"WAKE UP!"
A loud squawk awoke Po from his slumber, frightening him. Looking down from the cart, Po saw a small duck who barely reached the cart.
"I have had enough of you children stealing my stock! Clear off!"
Still shaken from the last night's… events, the young panda jumped off the cart and ran away from the angry duck as fast as he could. The panda burst out in the middle of a long street. No landmarks were recognisable, nothing even looked like home. Po had no idea where he was and had no where to go. He didn't even know if anyone else made it out of the village…
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG
Po was jolted awake by a loud noise that rang out over the Jade Palace. Reacting quickly, the panda quickly rolled out of the bed, ready or an attack. Outside of the room, multiple calls of "Good morning Master" were heard. Realising what just happened, the panda relaxed and chuckled at his own jumpiness. 'Its been a while since I was woken up like that'
Every morning, all students were expected to be awake and ready to go by the time a gong which was mounted near the top of the palace went off some time after sunrise. Po was surprised he wasn't awake already, as he is more used to waking up before sunrise. 'Probably because of the bed'
"Panda!" Shifu called out.
The door flew open, Shifu on the other side with a rather grumpy expression on his face. "Get up Panda we will not wait for you."
"Sorry Shifu." Po said. "Not used to a loud gong in the morning."
"Unacceptable. Well you are living here, no matter how short a time it may be, you will be up and ready by the time that gong goes off, no excuses." Shifu snapped. "Are we clear, Panda?"
"Yeah, yeah sure. Usually up earlier than this… Probably because I have a decent bed now"
'That seems to be a common factor here I suppose'
Looking over the other students, most wore shocked expressions, again. In their minds, Master Shifu was not one you disrespected in any way, doubly so if you were a student. It meant more training and harder training. Shifu's ear twitched due to Po's blatant disregard for his words.
"Master Oogway wishes for you to join us in training. To see how you measure up. I hope you are prepared because I will not take it easy on you."
Po nodded, waiting to get on with the day. Breakfast was starting to enter his thoughts. Shifu turned back to his other students. "Meet at the training grounds after you have eaten. Dismissed."
Shifu then left the corridor, presumably heading to the training hall to await his students. And Po.
After a hearty (for Po) breakfast, all the 'students' and Shifu were ready to begin training. "Today we will simply be sparring." Shifu began. "Panda, up here. You as well Monkey."
As asked, Po and Monkey stepped into the centre of the courtyard. Monkey quickly grabbed a wooden staff from the side of the training area. "You want one as well Po?" Monkey asked.
"No thanks. I fight better without weapons"
Both fighters got into position, ready to fight. Shifu then snapped his fingers, causing Monkey to charge at his opponent, swinging his staff at Po. To Monkey's surprise, the staff only struck dirt as Po stepped to the side allowing the staff to slap the ground. Po then quickly sat on the staff, breaking it in two under his weight. Po then rolled quickly to Monkey, who was torn between becoming more shocked at the loss of his weapon or to laugh at the method as to how the weapon was lost.
This indecisiveness was his downfall, as Po quickly grabbed Monkey's arm, pulling the monkey down as Po jumped up. Po then jumped on Monkey, knocking the breath out of him as what felt like a mountain was pressed on top of him. To lock himself, Po also wrapped his think arms around the Monkey's head.
"Give up?" Po asked.
"Ack, glurk…" Monkey… said? With Po's weight under him, Monkey was unable to breath, much less communicate. This continued until Monkey passed out from lack of air and Po released him from his hold.
Standing up, Po turned back to Shifu, who's ear was once again twitching, showing his aggravation at his student's utter failure. After some prodding from Viper, Monkey was awoken, though shaken from his experience under the tubby panda. "That's what you get for underestimating an opponent." Po said. "If I was actually fighting you, you would be dead. Remember that for next time."
Monkey just nodded, still dazed. Shifu then asked for Viper to enter the ring.
"Are you ready?" Viper asked Po, readying for combat.
"Are you?" Po asked back, tanking an upward swipe from Viper's tail. A second swipe came from above, causing the panda to slam into the ground but Po simply bounced, quickly returning to his feet. Attempting a similar tactic as with Monkey, Po attempting to grab Viper's outstretched tail. Viper, however, was too quick and moved her tail out of reach, counter attacking with a side lash of her tail. Po moved his arm into the tails path to block before punching at Viper.
Viper saw the attack coming, and slithered away, just in time to miss the panda's strike cracking the ground. Viper then leaped at Po, wrapping herself around the panda's wrist and head. Viper then forced Po to strike himself in the face, over and over. Po then grabbed Viper's thin form and threw her to the ground, stomping on her whilst she was dazed. A wheeze left Viper's body as she was pinned under the panda's foot.
"Give up" Po asked again.
The snake simply nodded, and Po released his foe by raising his foot. "That caught me off guard there, at the start. Clever."
"Thank you," Viper said, pleasantly. "I thought for sure you were done when I grappled you."
"It would be better to go for both arms. Though you might not be long enough for that yet."
"AHEM"
Shifu cleared his throat loudly to get the attention of the two warriors. "Mantis, take Viper's place against the panda."
"Oh, have I arrived late?" A voice rang out over the courtyard.
All students turned to the entrance to see Master Oogway slowly entering the courtyard. "I hope you don't mind my spectatorship, students."
'Not at all Master' came from the students, including Po surprisingly (to the Five). Oogway scanned the courtyard, eyes closing in on the broken staff in the corner. "I see that Monkey has tried his hand already. How did you fair?"
"I was utterly destroyed Master."
"Ah, good to see you haven't lost you skill Po. Carry on, Shifu."
The old turtle sat down on the nearby bench, content to watch. Mantis then moved onto the field, ready to face the panda. Shifu's fingers snapped and the battle began.
Quicker than Po could see, Mantis charged at the panda. Po felt his foot raise against his will before being slammed onto the ground in front of him. However, Po simply bounced off the ground, tearing him from Mantis's grip. Flipping over, Po raised his fists to slam the ground, cracking it again, and staggering the small bug zipping around.
Seeing the small bug stopped, Po quickly moved over and grabbed the smaller creature, clutching him in his large paw. Po felt resistance pushing against his paw as Mantis attempted to push his paws away from each other to no avail. After a while the panda felt three taps against the inside of his paw.
Dejectedly walking back to the others, Mantis left the training area.
"Tigress, fight him." Shifu commanded.
Tigress walked to be in front of the large panda, a familiar stance taking over. Po also moved into a stance, for the first time since the training started.
A/N The stance Po is in is the same one he is in in KFP2 when he is about to inner peace the crap out of Shen's armada.
A few seconds passed, Oogway's chuckling filling the silence, before Shifu snapped his fingers once more, and the two fighters began.
Tigress made the first move, unleashing a palm strike to the panda. The panda moved his left paw to smack it to the side, punching towards the tiger's midriff which was also redirected and followed with a high kick. Po ducked under the tiger and rolled behind the master. Once behind her, Po reached for her tail.
Tigress, recognising what he was after, flipped forward and away from Po.
"Shoulda known that old trick wouldn't work on you anymore." Po said.
"…"
Tigress remained silent, waiting for Po's next moving, analysing any movement of muscle. Po exploded forward, rolling at the younger master. Tigress placed her hands in front of her, ready to grab the rolling panda. At the last moment, Po released his roll and jumped, grabbing Tigresses outstretched arms, pulling them behind her and pulling her over his shoulder into the ground.
Tigress gasped from the slam, but quickly jumped to her feet. Ready for the next hit.
Po however just stood there. "You've improved a lot Tigress." Po said, pride filling his voice. "At least Shifu did a better job with you than… Him."
Tigress's guard dropped slightly as Shifu's expression grew stormy. The drop in Tigress's guard was exploited as Po charged at Tigress, using her momentary distraction to sweep her feet off the ground and sit on her back.
"And that's game." Po said. "Good job. Lasted longer than your friends over there."
Speaking of the five, they were all certain that Tigress, at the very least would be able to beat this apparently unstoppable Panda, yet there she was trapped under Po's ridiculous weight.
Shifu grew angrier at seeing his star pupil beaten and held in such an uncomplimentary position.
"I've taken it easy on you so far panda, but no more." Shifu began, fury shown in his voice. "Your next opponent will be me."
Shifu slowly walked into the field whilst Tigress left the field. "Step forth" Shifu commanded.
Confused, Po took a step forward. Immediately afterward, Shifu attempted to lift the large panda off the ground. Po, reacting quickly, dropped his entire weight upon the older master, causing Shifu to drop Po. Po quickly grabbed Shifu's head and brought it down to his knee, stunning Shifu for a few seconds. Po then launched him across the courtyard, dust picking up from where Shifu skid across the ground.
A brown blur moved across the field, charging at the panda not even touching the ground as he went. Po smirked, and moved his body backwards, and thrusted forward just as Shifu reached, changing the red panda's movement from forward to upwards. He continued to fly upwards, til he couldn't be seen anymore.
"My, my. He must be cursing himself for falling for that old trick." Oogway spoke up.
Still looking up, Po answered the old turtle. "You'd be surprised what people do when they let anger control them. Usually stupid stuff, like letting me belly slam them."
"OKAY ENOUGH!"
Mantis spoke up, clearly agitated. "How do you," Mantis pointed at Po. "Know Master Oogway and yet none of us know who you are!"
"He used to be a student here." Tigress spoke now. "Before any of you were here. But he was banished for going against the code of the Palace."
An enraged scream came from the heavens, showing Shifu re-entering the atmosphere, quickly entering vision. Po's right fist then became enveloped in a golden glow. As Shifu flew down, Po slammed his fist right into the old master's back, causing him to slam into the ground harder than before.
"He's also the only student to ever master Chi before becoming a master."
A/N Thanks to hero no.5, kiacamper, Erigon, Panda-is-bae for following the story and/or me.
Shock-G1: Yeah, I'm still alive, just procrastinating and working. Two things that should not go together but they do :D