The Dragon Warrior Blues
Session #3 Honky Tonk Tigress
I can tell that people wanted to see Tigress from the very start and see what I've changed with her character so this one's for those people, I know people are going to be a bit…..unsure about the change which I can understand. I just want to clear something up which I didn't manage to get across in the last chapter, Crane isn't a pet, he's a mute, Po just calls him a pet to irritate him and because he's mute he can't say anything back. So let's do this!
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Urumqi. For some the very name inspired desperation and decadents, it was a city near the center of China, despite China's current harshness it was well known that this wasn't the place to start a family or a place to travel to if you were ever seeking work.
One such person who had come to Urumqi to seek work was Lester, he was a rat who had created his own general store on a street corner and he had lived in the dive for about three years now. During that time he had been robbed about three times and assaulted six.
In all the time he had lived here Lester had never had his store completely totaled, however that all changed when she walked through the door.
It was about ten to eleven on a relatively calm Saturday night, the chaos that was omnipresent outside had died down slightly, Lester appreciated in these tiny moments just because he could hear himself think, he would never again underestimate the power of silence. He leaned on his counter and sighed happily, his peacefulness was disturbed by the bell above his shop door ringing to tell him someone had just walked in.
He looked up and he saw her. She was a tall tiger wearing a flowing green robe and blue pants that had golden vine patterns and black trim around the edges, she had a straw hat pulled down over her eyes but a piece of straw was sticking out of the bottom of it. She approached the counter with a strong walk which showed some femininity but enough toughness to tell potential threats not to mess with her.
When she got to the counter she removed the hat, the first thing Lester noticed about her was that she was strikingly beautiful, her face was soft looking but also had a slight edge to it, her features like her stripes made her look distinguished and her lips were a natural ruby red. The second thing was her eyes, they were a brilliant amber color like fire in the night; they conveyed a confidence and a layer of authority.
The tigress leaned on the counter and stared deeply at the rat, he felt a chill go down his spine at her strong gaze. She smirked at him mischievously which helped to alleviate his anxiety a bit around her.
"Do you see something you like?" she teased, the rat blushed and couldn't make himself look away from her, "Y-yes very much so" Lester stuttered, Tigress jumped onto the counter and sat down on top of it, she angled her body so she was only slightly looking at the rat.
There was an awkward silence for a while, Lester had never had a woman act this way around him in his entire life and the tiger was waiting for him to inevitability try and make conversation with her. "So, are you looking for a job here in Urumqi?" Lester asked, the tiger feigned disinterest "No not really, I'm just passing through to be honest".
The rat shrugged, "It's a shame really, you look like you'd fit in here well" Lester panicked when he realized what he had just implied, "I-I'm sorry I wasn't trying to imply th-", the tigress shushed him, "Did you hear that?" She asked. Lester shook his head confusedly, she gracefully leaped off of the counter not making a sound when she hit the ground.
She walked up to the door and put her ear up to it, she tensed when she heard a movement then she moved away quickly. The door was kicked off of its hinges and flew into the counter, Lester luckily got out of the way of it; the tiger stood up and immediately put her guard up. Some wolves walked into the store and removed weapons from their person and brandished them at the tiger.
She cracked her knuckles, "Hey rat boy!" She yelled at the terrified Lester, he squeaked in reply "Do you want to know the first rule of combat?" She quickly punched a wolf into one of the stores shelves toppling it, there was a mighty crash and when the smoke had cleared the wolf had been crushed by it.
"Always attack them before they can attack you" she answered smugly, the wolves growled at the loss of their comrade and started to surround the tiger, she tried to watch all sides but she was caught off guard by a blow to the small of her back, she twisted her body round and jumped up on the wolf's shoulders, she used the strength in her legs to throw his down to the ground.
She saw two coming at her from opposite sides so she bounced off of the floored wolf and hit the two approaching ones with both of her fists, she flipped onto her feet again athletically and faced the last one down. He looked at his fallen comrades and sighed, "You're more trouble then you're worth women!" The tigress laughed, "I'll take that as a compliment".
"I was hoping we wouldn't have to resort to this", she frowned in response, "Resort to what?" The wolf cupped his mouth with his hands and yelled outside, "Oh DREDGER!" There was silence for a few seconds before large footsteps could be heard, a seven foot tall bare-chested wolf walked into the store and looked around at what had happened then he looked at his boss, "Il y a un problème?", The wolf nodded then turned to the tigress, "He's not that great with English I'm afraid"
When she saw the huge wolf she immediately surrendered knowing full well that there was no hope of ever winning in a fight against him, "I surrender" she freely admitted. The tiger held her arms above her head then placed her hands behind her, "Quite an elaborate way to get a girls attention" she remarked dryly, it drew no laughs from the wolves however.
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The tiger was roughly pushed into a room and forced to sit down, they had taken her away from the shop and taken her to a remote building just on the outskirts of Urumqi, at least that's what she figured she had been blindfolded the other time and must of lost track of their location after the first hour. They had also handcuffed her but unlike the blindfold they still hadn't taken those off yet.
The room that she was now in was quite snazzy, it had treasures and trinkets all over the walls. She eyed some of them up and automatically began thinking of ways to sneak some of them out so she could sell them. "You wouldn't get very far with any of them I'm afraid" came a deep voice, she turned and saw a smartly dressed wolf enter the room, he looked more important than the others so she reasonably assumed this one to be the real brains of the organisation.
He walked over to her, "I had no idea that the famous Tigress; Lady Luck herself was still alive! How you've managed to elude death from all you've stolen from is beyond me honestly", Tigress narrowed her eyes, "You should ask your boys I'm sure they'd be happy to tell you…..after they've woken up of course" she added sweetly, "Oh and tell them it was no hard feelings from me, I just don't like people getting in my way". The wolf scowled at her, "I've heard that you've accrued quite a large debt, I've heard about your talents and I want you to do me favor for me, in return I will clear your debt and you can walk away with none of that baggage".
Tigress smirked, "Why would I want to help you", the wolf grinned at her evilly, "I'm so glad you asked, you're worth quite a lot apparently, I could just hold you here and tell every bounty hunter in China to come and claim their reward".
Tigress scowled at him, she sighed, "Alright fine, what do you want me to do?"
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Meanwhile
"Ping, why have we come to Urumqi? Everyone knows how bad this place is" asked Po, him, Ping and Crane were on the outskirts of the city sitting in the 'Bebop', the goose was sitting looking through a telescope at the city gates. He folded the scope back up and put it inside his coat, "Because Po I happen to know of an extremely good place in there to play a high stakes game of Mah-jong, we really need some money at the moment and I'm feeling lucky today" the goose finished excitedly.
Po sighed, "You say that about every game you play and I've never, ever seen you win, the last time you did this we wasted all of the money we got from the bounty we got on that rat remember?" Po explained irritably. Ping literally waved away his concerns, "Those other games were flukes".
Po rolled his eyes, "Uh huh, I'm sure that they were". The goose got off of the 'Bebop', "Come on Po, I need you with me for muscle just in case some guys try to get wise with me" the goose looked at Crane who started to climb down from the 'Bebop' after Po. "Actually Crane you're going to stay here" said Ping, Crane's beak opened to show his disagreement, "We need someone to guard the wagon while we are inside" Ping explained.
The goose started to walk off towards the gates, Crane irritably got back into the 'Bebop' and decided to get some shut eye, before leaving Po stuck his head back into the 'Bebop', "Believe me Crane, I want to swap places too, now I'm stuck with that guy for the next three hours or more" Po complained, the bird looked at him distastefully.
Po simply shrugged and went to follow Ping inside.
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Po and Ping were now inside the place that the goose had been talking about and it was much rougher then he had described, actually as Po remembered it the goose had talked this place up like it was some kind of heavenly Jade Palace. They were on the staircase leading up to it and they were talking about their destination.
"So why do you think that today you're suddenly going to be extremely good at Mah-jong?" Po asked, "When your entire track record tells both me and Crane the complete opposite", Ping smirked to himself, "So you're finally warming to Crane then Po?"
Po shook his head, "Just because we're united in our distaste that does not indicate any type of friendship what so ever!" Ping put his wings up, "Alright Po calm down".
Ping decided to tell the panda his amazing sign, "I was dreaming last night of this turtle named Oogway", Po scoffed "Oogway? What a ridiculous name, why do I feel like this guy is going to be the reason you feel you had to lose the last of our 5,000 yen?" Ping merely rolled his eyes. They finally arrived at the place, it had a lot of stairs leading up to it and the building was pretty large…..if a bit ghastly looking.
They came up to the large red doors and opened them, the inside was a spectacle alright with dank, dark floorboards and a sense of melancholy the air, Po put his hands on his hips, "Well I'm gonna be honest" he declared, "This is a lot worse than I thought and there is a horrible taste in the air…..ah yes it's the taste of defeat!" He finished dramatically.
The goose ignored him and led him over to the bar, "Listen Po, we'll play at different sections of the building, if we both end up winning a lot it'll look suspicious, I'll meet you here in three hours understand?" Po nodded and walked off to explore the place, Ping waited into he was gone then he grinned madly, "I've always wanted to take a lot of money off of people".
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Po wandered around for a little bit trying to find a decent table to indulge himself in Mah-jong, he was beginning to lose interest until a table caught his eyes; he immediately walked over to it. When he got closer he stopped, dealing at the table was the most beautiful tigress he had ever seen, Po lost himself in her looks for a few seconds, a flash of another women popped into his head for a fleeting moment.
He roughly shook his head and stood next to the table, he waited until it had a vacancy before asking to join. "Excuse me miss", the tigress looked at him and Po saw her amber eyes for the first time, "Yes?" she replied. Po smiled softly at her, "Would you mind if I join the game?" he said with all of his charm. The tigress oddly looked away from him for a second before nodding and returning his smile, Po pulled the chair out and sat down, the game began.
The game went horribly for Po, he lost all of his money to the tiger and looked like a fool in front of everyone, the panda didn't seem to care however, he spent the whole game stealing glances at the tiger and concentrating on her fully when he should have been concentrating on the game. It wasn't just him however, everyone seemed to be losing to the tiger, she was like a vacuum for their money and it never ended.
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About two hours before Po showed up
Tigress waited to hear the wolf's response, he walked over to the balcony and looked out onto the Valley below "You will go to a Mah-jong table in a building that we will escort you to and in there you will play the game until your target arrives, he will lose all of his money and you will of course use your talents to see to that. He will give his last remaining chip to you as a gesture of goodwill".
Tigress yawned, "That's great, what about it?" The wold turned to look at her and gave her a toothy grin, "Put that chip in my hand and all of your debts will disappear." Tigress tilted her head in confusion, "What's so important about that chip?" She thought to herself.
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Present
Po sighed, only he and the pretty tigress were left on the table, she had robbed everyone else and they had left before things had got truly bad for them. She leaned forward and looked deeply into Po's eyes as if she was challenging him, "I'm afraid panda that this will be my final game, I don't like stealing from the poor", Po smirked, "What a shame, it appears I'm neither skillful nor lucky when it comes to you."
"Then what are you panda?" She asked smugly, Po leaned back in his chair, "Very generous apparently" referring to the many chips he had given away. She won the next game and helped herself to Po's last chips, he held aloft the last one he owned, "You cleaned me out" he remarked, "I only have this chip left".
The tiger held out her hand expectantly, Po got up out of the chair, "I think I'll keep it as a souvenir", her face dropped as the panda left. "Hey! Wait Hey! Come back here!" Po ignored her though, he was annoyed at losing but he didn't want to show it.
He walked back through the room and looked at some graffiti that was on the wall, he had almost finished reading it but he was cut off by bumping into someone, he dropped his chip onto the floor and the panda fell down too.
Po got back up and held his hand out to the guy he had knocked over, he noticed that it was a rabbit, "Hey man sorry about that I was watching where I was going" Po chuckled, the rabbit ignored him and crawled about on the floor looking for something, when he couldn't find it the rabbit got up and ran around desperately.
Po blinked at him dumbfound, he felt something under his foot so he lifted it up and took a look, he found his chip on the floor which he picked up and put back into his pocket. When he stood back up the tiger from before was in his face again, this time she had an angry frown on her face which diminished her beauty somewhat.
"Hey you! What happened to your generosity? You're messing up the whole plan" she hissed in her face, Po stood completely still unfazed by her aggression. She held out her hand again, "Now give me that chip!" Po frowned at her, "You're pretty brash aren't you? You cheated the whole game and I didn't say a word!"
She gasped at being caught out and Po continued to frown at her, she heard the whispering around her start and the cracking of knuckles. Tigress looked around and started to panic, "Just give me the damn chip panda!" Po rolled his eyes, then he had an idea.
He held it above him and titled his head up, he dropped the chip into his open mouth and then swallowed it, Tigress growled and moved forward to strangle the panda but a movement behind her made her change her mind. She turned around and saw a group of three wolves walk towards her with very threatening expressions.
The tiger turned around and looked at Po one more time with panic in her eyes, then she quickly bolted towards the exit, she pushed past Po on the way which annoyed him, he rubbed his arm softly then turned on his heel to find Ping.
A strong, firm paw grabbed hold of Po's arm and stopped him in his tracks, he turned and looked at his escort. They looked incredibly strong underneath their work clothes which consisted of vests and silk pants.
"Yeah, what is it?" Po asked irritably, "Excuse me sir we're gonna need you to come to the office with us", "Why?" Po asked accusingly. "Our "manager" has some questions that he'd like to ask you".
Po didn't move from his spot, "Like what?" The wolf punched him in the face, Po stumbled but didn't show any sign of pain. He slowly stood back and smirked at the wolves who were aping dumbly at him, "Bad move". Po kicked the leader in the face and quickly dispatched the other two with quick jabs.
Po saw a larger group of wolves running towards him, he would wager he wouldn't be able to beat all of them by himself so he decided to fall back and find Ping, "I love the fitness regime that you guys have here but I'm gonna have to split" Po turned on his heel and he sprinted to the opposite end of the building to find the goose.
The panda frantically tipped tables over and dodged innocent gamblers, he had almost began to give up hope of finding the small goose. Suddenly he saw Ping walking cheerfully in his direction, the goose wasn't looking up so he didn't see Po almost crash into him, the panda quickly checked to see if the others had followed him which to his dismay they spotted him and ran towards them.
When he turned back towards Ping Po saw that the goose was carrying a large brown box, "What have you got there?" Po asked, Ping smirked with pride, "My winnings for the night, you should have more faith in me Po my gut instinct is never wrong". Po grabbed the goose's shoulder and shook him roughly "Right, whatever. Ping we've got to get out of here!" Po yelled, Ping sighed "What have you done now Po?" Po groaned, "Why do you always assume it's me?" he asked, "Because it usually is?" Ping yelled back.
They went to move but their path was blocked by a group of fierce looking wolves, "And just where do you think you're going?" the leader sneered. Po shrugged, "Well preferably somewhere where we don't have to beat you guys up, I don't like cleaning the blood off of myself". Ping rolled his eyes, "Nice work Po that'll calm the situation right down".
The wolves surrounded them, "You have something that belongs to us panda and we want it back!" Po and Ping went back to back, "I don't know what you're talking about" he said innocently. "It doesn't matter anyway because this won't take long" quipped Ping, the wolf laughed, "You think so runt?" He cupped his mouth with his paws and called out "Oh Dredger!"
Po and Ping smirked because this looked like an easy fight, their smirks were wiped off of their faces however when they heard massive footsteps, a huge wolf appeared and looked at the pair of them, ""Il y a un problème?" he said, Po sighed as things got a whole lot harder for them.
Po pointed at the big wolf, "Meat" then he moved his finger towards the smaller ones, "Or potatoes?" He asked Ping, the goose frowned, "Seeing as how I've now lost all of my winnings because of you which also means we've lost even more money than we started with you can get the big guy, hopefully he hits you really hard".
Po nodded, "Thanks for the confidence" he nodded at the smaller guys, "That means that they're yours", the goose nodded. There was a small awkward silence as everyone readied their selves, Ping suddenly threw his winnings at the wolves and engaged them, it hurt the goose to throw away all that money but it was either that or getting killed.
Po watched that fight start but he simply stared the wolf down, the big guy walked towards Po and reached out towards him. Po slapped his hand away and moved back slightly, the wolf snarled and reach out again, Po slapped his hand away again.
The wolf thought the third time might be the charm so he did it again, Po went to hit him again but the wolf grabbed the panda's arm and picked Po up with his free arm, the panda drew a sharp breath and gasped. Po was held above the big guy's head then thrown across a nearby table, Po slid over the table and crashed into a wall, the table broke from the damage and one of the legs rolled towards Po.
The panda quickly got up but lurched into the wall as he felt the pain reach him, he picked the loose leg off of the floor and hit the Dredger's kneecap with it, Po heard a crunch and the wolf groaned in pain and fell over. Po went to do it again but he felt the leg break in his hands, apparently it had been more damaged then the panda had dared to think.
Po looked at the dust in his hands, he was so preoccupied by that that he felt a massive paw grab him by the throat, it pushed him onto the ground and the Dredger started to strangle him. Po felt life escaping him, "Is this the one that finally kills me?" Po thought in amusement, he tried desperately to get the large wolf of him but he was too strong. "I accept it then" he concluded, the panda did nothing to resist it and he could feel the cold embrace of death until…..
One of the smaller wolves crashed into the Dredger and floored him, Po coughed as air rushed back into him and he got up, Ping was standing nearby with his arms folded and with a smirk. "You're lucky they underestimated me otherwise that would have been it for you huh?"
Po nodded, picked himself up and brushed the dust off of himself, he stumbled over to the goose and they quickly exited. The terrified onlookers immediately moved out of their way, after seeing what the little goose had done to that massive wolf none of them wanted to take any chance with either of the pair of them.
Po barged the large red doors open and held them for his friend, they sprinted down the staircase and made their way to the 'Bebop', "We need to skip this town immediately Po, we don't know how far that gang's influence spreads" Ping ordered, Po nodded wordlessly.
They saw the wagon in the distance, when they got closer they could see that it was moving about as if there was a fight going on inside. Po silently told Ping to wait there while he investigated, the goose nodded and waited just in case needed backup.
Po slowed his breathing down and crouched, he walked slowly towards the 'Bebop'. As he got closer he started to the flapping of wings along with some feminine cries. Po gasped, ""Crane!" Po thought worriedly. He stopped his slow walk and ran over to help the avian, he looked inside and could have laughed at the picture.
The tigress from earlier was pinned on the ground being pecked at by Crane, the tiger noticed Po and sighed heavily, "What are you doing here panda? I don't need you help!" She hissed. Po smirked, folded his arms and leaned up against the 'Bebop', "Well I don't know, from here it looks like you're having a bit of trouble. Also this is my ride so I'm going to have to ask you to leave".
Po put his fingers to his lips and blew hard making a whistling sound, Ping recognized the signal and came out of cover, he saw Po was leaning casually and smirking so the goose thought it can't have been serious. He went over to the 'Bebop' and looked in, he laughed at the sight "What do we have here Po?"
Po did a mock puzzled face, "I believe that this person is the reason you lost all your money Ping", Ping frowned, "Is that so Po?" The panda nodded and waited to see what happened.
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The smartly dressed wolf who had tasked Tigress with getting the chip stood over the rabbit who had lost that very chip, the rabbit was in bad shape after having been beaten up by the wolf's thugs. "He doesn't have it, the chip he was carrying was a fake" said the wolf boss's right hand man.
The wolf boss scowled down at the injured bunny, "Neither you nor your boss were told why we cooked up this whole plan in the first place, and there is a reason for that" he snarled, the rabbit remained motionless, he probably wasn't going to move again for what remained of his life.
The wolf boss turned the rabbit over with his foot and looked into his eyes, "That chip is absolutely crucial to my plans, and now because you have failed me" he pulled out a knife and moved closer to the rabbit.
"Boss wait!" Said the right hand wolf, "What about the girl? She ran away from us as soon as she saw us, could she have taken the chip?" The wolf boss shrugged, "I don't know, but put a price out on her pretty little head".
"It's time to say goodnight" he said to the rabbit.
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"This is embarrassing" complained Tigress, she was sat in the back of the 'Bebop' with Po and Crane guarding her, her paws were bound and Po was sat right next to her.
"I couldn't care less, until you give me back all of the money you made me lose then you're staying with us!" Yelled Ping from the front, Tigress rolled her eyes and stared at the floor, Po looked at her and decided to try and break the ice, "So what's your name?"
Tigress ignored him, Po sighed, "Look you're going to be with us for a while you might as well open up a bit!" Tigress bit her lip anxiously, "My name is Tigress". Po smiled, "That's a beautiful name, my names Po, that mute over there is Crane and the goose that you now owe a lot of cash is Ping".
Tigress frowned, "Well if you had given me that chip as was agreed then none of this would have happened", Po looked blankly at her, "What chip?" Tigress gestured at his stomach, "The one you ate you moron! The guy I was working for said he'd-"Tigress stopped herself before revealing too much.
Po shrugged, "Well I don't know anything about that but if it's worth a lot of money then I should probably bargain with him for it what do you say?" He finished with a smile. Ping stopped the 'Bebop' by a roadside, "There's a town up ahead Po, I'm just going to see if I can get the 'Big Shot' that has probably just been delivered, Crane you're coming with me", "Ok!" Po yelled back.
The panda nodded at Crane who was glad for the exercise, he climbed out of the wagon and followed Ping.
The panda stood up and stretched, "Why is this chip worth so much to that guy Tigress?" She shrugged, "I don't know he just asked me to get it", she looked up at him sadly, "I just want to clear my debts so I can go and see my children again" She put her head in her hands and started to cry.
Po immediately felt bad and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "I didn't know about that, I'm so sorry." Tigress looked back up at him with tears in her eyes, "Please just give me the chip and let me go", Po decided to give her a break, "Hang on I'll be right back", he left the 'Bebop' for a second.
When he was gone Tigress smirked to herself, "What an idiot! I can't believe he fell for that!" She heard an odd sound come from outside and Po quickly returned with the chip in his hands, Tigress quickly resumed her act. Po looked at her sympathetically, "Before I give you this and untie you could you tell me how much this is really worth?" He asked with a soft smile.
Tigress nodded slowly, "Yes, it's worth about 5 million yen, now will you please let me go?" Po looked at the chip with a newfound respect, he tossed it in the air and caught it, "Five million for just this?"
Tigress was silent, she had done all she needed to trick him and now the panda just needed to release her then she could steal it back and give it back to the wolf boss. Po smiled at her and leaned close to her face, "I'm glad you're being so honest with me Tigress so it makes me feel like I can trust you" Po cleared his throat, "The truth is that I never believed you and I was just waiting to see if you would tell me how much it was worth" Po beamed in her face.
Tigress snarled at him, "Damn you panda!" She had never been tricked like that before. Po pointed at her angry face, "Now that is what I call the face of beauty, thanks for the help lady." He took his seat next to her again, "Now when my partner comes back we can discuss getting this thing back to him". Tigress stewed angrily next to him.
"How did you know I was lying panda!?" Po closed his eyes and put his arms behind his head, "Where I come from it's a natural ability to be able to lie, you're not so good at it" he remarked. Po heard footsteps outside and went to investigate.
He saw Ping and Crane coming up the dirt path towards him, Po showed them the chip, "Hey guys! I got the chip". Ping nodded and walked over to him, Po handed him the chip, Ping held it in his wing and frowned, "Why is it wet?" he asked dubiously.
Po with a straight face replied, "Because I just threw it up", Ping gasped and threw it on the ground, "Po that's disgusting, clean it and give it back!" Po picked it up and rubbed it on his shorts, when it was spotless he handed it back to Ping.
The goose inspected it, his ran his wing over the edge of it and found a tiny switch, he pressed it and the chip opened up revealing a tiny key. Po and Crane moved closer to see what it was, "What does it do?" asked Po, Ping shook his head, "I have no idea, but I know who might" he said glancing at the 'Bebop'.
The goose climbed in with Po and Crane following, he held the chip in Tigress's face, "What is this?" he asked. Tigress looked at it oddly before looking up at Ping and shrugging, "I don't know, I wasn't told what was special about the chip, only that I was to give it to the guy who wanted it and that was it!"
Ping sat down and examined the key a bit more, Po saw that Crane had hold of the issue of 'Big Shot', he tapped Crane on the shoulder, "Hey Crane, can I see that?" Crane nodded and handed it over. Po read through the magazine for something to take his mind off of the situation, the headlines caught his attention and he gasped at the find.
He read through it to make sure he wasn't mistaken then he looked over at Tigress, she caught his gaze, "What!?" Po turned the paper around and showed her it, on the front was a huge picture of her. Po turned it back to him and started to read it.
"Howdy amigos, who's ready for some 'Big Shot'? Today's huge bounty is a pretty tiger known as Tigress, she has stolen a chip from the local gambling establishment owner Mr Diagras, the bounty is 6 million yen and you can claim your reward by bringing Tigress directly to him at the water fountain in the centre of Urumqi". Po looked up and saw Tigress gaping at him from across the 'Bebop'.
Tigress couldn't believe that the wolf boss who she now knew his name was Mr Diagras had already put a bounty on her head.
Ping clapped his wings together, "Well, well, well, looks like we don't need the chip after all. All we need to do is hand the tiger over and we'll have doubled the winnings we would have got from gambling".
Tigress's breathing quickened, "You can't do that! He thinks I stole his chip and I didn't" she looked at Po, "It was you!" Po raised his hands up, "I didn't take it!" Po had a thought, "Come to mention I did my chip on the ground when I bumped into a rabbit".
Tigress gasped, "That's him! That's the guy I was supposed to get it from!" Ping shrugged, "Who cares, we still have it and we're still going to give you to him because of the reward he's offering".
Tigress scoffed, "Six million! Is that all they're offering?" Po smirked, "Why? How much do you think you're worth?" Tigress ignored him. Ping got back into the front of the 'Bebop' and began to take it back to Urumqi to meet with Diagras.
Po sat down and looked at Tigress, she looked angry but saw true fear in her eyes for the first time.
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They made it back to Urumqi quickly, neither Ping nor Po thought that they would be coming back here so soon after having nearly been killed here, Ping stopped where they had originally parked up and Po picked Tigress up and carried her out, he called back to Crane, "Sorry Crane but stay here with the 'Bebop' again, this won't take long" Crane nodded and immediately went to sleep.
Po stood Tigress up outside of the 'Bebop', "C'mon Po, let's go!" Ping called. Po nodded and grabbed Tigress's paw, he led her behind him. They walked through all of the surprisingly quiet city until they reached a damaged water fountain, there was a massive piece of metal sticking out of it and there was graffiti over all of it, Ping stopped and waited, "This is where the ad said to wait but there isn't anybody here".
Po stayed on alert, Tigress stood next to him trying to think of a way out of this while at the same time hurting Po and Ping. Po's ears went up when he saw a wolf in a suit walk out of the shadows, "Ahhh I see you got my invitation", Po stepped forward, "Diagras I presume? How did you know we were coming?"
Diagras flashed him a toothy grin, "My boy, I was going to say that to anyone who showed up honestly, I'm not sure who you are and I don't really give a damn. I think I can safely assume that you have my chip, give it back now and you might be able to climb out of your hospital bed".
Po smirked, "Well I'm not totally sure who you are giving me orders and I'm not going to give you anything" he pulled Tigress towards him, "Are we done now?"
Diagras sighed, "It's just a chip, why won't you give it back? It has no value to you". Ping stepped up, "Well I don't know, we've become rather fond of it and we know what it's worth" Diagras scowled at him and then at Tigress. "It's a master key, it doesn't matter what I need it for, give it back!"
Po smirked, "Ok, we'll go easy on you. How about 30 million for the magic key and 6 million for Tigress", Diagras waved his hand, "I don't need her now that I've got the key".
Po raised an eyebrow, "But you haven't got the key, we have". Diagras raised his arms and more wolves came out of the shadows, Po frowned, "Why do I say things?" Po said. Ping chuckled, "You must have seen what we did to your guys earlier, why do you think this will be any different?"
Diagras laughed, "Better motivation, if they don't kill you they know that I'll kill them!" Po let go of Tigress's paw and started to fight the wolves with Ping, Tigress watched the two's impressive moves until she realized that this was her chance to escape, she quickly broke into a sprint down an alleyway, Diagras saw her run away and he gestured for a large wolf to approach him, "Kill her and bring her head back to me", the Dredger nodded and ran after her.
Po jumped over to Diagras and engaged him, "Oh great" complained Diagras, "I get to fight the fat panda, honestly that tiny goose would have been more honorable", Po punched him in the face and sweeped his legs, "Hey! I don't call you names, then again you're probably trying to make up for the fact that you can't fight", Diagras roared angrily and threw a sloppy punch at Po that he dodged.
Diagras got more and more angry throughout their fight, it made him a reckless angry fighter and the wolf gave away too many punches to Po which the panda gladly executed.
Po grabbed his arm and threw Diagras into the broken water fountain, the wolf slipped and landed on the jagged metal piece that was sticking out of it. The wolf coughed up some blood and tried to pull himself off of it, "Looks like you've been impaled on your own sword Diagras" Po joked, the wolf snarled at him before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and his body slid down the blade.
Po looked over to Ping who seemed to be doing okay, he saw that Tigress had disappeared though, "Damn it" Po grunted as he ran after her.
Tigress came to a dead end, she stopped and tried to catch her breath, she waited to see if anyone followed her, they didn't so she started to try and get the ropes off of her wrists. She undid them and they fell down to the floor, she was just about to leave when the wall behind her was knocked down and a large hand came through the dust and grabbed her throat, Tigress gasped and tried to break away but the grip was too strong.
When the dust had cleared she saw that it was the large wolf that she had fought….or failed to fight earlier, she started to see darkness. As he choked her, the tiger had an idea. She put her paw against his face, unsheathed her claws and jabbed them into his eyes. The Dredger roared with pain and threw her away from him.
Before she hit the ground she up righted herself in mid-air and landed on her feet, she gasped when she saw the damage that she had done to the wold, one of his eyes was now firmly shut with blood coming out of it. He growled and ran at her again, Tigress slid underneath his feet, kicked his back and this sent the wolf hurtling into a wall.
Tigress got up and panted heavily, this fight was taking its toll on her. The wolf got up again although he was a bit slower then before, Tigress decided to try and stall, she pointed at his eye "Do you want me to take the other one?"
Po quickly appeared, he had followed the sounds of the conflict and he had found them. He looked at the Dredger, "You again? Don't you ever give up?" He winced however when he saw the wolf's wounded face, Po noticed Tigress, he pointed at the wolf's wound, "Is this your work?" Tigress looked at the panda, "Where is Diagras?" Po put his hands on his hips and smirked, "Well, you could say he was impaled on his o-"Tigress cut him off, "Don't make puns, good he's dead that means I can leave now".
She had forgotten about the current problem which advanced on her.
Tigress was punched to the ground by the Dredger, Po saw this and quickly leaped to her aid, he landed in between the two and stopped the wolf's next punch, it took both of Po's arms to block one fist and the panda was struggling. Before his strength gave out Po thought of something, he twisted the Dredger's wrist and threw him over his shoulder, the wolf landed on his neck and there was a sickening crunch.
Po panted and gasped for air, Tigress got back up "Why did you help me?" Po smiled at her, "Maybe I'm just a sucker for a pretty face" he turned serious, "Now get out of here before I change my mind" Tigress smiled at him honestly for the first time and ran past him, she stopped then came back. Po raised an eyebrow when she got closer, Tigress threw her arms around him and kissed him on the lips. Before he could get into it she pulled away and ran off.
Po touched his lips and smirked, "Huh" he said aloud.
XXXXXXX
Po and Ping were standing outside of the bar again, Po had the chip in his hand. "The only thing this chip is good for now is one last bet". Ping nodded, "We might as well use it and start straight from square one…again". They walked over to the door but Ping stopped before opening it.
The goose frowned at Po, "I can't believe she punched you and got away Po! You've beaten up so many other guys so why did this one make such a difference?" Po shrugged, "I don't know". The panda turned and he thought he saw a familiar figure standing on a rooftop they stood for a second before jumping off of the building.
Po smirked, shook his head and followed Ping inside.
See You Dragon Warrior
For those who want more of an idea of what Tigress looks like in this story use this picture as a reference wiki/Tigress?file=
I hope you enjoyed this different interpretation of her, I know people might dislike it but you can't please everyone and it's more enjoyable to try something new and fail rather then write the same character forever, which is exactly the reason I got bored of 'The Dragon Warriors".
Teaser
"This sucks, this worlds a mess" complained Ping
"Take a look at the Bebop, it's a bigger mess here" retorted Po
"Bah, that's nothing, check out this news report 'Environmental Terrorists Want to Blow up Gongmen!'"
Po smirked, "That's perfect they can get rid of this stupid bird while they're at it" he said pointing at Crane who frowned in response.
"Next session The Gongmen Shuffle"
Po sighed, "Man I'm losing it"
