AN: Prepare for lots of exposition in this one!

Chapter 14: A Real Warrior Never Quits

At that same time at the bunkhouse, the turtles and the Furious Five were gathered around the dinner table in the kitchen as Po decided to cook noodle soup for the night. Mikey at first had offered to help, but Po politely turned him down, much to the orange clad turtle's disappointment.

As he cooked he started getting into a little story about some 'cool' time an infamous bandit had invaded his family's restaurant.

"... So I'm like, fine, you may be a wolf," Po told his story dramatically while he chopped up a radish with the kitchen knife, "you may be the scariest bandit in Haijin Province… but you're a lousy tipper."

Leo, Donnie, Mikey, Crane, Viper, Monkey, Mantis, and even Raph listened to the story, looking quite amused as they waited for their dinner.

Tigress, meanwhile, sat off to the side, already eating her small plate of tofu as she had stopped listening a while ago.

"Really?" Crane asked, sounding a bit incredulous. "So… how did you get out alive?"

Po suddenly faltered a bit. "I mean, I didn't actually say that…" He stammered. "But… I thought it. In… my mind." He then looked around for another ingredient for the soup. "He could read, he'd be like, 'whut'?" He looked up and opened the cupboards. "Now where is the… oh, here it is."

Viper, Crane, Monkey, and Mantis snickered before they looked to Leo, Donnie, Raph, and Mikey.

"So, where exactly do you guys come from?" Crane asked. "I don't think any of us have really seen people like you around here."

"Our father was originally from Japan." Leo half-lied. "After he adopted us, he moved here to find a better life."

"Really?" Monkey said, sounding quite interested. "So who was he?"

"He was a rat named Hamato Yoshi, but we also called him by his nickname, Splinter." Donnie explained. "He was the one who raised us and taught us the way of the ninja."

"You guys were raised by a rat?" Mantis questioned with a slight snicker.

"That rat was one of the best people you'd ever meet." Raph frowned, shutting the bug up.

"So what was your father like?" Viper asked curiously.

The turtles all smiled at the memories of their father but there was a twinge of sadness to each of them as well.

"He was the best." Mikey said, his voice a tad solemn. "He was strict sometimes, but he still loved us a lot."

Noticing the forlorn look emerging on the party turtle's face, Tigress couldn't help but ask, "What happened to him?"

The turtles smiles all quickly faded as they all shared a saddened look. "He… he was killed in battle many months ago." Leo admitted, twiddling a bit with the wrappings on his wrists.

The Furious Five, even Tigress, looked stunned at that, Po even momentarily stopped cooking for a moment at that new piece of information.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Viper said, instantly taking pity on the four young turtles with her being the sort of mother of the group and all.

Leo nodded his head while Raph, Donnie, and Mikey smiled sadly.

"Speaking of families, hey Tigress," Mikey spoke, changing the subject a little, "is it true you were adopted by Master Shifu, kind of like Tai Lung?"

Tigress stiffened slightly before she turned to the orange clad turtle with narrowed eyes. "And where, pray tell, did you learn that, Michelangelo?" She lightly demanded.

Shrinking back a little, Mikey quickly gestured over to the rest of the Five who cringed in a bit of fear while Leo, Donnie, and Raph traded nervous glances as Po kept cooking with an uncomfortable look on his face.

Tigress sighed, relaxing a bit since the topic of her past was always a bit of a sensitive one. "Yes. I was left at the Bao Gu Orphanage when I was a small cub. And because of my great strength, I was feared by the other children and the adults. But then Shifu came and taught me how to control my strength and he took me to the Palace to train me." She then looked slightly crestfallen. "He never showed me love or praise, but I guess that was asking too much of him."

The others were silent as Tigress went back to eating her tofu. Leo frowned sympathetically at the tiger master while Po glanced over his shoulder at her rather guiltily.

All she ever wanted was to be loved by a parent, but Shifu had never given it to her, which was why she had built up such a cold and hard exterior. And right there, Po and Leo could tell that she had wanted to be the Dragon Warrior to finally earn Shifu's appreciation, his affection, to make him proud…

… and they had taken that from her.

"So what about you guys?" Donnie asked the rest of the Five. "What about your families? And how exactly did you guys come together?"

"Well, I'm the firstborn daughter of the Great Master Viper." Viper explained. "My family is actually said to be descended from the dragons themselves, whose flames were refined into our deadly venom. My father was the greatest of our clan, his venom was so powerful that just one prick from his fangs could kill fifteen gorilla warriors... and a mid-sized crocodile! He protected our village for years and he was overjoyed when I was born to carry on his legacy. But he was shocked to find out I wasn't born with fangs, meaning I couldn't learn his Poison Fang Technique." She sighed sadly.

Mikey looked at her cautiously, "Oh, so does that mean he-" he tried to ask but Viper quickly corrected him.

"Oh no no no! Don't get the me wrong, me not having fangs didn't stop him from loving me. In fact, it was because he loved me so much that he was so… well, disconsolate. He thought since I didn't have venom, I was vulnerable to his enemies because they would try to use me to get to him. And he feared that if I tried to help protect the village, he would lose me. So he kept me at home where he knew I was safe, but the thought of losing me still made him sad." Viper said.

"So when I was little, I did this ribbon dance to cheer him up every time he came home," She then smiled as she picked up a small ribbon and twirled it with her tail, "and it worked, at least a little. I could tell he only smiled to make me happy. Anyway, a few years later, at the Moon Festival, I soon became the best ribbon dancer in the village, but without fangs, I was too afraid to go to the festival." She then glared as she thought back to her least favorite part of the story, "My father was on his way to the wonton boof when a gorilla bandit invaded the festival. My father tried to bite him but his fangs were broken by a special poison-proof armor the gorilla wore as soon as he tried to attack him. Soon the gorilla was throwing my father around like a piece of rope! And I knew I couldn't just stand there while my father was getting hurt! So I went down there to help, though I didn't know what I would do then, I did know one thing."

"What's that?" Raph asked.

Viper's eyes turned sharp as she smirked, "That no one beats up my Daddy! So then, armed with nothing but my ribbon, I beat that overgrown bully of an ape with his fists and my deceptive dancing and found my courage that night. And it was also the night I finally got a real smile out of my father, even though he had crumbling fangs," She giggled, remembering that her father did look pretty silly back then, "Though pretty soon after my father's fangs grew back, I went back to ribbon dancing, only until Tigress found me and brought the rest of us to the Jade Palace."

"For me, when I was young, my brother Wu Kong and I were both trouble makers. We used to play tricks on other people when we were kids living with our mother." Monkey said before frowning and glaring at the table, thinking about his brother. "But where I was happy pulling pranks and harmless jokes, Wu Kong went deeper into a life of crime. Eventually, he was caught and sent to prison, shaming our family. One night, though, he escaped and continued his criminal ways, even trying to rob our home. I couldn't let him get away with it this time. So we fought and then when our Mother woke up and saw us fighting, it broke her heart and she fell, giving Wu Kong a chance to escape, proving that he no longer cared about our mother or me. Before she died, she told me that despite everything he did, my mother still loved Wu Kong and made me promise that if any harm were to come to him, I would protect him," His face turned slightly solemn.

"Oh man. Sorry dude, that's rough." Mikey said before Monkey brightened up a little.

"Thanks, but I managed to move on from that. For a while, I was on my own. And during that time, I became a bit of a dirty trickster myself, making people slip on banana peels and other things. Eventually, the villagers had enough and so they came with a plan: They told me to leave." Monkey saw the others deadpanning at him and he shrugged. "Okay, so it wasn't a good plan, so they decided instead of asking me to leave, they would make me leave. They called for kung fu masters, mercenaries, bounty hunters, anyone they could get to try and scare me off. But unfortunately for them, I could quite literally beat the pants off anyone!" He laughed remembering how he beat every warrior that fought him by stealing their belts and making their pants fall.

"That was until they called for the one warrior they were sure even I couldn't defeat!" he continued as Po and the turtles quickly got an idea who it was.

"Master Oogway." They all answered as Monkey nodded.

"Yup, it didn't help that Oogway was not only the greatest kung fu Master ever, but also the fact he didn't wear pants, so I couldn't even trick. Not that it would've mattered since I couldn't even touch him, he was so fast! But then just before a falling beam of wood could crush me, Oogway saved me and convinced me to turn my life around and to treat others the way I wanted to be treated, with respect. Pretty soon, I was only playing pranks and tricks on criminals and thieves. A little while after that, I decided to try my hand at being a comedian, and that's when Tigress found me and brought me along to help found the Furious Five."

"When I was little, I lived with my mom for quite a while since she was really overprotective of me." Crane told his story as he sighed in exasperation. "She made me wear a suit of armor and patted every sharp part of the house. One day I snuck out and tried out for this kung fu school, but I got beat up really badly, losing a large part of my confidence. After seeing how badly I was hurt, my mom nearly had a heart attack. So for her sake, I promised her I wouldn't do anything that involved kung fu."

"Well, looks like you broke that promise," Donnie commented as Crane sighed.

"Yup, but not right away. When I grew up, I took a job at the Lee Da Kung Fu Academy as the, uh… janitor. I really did want to learn kung fu, but I lacked the confidence in myself since I was kind of looked down upon by the other students for being so skinny and remembering how badly I got beat up. But then one night, the academy's top student Mei Ling saw me during my cleaning routine the night before the new student try-outs. And she was so impressed, that she actually encouraged me to try out for the school. When the try-outs arrived, I had some pretty steep competition, burly gorillas, crocs, and boars, you name it. And to get into the school, all you had to do was grab a little red flag, on the other side of dangerous, impossible not-to-get-hit gauntlet."

"Whoa, extreme much?" Leo gasped and Crane nodded.

"Yeah, after seeing all the other competitors failing one after the other, it was eventually my turn to go. But as soon as the other students and instructors realized who I was, they laughed at me. I thought I was in over my head and just went back to sweeping. But then when I wasn't paying attention, I accidentally walked right into the gauntlet. I knew that with one false move, it would be my last. But then as I saw the flag in reach, I felt something I hadn't felt in years: Confidence. I felt it from the bottom of my feet to the tip of my beak! Even my hat felt like it was full of confidence!" Crane smiled as he remembered the rush he had felt then, "So using my wings, agility, and skills I gained from cleaning the school I managed to pass the test and get into the school. Though, pretty soon after that, I went back to cleaning as the janitor just for my mother's sake, before Tigress came to the academy and recruited me for the Furious Five."

"I'm basically the forty-second of eighty-nine kids in my family." Mantis said. "There were so many of us that mom had like no time for any of us at all, so she'd basically put us in these big groups. It's because of that, I kinda left early. Meanwhile, my dad was doing fine. Mom bit his head off at the moment of conception."

Silence immediately filled the room as Po, Leo, Raph, and Mikey openly stared at the bug with wide eyes while Donnie looked nonplussed and the rest of Five also looked quite disturbed but looked to the newcomers with a slight sympathy.

"What?" Mantis asked.

"Dude, your mom ate your dad?!" Mikey exclaimed, a bit horrified.

Mantis rolled his eyes a little at their disbelief. "Oh, boy. Here we go."

"It's actually natural for a praying mantis to eat their companion during mating." Donnie explained before shivering a little at the mental images of normal mantis' mating. "But still, that doesn't make it any less disturbing."

"Hey, like you said, and like I was gonna say, it's completely natural and normal." Mantis stated.

"'Normal'…" Leo said, sounding a little skeptical.

"Hey, we were pretty disturbed too when he told us about it." Monkey reassured them.

"Yes, it was definitely not pretty to hear." Crane shuddered.

"There are birds that lay eggs twice their own size and this is what grosses you out?" Mantis questioned.

"Pretty much, yeah." Raph replied, his face looking a little greener than usual.

Mantis sighed. "Okay, yeah, it is a little weird. Anyway… after I left, I did some jobs here and there, learned about being patient and all that stuff, yada yada yada, before I decided to become a doctor. And wouldn't you know it, my first patient was none other than Shifu! But since I didn't really have a lot of experience as a doctor, I kinda ended up making him more sick than he already was. Then Tigress came back to the Jade Palace with the others and we pretty much became the Five."

The turtles gazed at the feline master curiously. "So you formed the Furious Five?" Leo asked.

Tigress looked a little hesitant, as if a little embarrassed before she nodded. "Yes, I did, Leonardo." She replied. "It was during a time when the valley was being threatened by a former master named Boar."

Raph let out a laugh as soon as he heard the name 'boar'. He stopped abruptly when he realized he was the only one doing so, with the others giving him disapproving looks.

Raph frowned. "I can't be the only one who finds that funny."

Tigress cleared her throat before continuing her story. "As I was saying, Master Boar was once a respected and powerful kung fu master, but he was proud, headstrong. He believed he was invincible. And it was that arrogance that led him to be dismissed by the Masters Council. Outraged, he went on a rampage, destroying everything in his path before setting his sights on the Valley of Peace. Master Shifu was preparing to face him when, of all times, he got food-poisoning due to eating some… improperly prepared food. So he sent me to fetch four warriors to battle Boar in his stead while Mantis came to give treatment to Master Shifu. I headed to the Lee Da Academy and found Crane there, we then found Monkey doing stand-up comedy in bars, Viper in her performances, and finally Mantis back at the Palace. Upon returning to the Jade Palace, however, Master Shifu was furious as they were apparently not the warriors I had been sent to recruit. However, since Shifu was still too sick to battle Boar, we fought and defeated Boar ourselves, becoming the Furious Five as Shifu accepted us as his students."

"Wow…" Po and the turtles let out as the panda came over with nine bowls of noodle soup.

"Order up!" Po called, giving one bowl to himself while sliding out the others to everyone else except for Tigress since she already had her plate of tofu. "Hope you like it."

Leo, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey immediately picked up their spoons and gleefully slurped down their noodles while the Five took a bit more of a hesitant approach.

However, as soon as they tasted it, Viper, Crane, Monkey, and Mantis' eyes all brightened.

"This is really good!" Mantis exclaimed before shoveling as much as he could into his mouth.

"No, c'mon." Po said bashfully. "You should try my dad's Secret Ingredient Soup. He actually… knows the secret."

"What are you talking about?" Viper questioned with a smile as she slurped down some more noodles. "This is amazing!"

"Wow, you're a really good cook." Crane said with a nod.

"I wish my mouth was bigger!" Mantis lamented.

"Tigress," Monkey said to his feline friend before diving back into his bowl, "you've got to try this."

At this point, Tigress was kind of regretting declining Po's cooking. After all, the soup did in fact smell delicious. Well, too late for that now. "Hmm…" She hummed, picking up her tofu, "It is said that the Dragon Warrior can survive for months at a time with nothing but the dew of a single ginko leaf and the energy of the universe." She then continued to eat her tofu as she shot a glance at the panda.

Everyone else fell into an awkward silence. "I guess my body doesn't know it's the Dragon Warrior yet." Po chuckled. "Gonna need a lot more than dew. And, uh, universe… juice." He then lifted his bowl and took a big long sip of his broth.

When he set the bowl down, everyone noticed he had a long noodle stuck to his lip, in a way resembling Master Shifu's long thin mustache.

Despite their better judgment, Leo, Donnie, Raph, Mikey, Viper, Crane, Mantis, and Monkey all snickered a little at the sight of it.

"What?" Po asked.

"Oh, nothing… Master Shifu." Mantis chuckled as he and the others were on the verge of laughing.

Po finally noticed the noodle mustache on his lips, his face brightening with an idea as he picked up his chopsticks while pretending they were Shifu's flute.

"You will never be the Dragon Warrior unless you lose five hundred pound and brush your teeth!" Po said, doing a gruff imitation of the red panda as he assumed a stoic face.

Unable to hold it, Leo, Donnie, Raph, Mikey, Monkey, Viper, Mantis, and Crane all burst out laughing at the silly impersonation.

"What is that noise you're making? Laughter?! I've never heard it before!" Po continued his impersonation. "Work hard, Panda, and maybe someday…" He reached over and held two bowls over his head. "You will have ears like mine."

Leo, Viper, Donnie, Crane, Raph, Monkey, Mikey, and Mantis were in near hysterics at that little gag. Even Tigress failed to hold back a quiet snort, perhaps this panda wasn't quite as bad as she thought he was.

However, as they all looked behind them, their eyes widened as they immediately stopped laughing, and for good reason.

Standing there behind Po in the doorway was none other than Master Shifu himself, Oogway's staff in his hand and one heck of a scowl on his face.

"Ears. It's not working for you? I thought they were pretty good." Po said in his normal voice, not noticing Shifu behind him.

"It's Shifu!" Monkey whisper-yelled.

"Of course it's Shifu. What do you think I'm doing?" Po said, still not noticing the red panda.

Mouth gaping, Monkey pointed behind the panda while Leo, Raph, Donnie, Mikey, Viper, Crane, and Mantis shifted their eyes in the same direction.

Po slowly turned around, finally seeing Shifu behind. Mortified and in a panic, he quickly slapped the bowls to his chest.

"Ooh! Master Shifu! I…" Po trailed off, quickly slurping up the noodle on his lips and standing awkwardly to the side while also revealing the bowls were stuck to his chest in a bra-like fashion.

This action pretty much elicited further giggles from the others, albeit more suppressed ones in the presence of the red panda.

"You think this is funny?!" Shifu exclaimed with a murderous look, not amused in the slightest. "Tai Lung has broken out of prison and you're acting like children!"

"What?" Po asked while the others immediately stopped laughing.

"He is coming for the Dragon Scroll, and you and your guardians are the only ones who can stop him!" Shifu stated, talking directly to Po.

Comically, the bowls on Po's chest popped off and clattered to the floor as Shifu's words sank in.

Po started to laugh nervously. "And here I am saying you got no sense of humor. I'm gonna… stop Tai Lung…"

Shifu stared up with a dead serious look, indicating he wasn't kidding.

"What, you're serious? And I have to… uh… n-n… Master Oogway'll stop him! He did it before, he'll do it again!"

"Oogway cannot!" Shifu snapped before his face softened. "Not anymore." He said quietly.

The Turtles and the Five all gasped in horror when they heard that, finally realizing Oogway's staff was in Shifu's hands.

"What?" Leo whispered in surprise.

"Oh no…" Viper gasped.

"He's… he's really…?" Crane stuttered, shocked while Leo, Donnie, Raph, Mikey, Tigress, Monkey and Mantis looked thunderstruck.

"Yes." Shifu answered simply with a solemn nod. "Our only hope now… is the Dragon Warrior, and his guardians."

"The panda?" Tigress questioned in disbelief. "And the turtles? Them?"

"Yes, them!" Shifu responded.

"Master, please." Tigress argued, getting up from her seat, "Let us stop Tai Lung, this is what you trained us for!"

"No!" Shifu stated firmly. "It is not your destiny to defeat Tai Lung, it is theirs!" He gestured to the Turtles and to where Po was, only to find that he was gone.

"Where'd he go?"


Po screamed at the top of his lungs as he ran down the stairs out of the bunkhouse.

He couldn't do this. He couldn't do this, he kept telling himself.

He wasn't that far from the gates to the village, if he could get there he could just go back to his dad's noodle shop and just pretend this whole thing never happened.

However, his plans were quickly put to a halt as Shifu landed right in front of him, causing the panda to skid to a stop.

"You cannot leave!" Shifu told him. "A real warrior never quits!"

"Watch me!" Po scoffed defiantly before he tried to fake out the red panda so he could move past him.

But Shifu was wizened to such tricks and used Oogway's staff to redirect the panda back in front of him.

"Oh come on!" Po sighed despairingly. "How are me and the guys supposed to beat Tai Lung? The guys got the crud kicked outta them by the Furious Five, some of the greatest warriors in all of China, and I can't even beat you to the stairs!"

"You will beat him because you are the Dragon Warrior!" Shifu stated. "And your guardians will be by your side to aid you in battle."

"You don't believe that!" Po retorted. "You never believed that! From the first moment we got here, you've been trying to get rid of us, me specifically!"

"Yes, I was!" Shifu admitted, tripping the panda with one swish of his staff. "But now I am asking you to trust in your master as I have come to trust in mine."

Po frowned. "You're not my master." He stated, batting the staff away with his paw. "And I'm not the Dragon Warrior!"

"Then why didn't you quit?!" Shifu demanded. "You knew I was trying to get rid of you and your friends, and yet you all stayed!"

"Master Shifu does have a point."

Po and Shifu looked to see Leo, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey descending down the stairs towards them.

"You took all that punishment and yet you still toughed it out." Raph said. "And now's when you decide to pull out? What gives?"

"Even if us being here was an accident, this isn't something we can just run away and forget about." Leo stated. "Innocents are at risk."

"Besides, if the Five can't beat Tai Lung, then who will? Who will help the people of the Valley?" Donnie asked. "We have to take a stand."

"Yeah, man, what happened to that whole 'a real warrior never quits' thing, dude?" Mikey questioned. "Like Shifu said, you knew he was trying to get rid of us but you still stayed."

"Yeah, I stayed." Po said, pushing himself up before speaking directly to Shifu. "I stayed because every time you threw at my head or said I smelled, it hurt… but it could never hurt more than it did every day of my life just being me."

Shifu and the Turtles were stunned silent as Po continued.

"I stayed because I thought if anyone could change me… could make me… not me, it was you!" Po said. "The greatest kung fu teacher in all of China!"

"But I can change you! I can turn you into the Dragon Warrior! And I will!" Shifu insisted.

"Oh, come on! Tai Lung is on his way here right now!" Po groaned. "And even if it takes him a hundred years to get here, how are you going to turn this," He gestured to his enormous belly, "into the Dragon Warrior?! Huh?"

Shifu opened his mouth to reply, but froze, unable to say anything.

"How?" Po asked again. "How?"

Still nothing.

"HOW?!" Po yelled.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Shifu shouted out in frustration. He then sighed deeply, a quiet look coming over his face. "I don't know."

Po's anger evaporated, giving way to sadness as he sighed. "That's what I thought."

For a minute or so, they all stood in complete silence as they let everything sink in. Then, without a word, Shifu slowly walked away back towards the bunkhouse, a solemn look upon his face.

Hesitantly, Po, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey followed after him, their expressions just as somber.

Leo was about to go with them when he suddenly felt a faint presence from above him.

Upon lifting his head, Leo was surprised to see Tigress standing on the edge of the palace roof, her figure illuminated in the moonlight and revealing her expression.

To the blue clad turtle's surprise, her face did not have it's usual cold and hardcore demenor, instead replaced by a look of sympathy and… even understanding.

It didn't take a genius for Leo to realize that she had probably heard the entire conversation.

However, also in her expression, Leo could see a determined resolve beginning to form, one he easily recognized since he himself often wore it every time they went on a mission.

He knew her intentions as soon as they locked eyes.

And if she was anything like himself, then Leo knew nothing he said or did would stop her.

So, he walked away, lightly jogging after the others back to the bunkhouse to get some well-needed sleep.

Tigress watched them go, only being slightly surprised when Leonardo had looked up and spotted her as if he knew she was there the whole time. To her further surprise, the blue clad turtle didn't even try to stop her even when it seemed like he could easily read her intentions.

She turned away as Leonardo went to join back with his brothers and the panda, she gazed up at the dim glint of the stars in the night sky.

She released a quiet breath as she started to feel remorse for seemingly judging the panda so rashly and so quickly.

The panda wanted to learn kung fu because he wanted to be something other than what he was.

Tigress remembered the sting of her knuckles as she punched the ironwood trees of the Palace year after year. How her heart would crumble every time Shifu passed her off instead of praising her or showing her any kind of affection. Yet, she had endured it all to become the impenetrable, indestructible warrior she was now because she had wanted to be something other than what everyone else thought of her and what she feared she was the most; another Tai Lung, a monster.

And so, in a moment of faith, Tigress sprung herself into the air and leapt backwards off of the roof, flying past the enormous moon as she descended down to the village below.

The wind whipped around her fur as she fell through the sky, twisting her body forward, her eyes locked onto the roof she was heading down towards.

With perfect control, she slid down the tiled arch of a village roof and used her momentum to launch herself up and forward and landing on the roof of the next house.

Tigress took a moment to stop, her breaths coming out deep and fast as she looked out into the horizon, the direction where Chorh Gom Prison was.

She then looked back over her shoulder at the looming presence of the Jade Palace.

Now it wasn't about proving herself to Shifu anymore. After hearing that conversation on the steps, she knew she couldn't just sit around and do nothing while Tai Lung was on his way.

And she knew more than almost anyone else that he needed to be stopped.

"This is what you trained me for." She murmured before looking ahead and bounding off into the night.

As she jumped and flipped across the roofs of the village, she felt a sudden presence behind her, along with three others.

"Tigress!" She heard Viper call out to her.

She glanced over shoulder to see her comrades following after her.

She figured they would do this.

"Don't try and stop me!" Tigress told them, sliding through a long balcony before jumping and flipping over a wall as she increased her speed. She would lose them if she had to, she had come too far to turn back now.

"We're not trying to stop you!" Viper told her as she slithered along next to her.

That caught Tigress off guard. "What?" She asked in surprise.

"We're coming with you!" Viper said with her trademark serpentine smile.

Tigress looked over to see Crane and Mantis getting ahead of her as Monkey bounded along to her left while giving her a smile and a thumbs-up.

Tigress smiled back at her comrades – no, her friends – as she knew now that she was not alone. She never had been.

They were in this together as they headed out of the village and out of the valley.

Though Tigress knew she was strong on her own, against the Furious Five, Tai Lung didn't stand a chance.

Thought the dinner scene would be a good time for the Turtles and the Five to get to know each other. Hope you enjoyed!