Hidden behind Crane's left wing, Mantis pulled his arm from the keyhole with the tiniest of frustrated grunts. He was getting sick of being stuffed into teeny tiny cages.
"Anything?" Monkey asked, keeping his voice down.
"Do I look like Viper to you? Nothing. Zilch. Zip. Squat."
"Zip it. Long Feng's coming this way."
Mei Ling's warning came just in time. Long Feng was walking across the hall to the massive red and gold central pillar to which they had been chained.
Since their capture the Jade Palace masters had had to grudgingly admire Long Feng's savvy. Instead of putting them in a dungeon or chaining them up with the royal hostages, the one armed rhino had instead brought them to his base of operations where he could personally keep an eye on them. Even if Mantis had succeeded in picking the lock, there was a very high probability of being recaptured by the three dozen soldiers scattered all over the hall. All four walls were lined with racks filled with weapons. A single big table stood near the front with two maps, one of the city and one of the palace, where Long Fong stood most of the time. He didn't look nearly as content as he had before the report came in that Ember's minions were somehow passing the 'infection' on to his own men. There was now a permanent scowl on his face, made even worse when reports came of soldiers literally being dragged into shadows, never to be seen again. Colonel Sao was currently poring over the city map, looking very troubled himself. Izumi was leaning against another pillar, polishing a serrated knife. She glanced at the captive masters every now and then, watching for the first sign they were attempting an escape. She was the only one who didn't look concerned over the strange reports, smiling slightly as she slid the cloth down the lethal blade. Maybe she was just hiding her own worries to avoid looking weak, or maybe she was really was that arrogant and oblivious. Right after they'd been chained to the pillar she'd enquired about Viper. Naturally Crane had told her to go to a very unpleasant place.
Long Feng had been speaking to a fancy looking mirror before making his way to them. He reached the pillar, then unexpectedly went right past them towards one of the exquisitely carved archways that led deeper into the palace. A masked man had just emerged from it, approaching Long Feng with the stride of a very angry individual.
"Oh, it's you." Long Feng said politely, still bearing that scowl.
"Yes!" The man ripped off his mask, revealing the face of a panther and eyes blazing with fury. "Yes, Long Feng! It's me, you stupid grunt! You sent those earth made freaks after us! You nearly got me cut up into little pieces!"
"You were with the panda?" Long Feng said, his back to Mantis and the others. "I sent the terra cotta warriors after him hours ago. Why haven't they returned? Did you destroy them?"
"What choice did I have? They nearly killed me!"
Panda? Mantis's antennae twitched. So Po really is here in the city. Wait, did he say terra cotta warriors?
Izumi strode over, having overheard. "What about the panda? Where's that fat idiot?" The panther merely glowered. "You mean you had actually found the panda Lady Hei Nuwang is after and you didn't bring him in?" The panther glowered some more. "You've got to be kidding me!"
"No, I gave him some candy for taking out the big bad men and sent him on his merry way." The panther said. "Of course I tried to bring him in, you scar-faced pussycat!"
"That's enough!" Long Feng silenced the bobtail with a raised hand when she started to retort. His attention drawn by the raised voices, Sao walked over. "Tell us what happened!"
"The creature." The panther said, crossing his arms. Long Feng and Sao's entire bodies stiffened. Their fear was infectious to Mantis, who felt great unease in his heart at the utterance of those two words. "It grabbed the panda, dropped him through a roof, then came after me. Don't ask me why I didn't fight it. You know that thing can't die. By the time I lost it and headed back, he was gone."
"Damn it!" Long Feng slammed his one fist into a pillar, cracking the stone. "One thing after another! Damn that woman..."
Sao actually looked startled by his outburst. "Sir, I thought Lady Hei Nuwang said that it was unlikely that the creature is associated with Ember."
"You don't know her like I do!" Long Feng snapped. "Ember is the problem here! Always has been!"
"I know that, it's just..."
Long Feng spun round and loomed over him. "Just what, colonel?"
Sao shrank a little. "Sir, there's something about that creature. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm afraid."
"Man up, soldier." Long Feng sneered. "I want you to take some men and head back out into the city. Find the panda and take him alive." He turned to Izumi. "As for you, take our artificially reincarnated friend here and go after the creature."
The panther looked ready to flip his lid. "What part of 'this thing can't die' did you not understand?!"
"I'm not asking you to kill it, you moron. I'm asking you to capture it." Long Feng held up the mirror. "I've just spoken to our mistress, and she has ordered me to make the creature a priority. She wants it alive so she can learn what it is and why it's interfering with our operation."
"How are we supposed to find and catch it with next to no info about it?" Izumi put her arms akimbo.
Long Feng shot a look at the panther then whispered something in Izumi's ear. Izumi blinked and her eyes glanced at the panther. Long Feng stepped away. "Your old boss didn't make you second in command for your looks. You'll think of something."
Izumi nodded and tapped the panther with the flat of the polished knife. "Yuko!"
They disappeared through the archway. While Long Feng was following Sao to the map table, Mantis looked through the bars of his little cage at his friends. "What the heck was that?"
"I think Yuko is Japanese for 'let's go'." Crane said.
"Not that, you dunce!" Mantis muttered. "What the heck is all this about a creature?"
"I'm more worried about Po." Monkey said. "I hope they don't catch him."
It wasn't often that Po put brains before brawn. Today, after seeing the patrolmen scattered all over the palace grounds, he was making an exception.
The building he had found himself in must have been the old residence for the royal family, until the fire that had blackened every inch of it. It was also completely empty, making it easy for him to look out the windows on all four sides at his surroundings. Once he'd gotten a good idea of the layout of the palace, he had sat down, picked up a piece of coal, and started drawing on the floorboards. For each building he drew a square with its name in the middle. All the trees were squiggly circles. He put a dot for every stationery guard. Everything else was drawn in basic lines.
When he was done, he put down the coal and stared intensely at the crude map.
He stared for ten minutes.
After fifteen minutes he rubbed his temples and groaned. He really wasn't used to thinking ahead, and now he was getting a headache.
"Man, why is thinking so hard?" He muttered. "Darnit, Tigress would have gotten a totally foolproof plan by now." He pulled out the Heart of China and gazed at it. Then he looked at the map again. "Monkey and the others are probably being held in the central building. Maybe I should take my chances and sneak through the grounds."
"Absolutely not." Po answered himself in a higher voice. In his imagination, his reflection in the emerald's front facet morphed into Tigress's and her lips formed his own words. "There are too many of them. You'll be spotted for sure."
"Then we should take the long way around. Through the buildings." Po traced a potential route with his finger. "What if we headed for this tower here?"
"Maybe, but there are a lot of guards gathered around there. There's also too much ground between there and the central building."
"What about this building here? The one with the nice smell coming from it."
"That must be where the kitchen is."
"Kitchen? Aw man, sweet!"
"No."
"No?"
"No."
"Why no?"
"We're on a rescue mission, Po, and food will only be a distraction. The last thing you need is temptation."
"But I haven't eaten since yesterday? Couldn't we go for one snack stop..."
"NO."
"Dangit. Okay, what do you suggest?"
Both Po and the emerald took a long, hard look at the map.
"That well in the garden north of here. Master Eagle Jr. told us once that it's connected to the palace's prison underground. If we can reach it, we can make our way through the prison to the guards' tower on the other side."
"The one with that big fancy arch at the base where carts pass through?"
"Yes. As we can see it's right next to the central hall. We can sneak in from there."
"And what do we do when we find them?"
"We wait. Ember's planning something big, and when it happens, we'll use the distraction to our advantage. Once we've freed our friends, we'll find the royal family and free them too."
Po encased the jewel in his paws and held it close. "This is why you're my favourite. Even when you're not here, you've got my back. If that's not awesome I don't know what is."
"Po?"
"Yes?"
"Stop talking to yourself."
"Okay. Sorry."
Tigress was having a nightmare. She must be. Yet no matter how hard she pinched herself or deliberately aggravated her ribs, she didn't wake up, for she was already awake.
So how... in the hell... did she end up in the guard tower of the royal palace?
The tunnel, which hadn't even been that long, had opened up into a room stacked with spare suits of armour. She'd been here before, so she'd known where she was the moment she emerged from the hole.
This wasn't possible. This was not possible. Neither was the ember snow Tigress saw from a tiny window.
Madness. That's what this all is. The madness of the Dragon Empress.
Through the window, she saw soldiers who were certainly not with the imperial army. She needed a disguise, and fast. She searched through the suits of armour until she found a near perfect fit. She fought through her internal pain to put it all on. She remembered that the soldiers had purple cloth covering their mouths, and quickly put one on before putting on the helmet.
There, all done. So long as she kept her distance from anyone familiar with her, she should be okay.
With what she left the room, a plan already forming in her mind. First, she would find out what happened here. Second she would help the royal family if they weren't beyond helping. Third, she would rescue Po, and together they would put an end to this whole mess.
