A/N: Thank you to all who review! I wish I could directly reply in the review area to make it easier instead of tacking it on here at the start. Remember, if you have any questions, ask. Unless it's a spoiler of course xD I'm glad you guys liked the Viper scene though! And yes, Hunter is a human, thought I made that clear, that's my bad.
Alyx Courtman: Thank you for your reviews! They mean a lot! I'm glad you look forward to the next chapter as much as I do publishing it!
HanMan99: Yep, it was correct indeed! Nice job figuring it out!
The usual thanks to regular reviewer Starless Echoes as well: I'm glad you're liking the story! I hope I'm getting across the point that Hunter is different to the Five in many ways. I'm glad you like Hunter, so to speak! xD
ArchAngel319: Thanks for the review! Made me smile reading it! Yes, I decided to make this more bloody, although I figure that in canon, Kung Fu Masters simply exercise restraint, kinda like Spider-Man and Batman do to avoid killing despite the fact they both have the strength and skill to kill their enemies with ease, although the Masters are obviously willing in extreme circumstances, such as Tai Lung, Shen and Kai. Hunter uses no such restraint since he doesn't feel the need for it... Unless necessary xD. Also, the Chih Kuan Crane Clan is actually part of canon, I can't take credit for them. I just expanded on them a bit since they're never shown, only mentioned as guarding the Thread of Hope. In canon, it was them who built the bridges across to the Valley as repayment for Oogway helping them against their enemies, and they also guard over it to repay him. The Crane OCs used are mine though.
They travelled for about 4 hours in relative silence before coming to a halt in front of a bamboo forest. It would likely have been around 2 hours if they hadn't had to slow down for Po. For his part, Hunter somewhat regretted how he'd reacted back at the Palace to Tigress grabbing his arm. Although truthfully, he'd acted worse to less... After what had happened in the Hall of Warriors yesterday though, he'd been very... On edge, and being grabbed like that, especially in his line of work was cause enough to react violently and swiftly. In fact, it had gotten to the point that any kind of physical interaction made him uneasy, intimate or otherwise.
He also wasn't used to working with others so... Closely . The Five and Po were a cohesive unit, while he usually worked alone, or if it was a multi-contractor thing, like the Gorilla War, it was more of an army than a small, tight-knit unit like this group were. As for Hunter himself, he worked faster alone. Either way, he was out of his comfort zone right now, and it was putting him even more on edge... He wished Shifu hadn't asked him to bring the group with him. He didn't doubt the group's abilities in Kung Fu, that wasn't the problem, but his plan had involved not having to fight at all. It still did, he hoped. In his mind, bringing the others was unnecessary, or at least bringing all of them. One or two would've been enough to keep an eye on him if they didn't trust him, while also minimally impacting both travel time and the speed of the mission itself.
"This is their new place?" Po asked, panting heavily as he looked to be about two seconds from keeling over or throwing up.
Upon hearing Po speak, Hunter turned his head towards the Dragon Warrior, who was behind him, laying on the ground. "Yes. I hope you can climb, Panda." he stated and leapt upwards, bouncing off two trees to reach the top, holding his legs between two bamboo trees to keep himself suspended above. Po's mouth dropped at seeing him climb like that as the Five all quickly joined him above the ground. Po, remembering that bamboo is food, also managed to surprisingly, for Hunter anyway, effortlessly scramble up. "Well, colour me impressed Panda." Hunter nodded at that and began expertly pushing off one tree with his foot to land on another with his other foot and repeat the same, using this method to travel the Bamboo treetops. The Five all followed closely, with Po lagging a little but managing a decent speed for his size.
Eventually they came to a halt as the bamboo trees stopped, and at the edge of the forest on a cliff edge were the Leopards that made up the Ladies of The Shade, in a camp just as Hunter had said. Po breathed heavily as he caught up. "Sweet! Finally! I'll just go down and ask them-"
Hunter quickly interrupted him. "You'll do no such thing" he stated, and Po froze in place as the Five looked between the Dragon Warrior and The Hunter as Po looked to be about to plead otherwise, but was quickly shot down. "No. I know Kung Fu doesn't really teach you advanced stealth, but I'm trained in such methods. I'll sneak in and simply find the Sword and take it back. You guys are just here for backup in case I get caught." He told them, and they all looked very unhappy at taking his orders, although reluctantly conceded it was likely a decent plan.
Despite this, Monkey shook his head at the situation. "I'd expect nothing less from an honourless thief." he said to Hunter, who glanced at him warningly, and Monkey suddenly found the tree he was holding to be incredibly interesting as he stared at it.
Tigress then slid down from where she was above in the trees and got in Hunter's face. "If you try anything funny, freak, I'll run you down and 'Hunt' you." she warned dangerously, and Hunter rolled his eyes at her attitude.
He gave a long suffering sigh at that, sliding down the bamboo trunk. "Yeah yeah, I get it, Kitten." Hunter grumbled to himself and she growled at the repeated nickname he'd given her.
Upon hitting the ground, he quickly ran out from the treeline and took cover behind a cart as a feline guard walked over to patrol. After seeing it was clear, the guard turned and Hunter darted behind a tent and quickly peered inside to take a look, shaking his head in the negative. A different guard walking between the tents turned her back at that moment, with Hunter using this opportunity to quickly get behind the tent next to the guard and check that one too, also seemingly a no...
While waiting in the trees, Po was looking rather antsy as Hunter quietly and relatively quickly searched tent after tent. "Po? What's up?" Viper asked, with the Five all looking to Po apart from Tigress, who never took her eyes off of Hunter to make sure he didn't try anything...
He shook his head then as he answered her. "I don't know, I just... This feels wrong, you know? Song seemed like she genuinely wanted to change, I don't get why she'd steal from us like this..." Po said to the others, with them silently agreeing it was strange... Po then took a breath, making a decision. "I'm going down there." he stated to the group.
Viper shook her head to him. "Po, no, we should wait!" she tried to say, but he was already sliding down the tree. The others all looked at each other and joined him down there so he wasn't alone when he did whatever he was going to do.
As usual, Po went a little overboard and did a jump flip into the clearing, getting the attention of the Ladies, the Five following behind him... They were all shocked at the sudden intrusion, but stood down when they saw it was the Furious Five and Dragon Warrior. "Song! Come out! We need to talk!" Po exclaimed.
...
About a minute prior to Po's announcement, Hunter was still moving through the tents carefully, when he spotted a much larger tent close by, but away from the others, tucked away in a rocky alcove. Ducking into an empty tent and letting a guard walk by, he quickly exited through the other side and moved over to the back of said large tent. Poking his head in, he saw that this would be an ideal place to keep the Sword... He entered and began searching the area when he heard Po yelling outside and cursed. "Fucking Panda can't keep his damn mouth shut..."
He was about to quicken his search when he heard something from the front of the tent... "Hold on Po! I need to show you something!" exclaimed a female voice, the owner of which stepped into the tent and grabbed something on a nearby table... It was Song. She then turned her head inside and spotted Hunter standing there, her eyes widening... "T-T-The H-H-H-Hunter..." She stuttered, shaking like a leaf before she darted out of the tent quickly in a panic.
Hunter closed his eyes, sighed deeply once more and grumbled to himself. "Fuck." he shook his head and quickly followed her out of the tent with his cover now blown anyway and at least Po out in the open, if not also the others. There was no point in being sneaky anymore.
Song quickly bolted over to Po and leapt behind him as the other Ladies all turned to where she'd come running from to see Hunter emerging from the tent. Upon laying eyes on him, all of the Ladies backed off with fear clear in their eyes. "Who...? Who wants us dead!?" Song asked, still shaking so much she was almost shaking Po along with her. "W-Why? We-we've changed! Please, please don't!" she begged him, getting on her knees.
The Five all looked shocked at the Ladies all cowering in fear of him. "By the Ancestors, what did you do to these girls?" Mantis asked Hunter. His tone was slightly joking, but it was also a relatively serious question.
Song peeked out from behind a rather confused Po. "He's... The Hunter... If he's here, it means someone's put a price on us... Or at least, me." she stated to the Five. "Have you never heard the ballad?" Song asked the Five and Po, and they all looked at each other with shrugs. Even Po didn't know what she meant by that judging by his own confusion.
Hunter sighed at that and rolled his eyes at what she said. "No, Song, I'm not here to kill you." he told her, and she looked more confused than anything about his presence there.
She then looked to Po, putting two and two together by the looks of it. "Wait... Are you guys all here together?" Song asked him.
Crane then spoke. "We're here for the Sword of Heroes." he told Song, who looked incredibly confused at him telling her that.
Viper then slithered up to her. "Hunter told us you hired him to find it." she explained further to Song, who looked at Hunter like he'd thrown her under the carriage.
Song then shook her head violently. "N-no! We don't steal anymore! Not for personal gain, anyway. Sometimes we steal food to help the poor or those in need, but never for ourselves! Look, look! We're legit now!" she held out the piece of paper she'd returned to her tent for. Hunter moved over, snatching the parchment from Song, who quickly moved back from him. Hunter took a look at it, giving it a read over before passing it to Po to also read once he had. It was a completed contract for a bandit leader they'd turned in to the guards. "Our first real contract." Song said to the others.
Hunter then took a breath and calmly walked over to her, leading to Song backing up and eventually falling down on her back and scooting backwards away. "Song, where is Su? She hired me to get the Sword." he said to Song, crouching down by her.
Po and the Five all looked at each other worriedly. "Wait, it was Su who hired you?" Monkey asked Hunter, who nodded in confirmation at that.
The Dragon Warrior then groaned loudly. "Su isn't in charge of the Ladies anymore!" he pointed out to Hunter who seemed confused by that statement. "She was arrested for trying to steal the Dragon Chalice." Po continued to explain.
Hunter took a moment, then sighed and looked down at the ground while shutting his eyes. "Fuck... Okay." he then stood up and held his hand out for Song to take. "Come on. I won't bite. Unless you ask nicely." he said, gesturing with his head for her to just accept his help in getting up.
Song hesitantly took his hand and he pulled her up to stand. She understandably had a huge look of relief on her face at how this had all turned out. Tigress then stalked over to Hunter and growled. "What use are you if you don't know where the Sword is?!" she asked, her stance aggressive and demanding.
Hunter seemed thoughtful at that. "Well, I can ask around. I'm sure Su will have passed through some town somewhere to get food and such." he suggested, placing his chin between his thumb and index finger. "Or else stole. But a female Leopard with a sword like that will not have gone unnoticed."
Song then bowed to the Five, Po and Hunter. "We would be glad to assist you in finding the Sword. I'm sure we ca-"
"SONG!"
Everyone looked towards the loud voice that called out the leader of the Ladies and saw a figure standing on a crescent rock that loomed over the camp that backed onto it, with it providing shelter from the wind for the Ladies. Atop that rock was none other than...
"Su..." Song gasped in shock at seeing her old boss come back. In her paw was indeed the Sword of Heroes, and behind her a large group of bandits was gathered at the ready...
Hunter cocked his brow at this sudden change of events. "Hmm. Looks like we won't need to look far, eh Kitten?" He grinned a little at Tigress, who scowled a little both at Su's appearance and Hunter's little nickname for her. "Quite a coincidence..." Hunter remarked absentmindedly, stroking his masked chin thoughtfully.
Po then turned his head to look at him. "Master Oogway once said that there are no accidents." he pointed out to Hunter.
He just chuckled in remembrance of the old Turtle's words and drew his blade. Something the Five and Po didn't notice before was how the sword had a kind of ghostly aura about it, as if the air around it was a second or two slower than the blade itself, creating a kind of ghostly trail whenever the sword even twitched. "Well then, shall we answer the kitty cat's challenge or will we be lemons?" Hunter asked with a hint of excitement in his eyes as he peered up at Su in preparation.
Song decided to finally answer her old leader. "What do you want, Su?!" she called out as the rest of the Ladies stood alongside her.
Su laughed at that. "Isn't it obvious? I came to take back what you, ironically I might add, stole from me!" she yelled out, pointing the Sword at Song accusingly with rage in her eyes. "Hmm, I see you have some allies . Perfect. The fat Panda and his friends . We can kill two birds with one claw!" She said as she cast her hate-filled eyes at the additions to the Ladies in their camp. "The rest of you, stand with me and be spared! And we'll execute this pussycat for her betrayal!" She called the others to her side, who stood firm against her and stayed with Song.
Mantis then clicked his antenna together. "Guess they're not 'pussies' after all." he chuckled at that, leading to many present groaning in response.
"I repeat my offer to kill me." Hunter spoke once more in monotone, his gaze still fixed on Su as he spoke to Tigress, who shook her head at both jokes, standing at the ready for battle.
Su pouted at that and sighed, lowering her head in disappointment. "What a shame. Kill them all." She gestured to her bandit friends who all leapt down from the rocks to attack the Ladies.
Hunter cracked his neck and flipped his sword in a backward position. Without warning and before anyone else could react, he darted forwards and leapt upwards at a bandit, kicking off of his face, the force he used actually snapping the bandit's neck with Hunter using the momentum to put power in a diagonal downwards swing, cutting down three bandits at once in a single strike. He then spun around on one knee and blocked a blade coming his way by holding his blade sideways across his body. Using his superior strength he knocked the blade to the side, kneed the bandit in his groin and swiftly stabbed him through the chest. Quickly throwing his arm out sideways, four more bandits fell with thrown daggers embedded in their chests. Hunter then spun around to engage more bandits that were, albeit hesitantly, approaching him with their own weapons.
At first, everyone was shocked by Hunter's speed and his instant ruthless assault on the bandits, but they all quickly joined the fray so as not to leave him facing the bandits alone. Po was doing his usual butt kicking routine, kicking one bandit and taking him out while also spinning with his fist extended out to take out another 5 at once, quickly moving to another group. "Viper, super punch!" he exclaimed. Said serpent then quickly slithered over and wrapped around his arm and used her bodily strength to make Po hit even harder by pulling his fist outwards as he struck with it. The two took down row after row of bandits together.
Crane was currently using his air superiority, lifting bandits up and kicking them back down while also getting down to the ground and using his wings for precision strikes on his foes. He continued side stepping his enemy's attacks and blocking them from striking, allowing opportunity to present itself. Seeing two bandits huddled together, he quickly flew right between them, knocking them down while he finished them with one strike each to the head before quickly spinning to disorient his foes.
Mantis threw his foes around and dodged between them, jumping over the head of one of them, grabbing their ears and flipping them over his body, slamming them into a group of their allies, knocking them off balance and providing more opportunity for one of the others. He then tripped a bandit over, leading yet another to fall over his fallen ally and accidentally throw his weapon, which hit another bandit in the head, knocking him straight out.
Monkey made sure to keep moving between bandits, distracting and misleading them before striking, or allowing one of his allies to do so. He also broke off a piece of bamboo from the trees and began using it as a weapon, striking his enemies or countering their own weapons and disarming them quickly. He jumped atop an enemy who had a hat, and pulled said hat down over his head, making him wildly swing his weapon and take out some of his own due to lack of sight.
Tigress was fighting closer to Hunter, and was as ferocious as usual. She jumped atop two bandits with one paw on each head and slammed their heads together, knocking them both out. Easily flipping over an axe swung her way, she landed and stuck outwards, her strength sending said bandit flying backwards, hitting some of his fellows as he went. She ducked a sword strike and during the duck swiped the bandit's legs out and as he fell in the air she leapt forwards and drop kicked him, using the momentum to flip backwards and land gracefully.
The Ladies weren't slacking either, using their parasols they disoriented the bandits like Crane was doing and used their own fighting skills to assist the Five, Po and Hunter in their battle. They weren't as skilled in combat, but using their agility and acrobatics they could certainly compliment the Five and they were eager to help. Song used her parasol to propel Mantis forward in a charge attack, while another held her parasol to allow Monkey to propel himself in a kick, and they also caused confusion.
Su, seeing the battle clearly wasn't going her way, snarled and struck outwards with the sword, sending a green wave towards the battlefield. Hunter saw this and leapt up in a huge springing backflip leap, holding his sword defensively. A sound of metal on metal rang out as his sword collided with the green tinted energy of the Sword of Heroes and either absorbed or disbanded the energy. He landed in a crouching stance with his blade in the backwards grip facing Su, who seemed to only just realise Hunter was a part of the battle. Her eyes widened at that. "Hunter?! What in the Ancestors are you doing here?!" she asked in a more panicked voice.
Hunter slowly stood from his crouched position, slightly craning his neck to look up at Su. He held his hand out with his sword in the backwards grip, pointing at her with his fist while the blade stuck out to the side. "Righting my wrong I did by stealing that Sword for you." he said to Su, who looked at the blade in question, apparently wondering if it was indeed worth it...
She seemed to decide it was. Cackling, she shook her head at him. "Suddenly growing a conscience are we, my dear Hunter? Here I thought you were just a soulless killer." she chided him, seemingly fancying her chances with her Sword vs Hunter with his own.
Hunter glared up at her, with two bandits approaching him from both left and right, he kicked out to the side and sent one flying back into the bamboo forest while at the same time he blocked the blade of the other by twisting his upper body and holding his blade close to his face. The bandit had overcommitted to the strike and his blade bounced off Hunter's who used the opportunity to thrust his blade into the bandit's stomach. Withdrawing his sword he swiped it gracefully to the side, decapitating the bandit with minimal effort as said bandit fell to his knees and then his side, now headless. "I said I'd get you the Sword, not that I'd never try and take it back." Hunter pointed out to Su.
Su then tutted at Hunter. "Technicalities, Hunter? Such frivolity is beneath you ." she stated and swung the Sword again this time in an outwards slash. Hunter simply flipped backwards this time and avoided it as it sliced through the ground in front of him.
Hunter then turned around quickly and slashed at a bandit's blade. The bandit tried to block but Hunter's sword just sliced right through the bandit's own sword and continued cutting until it hit fur and flesh, slashing the bandit's chest. Seemingly somehow seemingly cutting further than the length the blade actually extended, the bandit fell to the ground as Hunter spun his sword in his hand for some momentum and slashed it towards another three bandits, also taking their blades out from the hilt upwards. The three reconsidered their life choices and decided to flee into the bamboo forest.
Hunter was about to pursue, but Su lashing out with her Sword again grabbed his attention instead. He jumped up once again to intercept the green blade's energy as it extended out, but a bandit Monkey had dropkicked collided with Hunter in midair, sending them both down to the ground, the bandit being rendered unconscious by both the kick and the collision. Hunter looked up as the blade energy hit the ground and caused a shockwave...
Tigress didn't see it coming. She jumped up and threw her legs out in an upside down T shape, taking down two bandits before grabbing one's legs and swinging him around in a circle, taking those close to her out before she let him go and the velocity meant he flew through more of their number. Then, the shockwave hit. Tigress was thrown backwards and sent skidding along the ground towards the cliff edge. Unsheathing her claws and digging them into the ground to slow her slide across the ground, it partially worked as she was left dangling on the edge instead of being flung off. She tried to clamour back up, but Su's shockwave had reached the cliff edge and partially severed a part of it, leaving a gash in the ground as Tigress felt the cliff-face she was grabbing onto coming loose.
Hunter saw this, as did the others. However, Crane was distracted by the event and seeing the opportunity, a bandit leapt on his back and started hitting him, rendering him unable to fly currently. Monkey quickly moved to help him, but wouldn't be fast enough to help Crane, and for Crane to then also save Tigress... The others meanwhile were all met with a wall of bandits when turning and moving to help her. With Hunter already away from the others and with no bandits currently blocking his path due to the shockwave in question, he sprinted over to the cliff edge. When he was close, he saw it... She fell. Hearing her scream out, he took a desperate dive and managed to catch her paw before she fell too far. Then he felt it. The cliff edge was coming loose, fast. " Fuck... Quick, use your claws, climb me!" he exclaimed to her, and Tigress looked unsure about this plan. "FUCKING CLIMB!" Hunter yelled at her, spurring her into action. Moving her other paw to his back she gripped with her claws and Hunter hissed in slight pain. She moved her other paw lower down his back and then her back legs followed up and she jumped, using his body as a springboard as the cliff came away.
Tigress spun around to pull him up in return for him helping her, but was too late as he fell out of reach. However, it appeared he had a plan to escape. Jumping from the falling piece of cliff, he hit the cliff-face and jammed his sword into the rock, managing to pierce it, stopping his fall and allowing him to remain alive. He also pulled out one of his daggers and stabbed that into the rock as well, using the two weapons to climb the new cliff Su had made with the Sword. Tigress found herself sighing in relief at him being safe, although wondered why she felt that way... Although he did just save her life at the risk of his own, which was likely the reason.
When he got near the top, Tigress held a paw out for him. The claws on that paw ironically had his blood on them from being used to climb him. "You're not planning to drop me, right Kitten?" Hunter asked, although his tone was serious his eyes held a lighter tone.
Tigress scowled and rolled her eyes at him. "Just grab my paw, you freaky hairless ape." she said to him, her tone and face as serious as usual as she spoke.
Hunter did indeed take the offer of her helping paw. She thought pulling him up would be relatively effortless, but he weighed more than she expected by quite a bit. She could, of course, lift him just fine, but his weight had caught her off guard. And she didn't think that weight was fat either... "Of course. How could I resist such a tempting and charming offer? And from a lovely lady such as yourself?" Hunter spoke in a dramatic and sarcastic voice as he found himself back on solid ground.
Tigress found herself blushing a little bit at his response. She'd never been called lovely before, not by anyone who'd known her for more than five seconds anyway, even sarcastically. She shook her head of those thoughts quickly. "Maybe next time I will just let you fall." She scoffed and brushed past Hunter as he watched after her with an unreadable expression before following.
The fight was basically over by this point. The bandits were either unconscious or limping away, or dead, if they were unlucky enough to engage Hunter in the battle. Su was in the centre of the camp surrounded by four of the Five, Po and the Ladies. "Give up, Su. You're outnumbered, and outmatched." Po spoke, his voice cocky as he took on a Kung Fu pose.
Su then looked to the Ladies, who had once again stuck with their rightful leader, Song. "You fools! You could've joined me! And been rich!" Su looked around for a way out and seemed like she wanted to try something foolish... She prepared to swing the sword in a complete 360 and-
Suddenly, a sharp pain erupted from her paw... Looking towards the source of the pain, she found a dagger stabbed through the paw holding the Sword. Dropping the Sword of Heroes, it was caught during its fall by Hunter, and the dagger clearly belonged to him. "I'll take that." he said as she fell to her knees holding her paw and crying out in pain before Hunter used his sword hilt and smacked her upside the head, knocking her out and sheathing the two swords. Everyone stared at him for a good minute or two. "What? Sometimes I take people alive." he shrugged at that, taking some rope from... Somewhere and tying Su up before she regained consciousness.
Monkey smirked at Hunter then from next to him, and hit his arm. "You know, you're not half bad for an 'honourless thief'." he winked at Hunter who chuckled and rolled his eyes at the rather odd compliment.
Viper agreed with that sentiment. "You are indeed a capable warrior in combat and a worthy ally to have in a fight." she smiled at him.
Crane and Mantis rolled their eyes and nodded in agreement with Monkey and Viper's comments to Hunter. They may not like him as much, but they definitely respected his skills at least, and he did save Tigress without hesitation at great personal risk.
Tigress then walked over to him and opened her mouth but closed it, looking away for a second. "Thank you. For saving me back there. You didn't need to." she said, keeping it simple as always.
He scoffed and shook his head. "Yes I did. Who else is going to keep me paranoid all the time?" Hunter jabbed at her then before once more looking serious. "You're quite welcome, Master Tigress." He gave her a small bow as thanks.