their thoughts, their very desires.
The blue one was brave and noble, however underneath, he was rather gullible but still competent.
The red one was strong and hot-headed, almost like himself. But under that rage filled exterior, he sensed a soft caring side that he rarely let out.
The purple one was intelligent, extremely intelligent. Perhaps smarter than any being on this planet in this mortal plane.
The orange one was childlike and naive, but had a certain wit to him that made him… amusing to say the least.
Searching their memories, Kai could see all of their accomplishments, which were impressive indeed, but not enough to deter him.
Through much searching, Kai soon found out how he was able to see into these young warriors minds.
A strange seed buried deep inside each of their subconscious which had been planted into them not long ago, thought to have been knocked out of them by that small golden child Kintaro, but still remained. It was a seed that, while small, allowed him to enter their minds unopposed, allowing him to see things through their eyes.
A seed that, after much searching through memories, he found out had been planted into their minds by a certain mad blind wolf on a mission to rid the world of evil.
It was a seed... that he could take control of.
Kai smirked evilly. It was ironic. Oogway had brought these four young turtles here to this world to stop him…
… when really, they would be the instruments that would lead to his revenge.
