Chapter 2: An Enemy In The Shadows
A.N- Ok. First off, I don't even know where to begin apologizing. I've had a rough month and I haven't had a single chance to write, but luckily I finally managed to squeeze some time in for this. My last review got me thinking that I need to free up my time to continue this so...this is for him, out of all the story he could have chosen, he decided to read mine as his first, and to that I am deeply honored. Oh! If any of you ever want to contact me in any way, I have a forum up and running in which you can do so. Enjoy the second chapter!
"Ah! We are finally here!" The elder pig said as he bent down towards the small doorknob upon the door in front of them, twisting it open with the sound of a creek.
The inside proved to be wonderful as Po bent his way underneath the small archway and into the compound. All around him were photos of the elder pig and his son Zao. Along with that were a variety of weapons and from what Po could see they were previously used.
"Have a seat Dragon Warrior," The elder said as he gestured to a chair sitting near the amber flames emitting from the fireplace.
Po strolled over to the bamboo made chair and sat upon it, only to hear the eerie noise of the wood beneath him cracking as he fell to the ground, the bamboo chair in pieces below him.
"Oh! I'm so sorry I didn't mean to do that! I hope it wasn't-" Po started.
"It's alright Dragon Warrior, that chair can be replaced easily," The elder pig said kindly as he helped Po off of the unforgiving ground.
As he was being helped up, Po grabbed onto a weapon mounted on the wall and pulled lightly on it, hoping it would also help him up. But the weapon broke with a snap, causing the mount to come flying off of the wall, sending the elder pig and Po spiraling towards the ground with a thud.
Po sat up for a brief moment and looked around, the elder pig nowhere in sight, "Elder? Elder pig where are you?" Po called out in confusion as he heard small muffled words coming from beneath him.
"My...my hip! You landed on my...hip!" Came the weak muffled voice of the elder from beneath Po.
"Oh! Jeez! I'm sorry sir!" Po said with haste as he quickly got up and looked down on the floor to see the flattened elder lay sprawled on the floor.
"Are you alright Dad!" Zao asked as he hurried to his father's side.
"Well...now I'm alright," The elder said as he stood up, placing to hooves on his back and pushing upwards; the sound of his bones moving back into place made him sigh with relief as he turned towards Po, who was twiddling his fingers with anticipation of the elder's reaction.
"What do you have to say for yourself panda? You just broke a 1,000 year old sword that was used by the great Dragon Master during the Thousand Year Revolution!" The elder said as he folded his arms across his chest in anger.
Po held up the two broken halves of the sword and then turned toward the big hole in the wall where it once hung gracefully and then turned back to the elder.
"Uh...opps!" Po said as he placed an innocent smile on his face while rubbing the back of his head.
The elder sighed, "I guess it cannot be helped; we'll just sit on the floor and talk," He said as he slowly bent down and plopped upon the floor. Po did the same.
"So what is the problem Dragon Warrior?" The elder asked his eye never leaving the panda.
"Well that's just it. I don't know why everyone keeps calling the Dragon Warrior, well your the only one who has called me that so far, and I'd like some answers," Po said.
The elder looked in confusion at the panda, "You...don't remember anything about what happened earlier?" The elder asked.
"No, but all I can assume is that something big went on. Why was that village all ablaze?" Po asked.
"First of all panda, did you happen to hit your head earlier?" The elder asked his brows lifting with confusion and anticipation as he watched Po try to remember.
"Now that you mentioned it, I did hit my head against something but I don't remember what," Po said.
"It must have been when Lord Shen knocked you a good one through the Jade Palace..." The elder mumbled to himself.
"What was that elder?" Po asked.
"N...nothing panda, I was just thinking," The elder said as he brought his hoof up to his beard and began to stroke it.
"Do you know what's wrong with me? Do you know what happened? Answer me!" Po said in a loud voice.
"Well it would appear that you suffer from memory loss. That one hit to the head must have knocked the marbles clear out of your head," The elder said as he struggled to stand up. Once he got up he strolled over to the wall and grabbed a bamboo stick that was propped against it and strolled back over to Po.
"What does that mean?" Po asked.
"It means that we got to knock that sense back into you boy!" The elder said as he raised the bamboo stick over his head and began to bring it down. Po cowered in fear.
The sound of the air was interrupted by the sound of cracking and then moaning. Po looked up to see the elder on his knees, his hoof on his back.
"Oh! Elder are you alright?" Po asked.
"I'm...getting to old for this! I'm going to make some...tea!" The elder said as he slowly limped his way into the next room, dropping the bamboo stick.
"Poor father, he threw out his back again!" Zao said as he sat beside Po.
Po picked up the bamboo stick off the floor and held it about him. He then noticed a small incision that ran around the bamboo three-fourths of the way up he grabbed the area above it and pulled. Out came a long emerald-metal sword from the bamboo shaped scabbard. Po eye's widened in surprise.
"Woah! That's the old sage's sword! I never even knew that my father had it!" Zao said in amazement as Po turned to face him.
"You mean to tell me that your father almost whacked me upside the head with a sword!" Po screamed, placing the sword back into it's bamboo scabbard.
"Sorry," Zao said in reply, "I didn't know."
"What a crazy old pig!" Po muttered to himself.
A sudden crash tore throughout the compound causing Po and Zao to jump with surprise.
"That came from the kitchen! Wasn't your dad in there?" Po asked.
"Oh no! Let's go find out what happened!" Zao said as he and Po ran into the kitchen.
Po's eyes widened in surprise as he came to the entrance of the kitchen; a hole that held to the outside was blown through the wall, and in the center of the room stood a person who was wrapped in a veil of darkness. In his hand was the elder who was struggling to break free from his grasp as he held him up in the air.
"Father!" Zao screamed causing the dark man to turn around and face the two of them.
"Ah, there you are Po," The dark shadow exulted, "I was beginning to think I would have to kill the old pig, but here you come out of nowhere. At least it saves me the trouble of looking for you."
Po face grew cold as he looked at the man, "How...how do you know my name?" Po asked his hand firmly gripped to the bamboo sword.
"Why do I get the feeling that I know him? Does he know who I am?" Po then thought to himself, keeping his eyes fixated on the blood red eyes of the shadow.
"Have you forgotten so soon? Well, I haven't any time to spare you with the details other then tell you...I know where your friends are." The shadow said.
"What? Friends? What are you talking about? I don't know anyone!" Po said.
"Ah! So it seems that you did lose your memory in the battle with Lord Shen," The shadow said as he then turned to the old pig, "It would appear that you were right with the info you gave me you old pig sage. Which would mean that your services are no longer required," He finished as a dark aura formed around the hand that was wrapped around the elder's throat.
The elder's face slowly started to become older and more frail as the life force was slowly sucked from his body. The shadow laughed hysterically.
"Po help him!" Zao pleaded looking up at Po.
Po eyes were blank as he started to think about what he had just heard.
"It would appear that you were right with the info you gave me you old pig sage..."
"Po help him! Please!" Zao pleaded again.
Po snapped back to reality; he looked at Zao and then at the shadow. His eyes then narrowed in determination as he raised the bamboo stick to his side and clicked the sword open; he then rushed toward the dark shadow pulling out the sword from it's scabbard and sliced the shadow's arm off, causing the elder to drop into Po's arms as he landed.
Po looked at the elder his life force returning to him as he lay knocked out in Po's arms.
"Don't worry elder, you know who I am, and I will protect you with my life!"Po thought to himself as he laid the elder slowly onto the floor and then stood up turning towards the shadow his sword in hand.
"Impressive Po. To think that you were the only one I've ever fought that was able to even cut one of my arms off...but it's futile you see," The shadow picked up his severed arm and reattached it to his body.
"Did he...just reattach his arm!" Po said.
"Know let's finish this shall we?" The shadow said as he pulled out a spiked sword from underneath his black tunic and held it our towards Po.
He suddenly blended within the shadows of the compound and began to move towards Po.
"Oh man! Where did he go!" Po said to himself as he quickly checked all around him.
"Po! Beneath you!" Zao screamed causing Po to look down.
"Hello," The shadow said as he shot up from the shadows of the floor, knocking Po up into the air with the end of his sword.
"It's over!" The shadow said as he quickly spun around bringing his sword down across Po chest and repeated the process, slicing him all across his body. The shadow finished with a strong kick to his stomach sending him flying through the wall and out into the rainy open.
Po crashed upon the ground with a thud; he let out a groan as he tried to get up, the dirt grazing across the various cuts on his body.
"So you still managed to get up? I might have went to easy on you after all, but not this time!" The shadow said as he descended into the shadows on the ground once more and advanced towards Po.
Po groggily stood onto his feet, clutching the sword in his paws, searching around for the fast approaching enemy.
"This time! This time I won't let you survive!" The shadow said as he quickly sped towards Po.
Po thought frantically, trying to think of what he should do; suddenly a voice started to speak inside of him.
"Remember Po, the power that enables us to control our powers and to manipulate Kung Fu moves is called chakra. With this, you can easily preform various techniques as well as the ability to sense others chakra. Now to manipulate this energy you need to have tons of concentration..." The voice said in his mind and it continued to play over and over inside Po's mind.
"Was that...a memory?" Po thought to himself but then suddenly shook it off and began to concentrate.
"Be careful Po," Zao said to himself as he watched from the hole in the wall; cradling his unconscious father in him arms.
Po's mind followed the fast approaching energy of the enemy, and slowly gripped his sword.
"Has that idiot finally accepted his fate? This is my chance!" The shadow said to himself as he sped behind Po and jumped out from the shadows, his sword readied.
"Behind me!" Po thought to himself, his eyes popping open as he swung the sword around him impacting the spiked sword of the enemy.
"He...he saw me coming? How?" The shadow said as he fought to control the upper hand of the sword lock.
"Nice try, but you should know by now..." Po started, a smile crossing his face.
"What?" The shadow asked.
"...that the same trick will never work on me twice!" Po said as he pushed forward sending the shadow crashing to the ground.
The shadow pushed himself off of the ground continuing backwards in a series of flips until he landed upright on his feet his sword outstretched towards Po once more.
"It would appear that I was wrong about ending this fight," The shadow said as a back aura formed around his sword and body.
"Who would have thought that I would be pushed this far by the Dragon Warrior who has lost his memory!" The shadow thought to himself as he readied himself.
"I'm just getting started!" Po screamed as he advanced towards the shadow his sword readied as he brought it down on the enemies sword. He parried and advanced once more having to parry and attack various times.
"When did he figure out how to use his chakra? In any case I got to make sure it stays that way it is now until he gets to Tar Ti Son. That means I've got to end this quick!" The shadow said as he parried another strong blow from Po and quickly lowered himself to the ground and spun, knocking Po onto the ground. He then struck several blows to him and then jumped away from him, his sword finding it's way back into his tunic.
"I would like to stay and fight more, but I have more important things to attend to. As a gift for being the first one to push me this far, I will tell you to head to Tar Ti Son City if you want to fight me again," The shadow said as he brought his fingers together and interlocked them. The black aura formed around his hands; he then separated them and extend both of his arms out to the side.
"CHAKRA HURRICANE!" The shadow screamed, causing a strong gust of wind to circle around, enveloping Po in a raging hurricane.
"Where did that...hurricane come from!" Zao said in surprise as he cowered down to protect his father from the prevailing winds.
"This battle is over..." The shadow said as he disappeared into the wind as the hurricane dissipated.
Po stood his ground as the hurricane disappeared, his cuts had now become minor lacerations. He was breathing heavily.
"Tar Ti Son city, that's it..." Po thought to himself as he dropped to his knees and collapsed onto the hard ground with a thud, his sword falling to the ground beside him.
"Po!" Zao says as he placed his father softly onto the floor and ran out of the hole towards the injured panda.
A.N- Well, I hope this was good, though my month has been tough I never thought once of giving up writing, and I even studied some writing techniques while I was away. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I would like to here your encouraging feedback.
It looks like I'm back! -David265