"Ember?!" Crane yelped, flashing back to Tujiu's death. Then he remembered who he was really talking to, and who the real monster was. "I mean... your eminence!" He proceeded to kowtow, a difficult feat considering his legs bent backwards.
Yujin lifted her head a little, as if she were rolling her eyes, and pulled Crane upright by the back of his head. When she let go, Crane took in her new appearance. "You... you look different. Anyway, thanks for the help."
Yujin looked away. Her shoulders were slumped and her helmeted head was bowed. Something bad had happened. Crane could feel it in his giblets.
Before he could ask what was wrong, they heard a crunching sound. The purple elephant Yujin had trapped in the floor was pulling out one of its arms in a shower of rubble. Farther back, the second elephant emerged from behind a stack of crates. Yujin stepped forward, shoving Mantis and the dazed Monkey behind her. "Stand back. I'll finish them off."
A fiery ball of chi formed in her gloved paw, and she sent it flying into the second elephant's chest just as it started charged. It flew back and crashed into a giant crate, completely obliterating the contents.
Inexplicably, Mantis hopped in front of Yujin. "Wait just a cotton pickin' minute! We started this, we'll finish it!"
"Mantis!" Crane snapped, aghast.
Yujin tapped his beak to stop him from speaking further. The buried elephant pulled out its other arm, showering them with tiny stones. "Is that wise?" She asked, completely ignoring the downpour. "A few moments ago your friend was almost killed."
"Your highness, we're the Furious Five." Mantis said much more respectfully while he crossed his arms. "If we can fight a five thousand strong army, we can take on a pair of big purple freaks."
Yujin tilted her head. "And how exactly will you take on these 'big purple freaks?'"
Mantis kicked away a large chunk of rubble that nearly struck his body. "You highness, your amazing display of chi mastery has given me an idea. All we gotta do is lead them outside!"
Yujin glanced at the first elephant pulling itself out the hole in the ground, and the second elephant stepping out the ruined crate. "You're sure about this?"
"Yeah. Are you?" Mantis's eyes narrowed. "Po says you're a good guy now. If you want to prove him right, then go help our friends who'll need your kung fu enhanced skills a heck of a lot more than we do! Come on, guys!"
Mantis took off, followed closely by his friends. There was a great crash behind them as the first elephant completely freed itself. Then a red flash stopped them in their tracks and Yujin materialised before them.
"Didn't you say you planned to lead those monsters outside?" She asked.
"Yeah?" Mantis asked testily.
Yujin pointed to her left. "The exit is that way."
Mantis cringed. "Oh. Thanks."
"Try not to get killed, alright, Shorty?"
"DID YOU JUST CALL ME SHOR-" Yujin vanished before Mantis could finish. He sputtered, then looked round to see Crane and Monkey looking like they'd love nothing more than to step on him. "What?"
"If your mouth was as big as your body, you'd get us all beheaded within a week!" Monkey snapped. "And where the heck is all this water coming from?!"
They looked down. The floor was indeed soaking.
"Never mind the water, we've got literally bigger problems to worry about!" Crane pointed to the two purple juggernauts about to break into another run.
"Okay, to the courtyard!" Mantis led the others across the inch deep water. With the swiftness and agility of seasoned masters, they made their through the maze of crates, flinching when they heard the sound of their pursuers. The amethyst warriors were punching and tearing crates apart to get at the three. Right before they reached the exit, Mantis hesitated.
"What?" Monkey yelled, getting a little frantic as the sounds of breaking crates grew louder.
"... Nothing. Let's just go." Mantis replied, even though he was sure he had heard the sound of a girl humming coming from the water.
When Mengxiang saw the water flow into the library, she knew right away that Hei Nuwang's brilliant plan had backfired. There no way to tell if the Wall of Heaven had indeed been broken, not yet, as far as Mengxiang was concerned they were already doomed. Without the little girl's goodness and sanity to maintain balance with the beast's feral, homicidal rage, Nuwa had become wrath incarnate.
As Mengxiang clambered onto the top floor of the library to escape the flood, she heard the voice of her mother.
"Oooogwaaay... wheeeere aaaare yoooou?"
Mengxiang sobbed and covered her face. Oogway was dead. Those four words showed just how badly her mother's mind had degraded.
She's going to kill us all. The flood will be endless. It will spread and kill everyone in China. Looks like you will get your mortal genocide after all, Hei Nuwang.
Wiping away the tears, Mengxiang took flight out the wide balcony. She had to find Yujin and tell her the truth.
When they reached the mess hall, all the windows had been encased in ice, and the water was fifteen feet deep. Eagle perched on a beam just high up to rest his wings, while Shifu and Viper rested on either side of him. "Did you guys notice something funny about the water?"
"What do you mean, Master Eagle?" Viper asked. "Jr.!" She corrected quickly.
"There must be a lot of holes in the corridors, 'cause I saw several places where the water seemed to be leaking out. Only I didn't see any cracks."
"Must be built into the architecture to keep the air flowing." Shifu said, but he didn't seem convinced by his own explanation. "Except they didn't have anything like that in the white palace."
"Yeah, something's not right about this place." Eagle Jr. said. "Maybe they're part of the defence system."
"IIIII... will haaaave yooouuu!" Came the voice from the churning water. Nuwa spoke in short, slurred sentences, as if she couldn't speak properly in her new form. Viper felt another chill up her spine, as well as the feeling that there was something familiar about the voice. She had never heard Nuwa's voice until that terrible scene in the throne room, but there was another voice behind it. It was quieter, but Viper knew that second voice.
Something was strange about the current, Viper realised as she looked at the floating chairs, barrels and wooden cutlery. The current seemed to be flowing in all directions from the centre, pushing the water up the walls.
Wait, the water's moving up the walls! Right toward us!
"We should get out of here!" Viper said, heart pounding.
"You're right." Eagle Jr. spoke calmly. He hadn't noticed the way the water slithered up and gathered on the corners of the ceiling. "I see another door on that walkway there. If the water's filling from top to bottom, we might still escape from the upper floo-"
They never saw where the attack coming.
One second Viper was listening to Eagle Jr., the next a giant dragon claw formed from the clump of water in the nearest corner and smashed the beam they stood on. Plummeting amongst splinters and droplets, Eagle Jr. caught the air with his wings and stopped his fall. Eyes widened from the sudden attack, Shifu grabbed a leg and swung precariously over the water.
Viper was not so lucky.
Knocked clear of her master and ally, Viper tumbled through the air like a coil of rope and plunged into the raging flood. Immediately she felt an unnatural current catch her. "Yooouu'reee miiine... IIII haaaave yooouuu..." Nuwa sung into her ear as she dragged Viper away, out of the mess hall and into the darkness.
In a higher section of the palace, Hei Nuwang and Izumi were running for their lives.
They'd turned a corner in one of the longer corridors of the palace when the water that covered the wall behind them gained mass and formed a dragon head that filled the space from floor to ceiling. The entity that had once been Su and Nuwa growled as it pushed itself through the corridor towards them. Hei Nuwang and Izumi ran for it, feeling water spraying their backs and liquid claws grabbing at them from the walls. The chase only ended when Hei Nuwang spun round, her momentum sending her flying onto her back as she sent a two-foot thick wall of amethyst to block the corridor. The watery monster crashed into the purple wall and disintegrated. The resulting flood filled half the corridor before steadily draining away.
Breathing heavily, Hei Nuwang turned to Izumi. "See that door?" She pointed to the thick black door that was their first destination. "A special friend of mine is in there. I want you to escort him out of here."
"What about... you?" Izumi panted.
"I'm going to set off our 'last resort.'"
Izumi swallowed. "You're sure? Most of our resources will be lost."
"That's no longer an issue. Mother has made sure of that." Hei Nuwang replied bitterly. "Now get going!"
Izumi nodded, not fully convinced, and disappeared into the special guest room.
Hei Nuwang looked at the wall of amethyst, noticed faint spider web cracks, and continued further down the corridor.
Tigress staggered into the rough cavern wall, teeth clenched to almost breaking point. Her pants leg had been torn wide open, and a foot long gaping gash, almost black against her reddish orange fur, spilled blood into the slowly rising water. Tigress had no idea how deep the wound was.
Long Feng tasted the blood on his demon claw and grinned. "Tasty... thirsty..."
Great. So he's not just a demon now, he's a bloody carnivore, too!
There was something pained in Long Feng's grin that had been present since the flood started. Curious, Tigress dug her paw into the water and splashed at Long Feng. The water struck his shoulders and chest and weakened the flaming aura that consumed them. Long Feng growled and shrank back. So he did have a weakness. Tigress took one more look at the floodwater before lunging forward and shoving both paws into Long Feng's chest. The part-rhino fell back into the water, wailed and started thrashing. The sound of a madwoman's laughter rang in Tigress's ears, but there was no-one else but them.
Tigress turned the other way and waded through the water as fast as her injured leg would allow her. It went as far as her waist, the cold water relieving her pain somewhat, before lowering again as the ground rose upwards. Long Feng roared somewhere behind her, either from the water and Tigress's escape. Dripping from the waist down, her thigh practically on fire, Tigress reached the top of the slope and dry land. She felt minimal relief. With her limited mobility, it was only a matter of time before Long Feng caught up to her.
Sure enough, that was exactly what happened.
Something hard and hot shoved Tigress onto her face, scraping her forearms on the ground. Then Long Feng grabbed injured her leg, his titanium grip nearly crushing the bone. Tigress tried to kick back, but was dragged across the ground until Long Feng was on top of her. His face was contorted in agony, his aura almost gone, but his grip was strong as he locked both hands around her throat.
"You did this, Ember! YOU MADE ME DO THIS!" Long Feng roared as he squeezed with all his might.
Why... Tigress choked as she pulled frantically at his fingers and claws... the hell... she kicked at Long Feng's legs, but they were like tree stumps... do monsters... Long Feng looked almost as desperate as she was as he continued to cut off her air... keep trying to strangle me?!
It was useless. There was nothing she could do to get his hands away. She couldn't move much anymore. It was even colder than before, other than the burning in her chest and her neck. Any second now she was going to see a bright light coming to whisk her away to the Spirit Realm... Sure enough, growing from the top of her peripheral vision...
There it is... right on time... wait... why is it green...
... Po?
Soaked, dirty, bruised, Po plunged the glowing Sword of Heroes into Long Feng's shoulder.
