"The Scout"
Gongmen was different now.
It had been made different. After Alf, Tigress and Po had reached the city - and had taken a slight pleasure to noting the amount of technological innovation that had proceeded after Shen's defeat - they had to notify everyone inside the massive, rebuilt walls on what was transpiring. There were only two reasons that it all worked - foremost, most of the city's inhabitants were clearly appreciative of Alf and the Jade Palace, considering that they had liberated the city from the control of a genocidal peacock overlord just two years prior. The second reason was that after Shen, the city had spent a great deal of money reinforcing the local guard brigades and overlapping them with cannons - the city itself was well organized to external threats and had a complex messenger and evacuation plan fitted for all the inhabitants. Gongmen was also vastly more organized and powerful than before, with the city's infrastructure being perfectly overhauled for extreme situations like this. Alf in particular was at least somewhat pleased with how quickly the city had responded - some citizens even took the time to thank Alf as they bunched around the city, perhaps a thousand Gongmen citizens all circled around Tigress, Alf, and Po as they began retelling the incredible story of what was to come.
Wang and his refugees arrived later. Tigress was horrified to learn that Shifu had been viciously injured, albeit he was walking now - while Alf and Po wondered whether Monkey would ever make a full recovery, just barely able to move around independently. Viper was relatively uninjured, and everyone of course was happy to see the return of Crane and Zeng - both however absolutely shocked at the situation currently. Nearly everyone mourned the loss of so many refugees with the death machine attacks, yet no one was even remotely brave enough to describe the terror that had been inflicted on them.
The greater problem was that everything was initially in disarray. Under the harsh moonlight just gently gracing the grassy ground outside of the stony, dim walls of Gongmen, an observer would be shocked to see approximately ten thousand citizens all standing around a small group in fear. The citizens comprised all walks of life - tall, short, young, old, from Europa, from Asia - there were citizens and animals from villages, massive cities like Gongmen, nobles and non-nobles, kung fu masters, Yongshi soldiers interspersed inside the crowd, and incredible amounts of children and terrified young people. Many of them were fleeing the kingdoms and provinces that had been aptly warned by Crane or Zeng - others were simply notified in time to join Wang and the survivors from the death machine attack - on the way to Gongmen. For the thousands of refugees here, the first part of their time here had been spent just talking about the miracle of seeing a Seeker, or Alf in real life - this contrasted strongly with the story they had been hastily told of - about an "invasion of Seekers" about to destroy their world. There were as many precautions as possible - at least a solid tenth of the thousands of citizens were guards and/or Yongshi soldiers - each armed with miniaturized Revolvers and small bands of warriors equipped with personal cannons. There was - theoretically - enough firepower in the crowd to instantly kill any threat… but the Seekers were something else. Wang had instructed the warriors and guards to circle around the thousands of refugees in a protective stance - everyone watching for the infamous "scout" that Wang kept warning about. Regardless, there was too much fear in the air to do anything except listen to the small group everyone was circled around - chiefly, the Furious Five, Shifu, Wang, Alf, and the Dragon Warrior - Po. Only one person in the crowd had been brave enough to stand closer to the group - namely, Zhong.
"What kinda crazy shit are we in, huh?" the wolf noted sadly, seeing the thousands of refugees around him - all scared and stressed - while the small group ahead of him with the Five, Po, Shifu and Wang - appeared even more stressed.
"I dunno man…" Alf sighed, smiling for a second. "Heh. Guess you're wishing I'd have never told you about coming back to the Valley now, huh?"
Zhong smiled depressingly. "If that were the case - I'd be dead by the time the Seekers got to Mongolia. I don't have any regrets, man."
Alf narrowed his eyes. "Really?"
The former wolf boss nodded. "It's kinda hard to debate on all the evil shit I did - when something way worse is coming - puts it all in perspective."
"Glad to see there's someone benefiting outta this," Alf returned with a morose frown. "Hey - where's the Soothsayer? And uh - that reporter chick? Soo Lin, I think?"
Alf had scanned the enormous crowd for both the old goat and the female jackal. He hadn't seen anyone that resembled their physical makeup.
"Gone," Zhong emphasized, shutting his eyes. "That - that machine - that thing - hell, it didn't just cut those two in half, Alf - it cut pretty much half of our group down - even before we got here."
Alf sighed, not even imagining the suffering that they had gone through. Most importantly, the loss of the Soothsayer meant that there was no chance at benefiting from her wisdom - wisdom that could have been easily acquired and formulated into a plan to somehow delay the Seeker invasion long enough to get onto the ship - if it even existed - safely.
"There'll be more coming too," Zhong noted. "Crane says a lot of the kingdoms that he notified are still a few days away from getting here."
"And what's Wang's plan?" Alf queried. "Just leave them all to die if it gets too late?"
"You got a better idea?" Zhong countered.
Alf sighed.
"Alf," Wang called out, walking to the boy while closely followed by the Five, Po, and Shifu. "Tigress said you know where the ship is."
Alf looked at Tigress in exhaustion. "I - I might, okay? It might be there…"
"That's all we have, boy," Shifu concluded weakly, wheezing while leaning on his cane. "Mights."
Alf gulped. "Well - see that tunnel over there?"
The Five, Shifu, Wang, and Po all looked in the direction Alf was pointing. Even Zhong appeared curious - and in the distance, everyone saw that small speck of darkness just jutting out from the grassy landscape - which seemed like large hole.
"Inside it should be the ship," Alf concluded hesitantly. "But again - I - I dunno if it'll still be there, or if the ship's even real…"
"It is real," Zhong noted confidently. "I remember it."
The Wolf Boss thought back to the times Shen had shown him around that secretive cave.
How things had changed in just two years.
"We need to get everyone inside the cave," Tigress emphasized. "Even if the ship isn't there that's our best bet to hide from the - "
"Tigress," Viper interrupted. "L - Look."
Tigress did so.
Then Wang did so.
Then the rest of the Five.
Then Alf.
Then Po.
Then Zhong.
Actually by now - the whole crowd was looking.
All the thousands of refugees. All the Yongshi soldiers. All the guards.
And especially Alf.
Collective gasps.
There was a man approaching.
Not a figure.
Nor a shadow.
Nor a light.
Or even a glowing sign.
A man.
A fully fleshed out - physical - Seeker.
As real as they were.
Wang held up his paw in fear, signaling all the warriors to protectively come to the front ranks of the thousands of refugees, equipping their Revolvers and cannons in apprehension. The Five merely kept quiet, while Po stared dumbfounded at the new arrival. Shifu was clutching his wound in shock, while Alf merely stared straight ahead in amazement.
The man was taller than Wang, and far more muscular. Like Omega, he had a shiny, dark, metallic armor pasted over his body - arranged in symmetric plating unlike anything anyone had ever seen. Parts of his armor glowed with light, while parts were dark. For the most part, the thousands of refugees simply stared back at the olive-skinned man - everyone feeling bizarre to see another Seeker besides Alf for the first time - and he looked so much stronger, more ferocious, more advanced - almost infinitely superior in every way.
"I see you lifeforms have managed to organize yourselves into a group - how quaint…" Zero noted, smiling. "I am Zero. Who is your leader?"
The crowd almost instinctively turned to Wang - even the Five, Po and Shifu turned to the enormous lion. Alf kept his stare at the new Seeker, completely aware that he was the "scout" - yet unsure why he hadn't begun attacking them yet.
"What do you want, fleshling?" Wang braved, voice quivering.
Zero merely smiled. "I am here to tell you to submit - before it's too late."
The crowd kept silent, muttering anxiously to themselves. It was several pieces of information that were making this uneasy - not just the fact that he was an enormous Seeker, but also the cold rationality with which Zero was speaking to them - almost assuring them that if they did try to do anything - they would be instantly defeated.
No one had any idea what the Seeker's capabilities were.
"Just let us leave in peace, alright?" Wang begged, voice shaking. "Take - take this world. We - we just want to be free…"
Zero walked closer to Wang, terrifying everyone.
"I am doing this for your own species' good," Zero confidently assured. "It was a small miracle that you primitives even managed to disable the probe…"
Alf understood this to be the death machine.
"... but I am not a probe, and quite frankly speaking…" Zero continued. "... this illusion will end now. None of your people - warrior, guard, or otherwise - is on the same technological level as even one of my compatriots."
Wang shuddered. "We - we don't want to fight… we just want to go away…"
"That's not the way this works," Zero forced, towering over the lion. "We colonize. You become subservient to us. That's the way it's been. That's the way it's always been."
Wang turned back, seeing the flood of nervous faces.
"Give up now," Zero threatened dangerously. "I won't ask again."
The lion took a second.
He looked at Zero - seeing those smug, confident features hidden by a powerful armor that he didn't understand. He didn't even know what weapons he had.
He saw the ragged, dusty, and starving refugees behind him - many of them having gone without food or sleep for hours or even days, eyes bloodshot from fear and legs withered from all the walking they had done. Wang saw his Yongshi warriors and nervous guards - all pointing their comparatively simple weapons at Zero, who smiled cruelly back. For many of them, everything about Zero was confirming what had been told about the Seekers for centuries - impossibly powerful, menacing creatures who wore metal and breathed fire and light.
Then Wang turned to the Five and Po - all of them carrying significant injuries, then to Shifu - who was hobbling - and finally to Alf, who stared fiercely back at the taller Seeker with pure disdain.
He had to do something.
"Omega has special plans for you, traitor," Zero addressed to Alf, then turned back to Wang. "Pathetic how you've let lifeforms - more primitive than humankind - enslave you with this… collar."
Alf adjusted his collar in irritation.
"Although it did help lead us to this world," Zero went on. "So perhaps - you should thank yourself for bringing about this world's destruction."
Alf felt like spitting in the Seeker's face.
Zero turned back to Wang. "So - what will it be, lower lifeform? Submit right now - and allow my army to peacefully colonize your world and people - or risk doing something much, much more stupid?"
Wang knew that their time was up.
It was finally up.
The Seekers were perhaps just a day away.
They would land soon.
They had to take the chance.
If they wanted to live.
"FIRE!" Wang roared.
BOOM.
CRACK.
BLAST.
THUNK.
CRACK.
BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.
The onslaught of noises terrified everyone. Just a moment after Wang had issued the order, all the warriors simultaneously fired their weapons - revolvers, cannons, bows and arrows - at least a thousand guards and Yongshi soldiers fired right at Zero. The atmosphere was lost in hazy blasts of smoke and powder - ashes and projectile metal. The firing continued for some time, as Wang kept his paw up as Zero disappeared behind a cloud of dust and exploding metal. The ten thousand refugees - sitting fearfully behind the front line of warriors - whispered prayers to themselves, never seeing such a concentrated and vicious attack in their entire lives.
"Halt!" Wang called out.
Alf, the Five, Po, Shifu, and Zhong all watched the cannons and revolvers cease firing. The flying metal balls and bursts of fire and dust slowly faded into a standstill, while the surrounding air just began to clear from its black, filthy aura. Wang watched the dust cloud in front of him begin to part and fade.
The lion gasped.
And Zero was still there.
"Amusing," Zero proclaimed, grinning. "My turn."
Wang saw the man's visor retract onto his face, covering it. Parts of his armor started to glow.
"RUN TO THE TUNNEL!" Alf roared, instinct kicking in.
BANG.
BOOM.
WHOOSH.
BANG.
BANG.
BANG.
Absolute anarchy.
Chaos.
Disorder.
Alf didn't dare look back. He ran straight down the small, grassy pathway leading to the dark tunnel drilled into the ground perhaps a few hundred paces away. He heard several disjointed noises behind - explosions, mysterious noises that sounded like lightning, and flashing lights in all colors. Alf was terrified to hear the screams and wails of refugees behind him, as thousands of horrified cries sprang out into the moonlit darkness - before violent noises consumed them in a hail of flashing light beams, explosions, and fire. Alf didn't know exactly what Zero was doing to them, nor did he care - survival was the priority now - the only priority. Almost immediately, the stench of burnt flesh and freshly spilled blood entered Alf's nostrils - yet he still didn't turn back, worried that the carnage that he would see would paralyze him in fear. To his small relief, a few important figures were running aside him - Po, Zhong, Tigress, and Wang - but the rest of the Five and Shifu were not there.
"Keep running!" Tigress yelled.
Alf worriedly turned back, ignoring his instincts.
He shuddered.
There wasn't much of a crowd fleeing behind him, following Alf's lead. There were barely a few hundred survivors - a number that was being drastically cut down as Alf observed. Behind the fleeing citizens, a sea of corpses - in all kinds of mangled and altered states - littering the grassland behind them. Zero was tearing through the ranks with a clinical precision - the man fired gigantic bursts of light beams from panels in his armor, while he brought out some more devices in his hands that - when fired - shot brilliant balls of energy forward, ripping through any unlucky targets standing there. Alf noted that most of the warriors and the Yongshi had abandoned their cannons and Revolvers on the ground, sprinting away from the destructive Seeker with incredible willpower. Zero took no issue to this, as he casually ignored the begging and pleading citizens - still running away - as he practically evaporated them into red, thick dust with his arsenal of energy weapons and glowing armor panels.
"ALF! WATCH OUT!"
Alf felt his foot hit solid stone, then he tumbled through a pit of darkness.
He fell for a while, but then his mind kicked in.
He had reached the tunnel.
Or rather - a cave had reached him.
Alf fell down the tunnel unknowingly, feeling his injured body smack carelessly against the edges of the cave as he tumbled down. He took just seconds to understand his surroundings.
It felt familiar. The rocky edges of the enormous cave were there, spiked formations of stone still present at every wall of the gigantic cave. Some puddles of water strewn about, a vaguely smoky smell - and to Alf's enormous relief - the ship.
Just as he remembered.
The humongous frame.
The spiked, metallic exterior.
The odd, almost jagged shape.
The double doors.
It was now or never.
Alf ran forward, again ignoring the screams and horrified cries in anguish as some survivors started to trickle down the cave opening. Alf still heard the ferocious explosions and bursts of light outside - which meant that the survivors still had a bit of time.
Alf needed to think fast.
He ran to the twin doors, banging his fists ferociously - almost in anger.
"OPEN THE HELL UP!" Alf roared, practically feeling Zero's heavy footsteps enter the far corner of the cave.
"COME ON!" Alf begged, slamming his bloody fists into the metallic doors. "JUST ONCE! SOMETHING! ANYTHING!"
SPLINK.
CRACK.
THUD.
WHOOSH.
Alf was roughly shoved to the side, seeing a piece of metal suddenly come flying from the ship's doors and knock him down, roaring past him. He quickly turned his eyes to the source of the incoming footsteps - horrified to see the faint number of refugees scrambling in the cave now, just a fraction of the thousands that had arrived at Gongmen - but also shocked at Zero, who had been launched right back from the cave entrance by the flying metal and yanked back - zooming out of the cave and into the dark sky above. And just then, Alf let himself drift into unconsciousness once more.
A/N
Ahah - ye old cliffhanger ending…
More to come.
I really wanted to bring the size and scale of the refugee thing to life - there were literally thousands of refugees, from all over China even possibly Europa - all pooling in this huge grassland outside of Gongmen. Suddenly the tone's shifted - it's not some Valley thing, or some kung fu thing - it's for the world! And of course - our friend Zero proves to be just as ferocious as anticipated - although we can safely assume that whatever Alf did in the end - something worked. Altho the aftermath of that can be revealed next chapter...
Hope everyone's delighted to see more Zhong again, and maybe even shed a tear at Soo Lin. (sad face)
Oh - and there's just 3 chapters left in KFP 3.
Yes - just three.
It's gonna be a ride.
Support is amazing.
~TW
