This is Dharmaworld. It's a world between religions. Alas, of the six major religions of the real world as we know it...Buddhism seems to have the strongest advantage here.
Much of this world is reminiscent of Tibet. An entire continent is. Farther south, of course, the tropics are more like Bangkok and Colombo.
Here and there all over this world, a windmill spins. Their wheels bear stark resemblance to dharma wheels. And they always spin, regardless of whether there's wind. The power that spins them is no force of reality.
These lands are hotter, and more like Kushan Afghanistan in the year 337...back when Buddhism was the ruling religion of the land. (Yes; as impossible as it might be for most American millennials to believe, the Pashtuns were Buddhists long before some of their grandsons became the founding imams of al-Qaeda.) This region is mountainous. A rain shadow divides this land.
To the northeast, there are woods. This is where the rain falls. It's the more nourished part of these lands. They call it Solace.
To the southwest, it's a desert out there. Whilst the Northeast absorbs all the rain, the Southwest suffers. Here, it's known as Purgatory.
All alone in a vale on the desert side of the mountains, Paper Star still lies, knocked out. Nootix has banished her here. She might be able to get back... But right now, it's unclear. Before Paper Star can get back, after all, she must first learn how she got here.
Down from the peaks, an ounce (i.e. a snow leopard) approaches her. He stops, and towers over her. He twitches his long, belt-like tail. He yawns, and sniffs the poor girl out.
Paper Star wakes...and gapes, when she sees the huge cat looking down upon her. She reaches for a shuriken...only to find she has no paper to improvise one with.
Through the air, a chakram blade spins. It slices the poor ounce's tail clean off. He yowls in pain, and runs away, with his now-stub tail tucked between his legs. Cats are faster than dogs...but aside from the cheetah, they seldom ever run.
Up from below, Paper Star's savior arrives. A pair of markhor horns top his head. Natural half-black and half-white hair grows out of the top of his head. He catches and shoulders the chakram, as it comes back to him. He has one blue iris, and one hazel. He matches Paper Star's height and weight...save slightly more height and slightly less weight. He has miniature goat hooves for nails. Aside from that, he looks Japanese.
Meet Ling Wood. He's an extradimensional being. And whether Paper Star means to be or not, she's on his turf. Or rather, in that respect, she's IN his turf.
They're so similar. Hence, they take an instant liking to one another. For the first time since the clash, Paper Star is GLAD that Nootix accidentally sent her to this reality. But will her gratefulness hold out?
While Paper Star bonds with her new male friend, a trio of friends...of sorts...heads down a mountain, from a bamboo forest. They're giant pandas. Alas, don't let their primitive behavior fool you. These three giants are killers...and they've got harnesses, and equipment attached to them, to prove it.
Below, there's a village. Above it, a dharma wheel spins like a windmill. These three pandas hope that it's an electric windmill. Otherwise, this job could go more quietly. And Shoots, at least, would NOT be okay with that.
These three have come a long way in their career. Shoots has a missing eye, to show for. Their career has its monotony...as every career does. Hence, there comes a time in every young giant panda's life where an urge bubbles to the surface. And from there, what more can he do than what this trio is about to?
Down there, much food is cooked and served. A lot of it is Cantonese...other stuff isn't.
PepsiCo has opened a plant down there. They've got a big red-and-blue yin-and-yang symbol on a sign, down there. It shines like a beacon across the Tibetan landscape, to Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. They're on a mission. And for this occasion, Eats just might change his own villain name to "Drinks," or "Guzzles," even.
Now, they're in front of the PepsiCo plant. There are security cameras there, that can see them. They've spooked a lot of locals, getting here. That's easy to understand; a lot of the locals dress in saffron or orange robes...like Buddhist monks/nuns.
Now, the three pandas stand on their hind legs. Leaves activates a boom box in his harness. It plays a tune that's reminiscent of Village People's "YMCA." It's even more reminiscent of an old Pepsi commercial.
The three pandas stand...and as they do, they do their own variation of the P-E-P-S-I.
The locals cower in their buildings, terrified of the terrorist trio. The stories of their destruction are not unheard of. And to think that this all began when someone dared over-summarize a definition in the dictionary...
The men who work in the plant wait for as long as they can... Finally, three of them come out the back door, and leave dolly loads of bucketed Pepsi just outside, where the pandas can access it.
Now, each panda takes a dolly. They plunge their muzzles into those buckets, and lap up the good life. Ah, those California grizzlies became extinct way too soon. They sure taught these three pandas how to live the high life...in a land that couldn't remind anyone less of California...not even the Mojave...
It's a divine union, of panda and Pepsi. As they drink, they flip the bird at those polar bears in those Coca-Cola commercials... And that's just assuming that the California grizzly didn't beat them to it.
Eats, as you might expect, is a bit of a glutton. Hence, he's going to be occupied for a while. Not to worry; he might not look it now, but he's perfectly prepared for what follows.
Through the sky not too far from here, a panda-barding exosuit flies. It bears much resemblance to Pandapool, from Marvel Comics. (That's a panda variant of Deadpool, in case you can't tell.)
Shoots takes the least time, of the three pandas, to finish his Pepsi. He carries a fifty-caliber machine gun slung to his harness...and that's hardly all. He needs not worry, though; reinforcements are on their way.
One piece of barding at a time, the Pandapool exosuit accommodates for him. Soon, he's literally dressed to kill. His barding is complete with a back-mounted mortar, and a neck-mounted machine gun.
Covering his teammates, he takes to the skies. From his suit, he releases missiles. From his mortar, he releases guided shells. His machine gun lowers, spins from a swivel, and makes lightning.
On the ground, blocks become Swiss cheese. Generators explode. Towers fall over. Blocks cave in on themselves.
What's more, people get shot...ESPECIALLY waiters. The Pepsi employees who brought the three pandas their Pepsi get shot, too.
Shoots can't be blamed. He is, after all, what he is. He eats his little food, shoots his little waiters, and leaves his little restaurants...all in the name of Noah Webster...or whoever once wrote that infernal dictionary definition.
Leaves finishes his Pepsi next. He stands, and activates a lot of gadgetry on his harness. He's got some barding, too; all of the plates are leaf-themed.
"You can't," someone shouts, while getting shot, as they try to run out their door, "do this!"
At this, Leaves pulls out one of his "dictionary-boomerangs," and throws it. In midair, a computer screen on it lights up. Instantly, it pulls up the definition for the panda:
Panda: eats shoots and leaves. (While the dictionary-boomerang is still in midair, commas gradually appear, separating that definition's three simple, yet hasty, words...)
The dictionary-boomerang spins right into a Cantonese restaurant and explodes, killing every waiter inside. Most of them haven't even had a chance to bill their more human clientele. But then, Eats, Shoots, and Leaves all seem to prefer it that way.
A volleyball hangs from the chest-crossing part of Leaves's harness. It's a Wilson volleyball. It houses an AI, whose name, both conveniently and ironically, is also Wilson.
From here, Wilson activates himself, and puts himself in bullhorn mode. "You people really shouldn't be so overwhelmed," he says, in a voice that's reminiscent of Ryan Reynolds. "That dictionary definition has been in your local library ever since Noah Webster started growing hair on his scrotum. And you all went to school back when his tombstone was hiding in plain sight at whatever cemetery he's been buried at for all this time. Hence, you've had a lifetime's worth of opportunities to look up that simple word; and at that, a word that most Chinese kids learn before kindergarten ever starts to matter."
At his trough, Eats still drinks his Pepsi. He sure knows how to have lunch...
Shoots comes back around, in his Pandapool exosuit. For some reason, he stops covering Eats...and starts roasting him, with every shard of firepower he's got left.
All around, the entire town gapes. They're confused, as to why one of the trio would turn on their own...as semi-expected as it is for villains to betray each other...
The firepower lets up. The smoke clears...
Shockingly, Eats still stands. He's absorbed all of that firepower. And now that he's finished his Pepsi, he's ready to bring in the third wave of the attack.
He ventures forth, knocking his last Pepsi trough over. He stands on his hind legs. His belly is very big; unclear, as to how that harness even fits.
And, he belches. With it, he makes a deafening noise.
From above, Shoots adds to the firepower, and sprays a flamethrower into the stream of Eats's vomit gas. He ignites the gas, turning Eats's belch into a flame thrower in and of itself. With it, Eats incinerates every part of the town that Shoots hasn't already turned to Swiss cheese.
Eats stops belching. Above, Shoots turns off his flamethrower, and flies back into the fight. Now, Eats is hungry again.
He notices the dharma wheel-shaped windmill. He gets an idea. With what power he has left, he super-leaps into the windmill. Up here, he puts Don Quixote to shame; not only does he decapitate the windmill, but he absorbs all of the electricity it's produced. From above, he causes lightning to strike him...and absorbs that, too.
Leaves teleports in and out, leaving bags of bamboo leaf compost near the fires. This makes them bigger, and burn brighter. Leaves is surprised that he and his brothers don't eat so many bamboo leaves, that they can't compost any.
With the damage all done, it's time for the trio to extract...or rather, LEAVE. So, they rely on Leaves for the means of transport. Leaves is a chlorophyll magus; he opens a portal of green-glowing chlorophyll magic for them to travel through. Just beyond the portal, a bamboo forest lies.
Hovering via his energy-absorption powers, Eats levitates through the portal. Still in the Pandapool barding, Shoots flies through it. Leaves looks around, grabs one more pail of Pepsi, and levitates through the portal himself.
Wounded, Kazakh Doom lies among the casualties. He heaves a sigh...flinches, because those pandas have cracked a rib of his...and scoffs.
"Shangri-La help us," he mutters, "if those bears ever change their theme song to the 'Macarena..."
Chinese paramedics arrive, from downhill. One of the female ones attends to Kazakh. She's cute...and not to mention much less shuriken-savvy than Paper Star.