The Dragon Warrior Blues

Goddammit…..I know I said I was done for now but I finished 'Fate Can Be So Cruel'…it made me want to write, DAMN YOU PANDAFAN!

Seriously though it's nice to do this again even if this is just something that took me a long time to do. This particular story is quite complicated so if you have trouble following along then don't be afraid to ask in the review section about what you didn't understand, also I will admit there are more sci-fi elements to this session, but there just wasn't any getting around that when trying to adapt this particular story. And remember to review if you enjoyed this.

As a quick side note 'Heavy Metal Queen' will not be adapted into this story as it it literally impossible to do in the Ancient China context as it's about truckers in space. I've made my mind up about it so I really don't want to hear anyone moan about the fact that it won't be represented here. For those interested it was supposed to be the story directly after this but no it will be replaced but...well you can see in the teaser at the end of this chapter.

Enjoy!

Session #6 Sympathy for the Devil

Everything was hazy, the bright lights above him burned into his retinas, for as long as he lived he would never forget how it hurt his eyes, he squinted his eyes to try and blot out the sun-like lamps and he made out the forms of people standing over him.

A flicker of fear rode up his spine before he could see more of them, they appeared to be doctors and they were wearing gowns and had masks covering their mouths. The coldness of the room reached him in that moment which made him come to the horrible realization that he was naked.

If he was a more fickle person then this would have bothered him but his disorientation coupled with his fear of the unknown won out, he gasped when a gloved hand touched his face, a mask moved closer to his eyes and looked into them examining them.

His breathing quickened as the person refused to let go of him, he tried to pull away to no avail, after an uncomfortable amount of tension the 'doctor' moved away and nodded wordlessly to his comrades, he wanted desperately to ask them who they were, what he was doing here or what that 'doctor' had been prodding around for but he just couldn't seem to make his vocal cords work.

The 'doctors' turned away for a second before grabbing something off of a nearby table, he tried to crane his neck around to see but he found he couldn't move his head either, he tried to think of a way out but his hopes were dashed when he saw what that guy had picked up off of the table, it was a huge scalpel and they came closer to his face.

If he could have talked he would have screamed as he felt the blade go near his eyes…..

"AHHH" Po gasped, he sat up sharply and started to hyperventilate, he felt sweat on his hands and on his brow. Po looked around and remembered where he was, the room was thick with smoke from the opium that was being passed around the bar. Dim light barely coming from some overhead lanterns could barely get through the cloud, Po put his head in his hands and tried to forget what he had just remembered.

A sharp, hollow sound pierced the air and made Po look up, his eyes drifted towards the small stage that was in the corner and he saw a young bear standing in the center of it blowing strongly into a harmonica, the tune he played was bluesy, not unlike the tune that Po often whistled to himself (Session #1). Po blinked a few times groggily then he grabbed the alcohol that was sitting on the table in front of him and downed it quickly, he raised himself slowly out of the chair and left.

XXXXXXX

Back on the 'Bebop'...About 7 hours earlier

Tigress opened the box that they kept their food in and sighed to herself at the sight of a lonely apple, she picked it up and closed the box. Tigress turned around to find a place to sit and eat but she bumped straight into Crane who was looking at the fruit ravenously, she gasped and frowned at him, "Don't do that Crane it's creepy!"

She saw him looking at the fruit, "No! It's not for you bird it's for me!" Crane just continued to look at it, he then raised wing and beckoned with it to show he wanted her to hand over the apple, Tigress decided to get some payback on him. She smirked evilly, "Oh you want the apple?" Crane nodded quickly, Tigress ate it quickly in front of him.

Crane's face dropped like a rock and Tigress swallowed the apple quickly, she laughed at the sight of his irritated face, "If you don't work then you don't eat, you're a hunting bird Crane go and hunt something!" Tigress walked towards the entrance of the 'Bebop' and leaned down to exit it, "We girls are different, we have to be pampered because we're delicate and refined".

She hopped out of the wagon and walked around to the camp they had set up earlier, Po and Ping had left after that to go into the nearby town to find a bounty. She picked up a piece of paper with a picture on it and read through it, the document was an order for a bounty and it had come with a picture so a potential hunter could find the target more quickly.

Tigress laid down on the grass and felt sleep calling out to her, "Whatever, I'm sure that the guys will get that bounty for me".

XXXXXX

Po and Ping stood side by side looking into a crowd of people, "Damn that blues sounded sweet eh Po?" Ping quipped, Po smirked at him, "I thought you hated blues?", Ping frowned, "Just because I don't like you whistling it 24/7 doesn't mean I don't like it!" Po shrugged, "A hipster goose? Very cool".

Po spotted their target, "Look Ping, there he is!" Ping squinted, "Are you sure Po? I can't quite see him from here". Po raised an eyebrow, "What seriously? You can't see him from here? Are you blind? Whatever, it's definitely 'Giraffe' that's for sure", 'Giraffe' was appropriately named as he was a moderately tall...giraffe. Ping nodded, "Alright, I'm going straight in, you take the left and I'll take the right", Po frowned, "Lard boy is in the way".

Ping looked at him oddly, "What?" Po pointed in 'Giraffe's' direction and saw that a large elephant was also eyeing 'Giraffe' up threateningly, Ping definitely saw who that was and he released a irritable huff, "Ahhh, that's 'Fanny'", the elephant was a rival bounty hunter. Po snickered, "What? That's really his name?" Ping nodded, "He's no joke either", Po folded his arms, "Well go on then Ping, the ball's in your court".

Ping grumbled, he put his wing near his mouth and yelled out "YO! HEY 'FANNY'! 'FANNY' RIVER LONG TIME NO SEE" The elephant expression went from puzzled to annoyed then to happy to keep up the illusion that they knew each other, they were doing this so 'Fanny' was aware of their presence was also trying to keep 'Giraffe' unaware of them.

'Fanny' yelled back, "WELL IF IT ISN'T 'OLD MAN PING' HOW YOU DOING BUDDY!?" Ping walked over to him and shook his hand, everyone in the club looked at the bizarre exchange whilst Po kept his eye on 'Giraffe'. "Well well, when in the hell did you blow in?" asked 'Fanny' Ping laughed, "I'm good, how about you you're looking pretty chipper, what happened did you eat a nice big one while on the way in here?" They kept up the fake exchange for a while.

Po saw that 'Giraffe's' ears had perked up, "He must have heard something, his reaction was pretty quick though, he must be waiting for someone to show up" reasoned Po. 'Giraffe' looked up and Po followed his line of sight towards an exit where a man who was pushing a wheelchair quickly exited.

'Giraffe' quickly left the bar, Po waited a few seconds before following him outside, behind him he could hear the slowly fading conversation between Ping and 'Fanny', "I didn't know you liked the blues Ping".

XXXXXX

Po stuck his head out of the door slowly and checked both ways to see whether 'Giraffe' was there, when Po had confirmed the lack of 'Giraffe' he stepped outside into the chilly night air, Po couldn't hear any footsteps so he faced left and started a quick walk down the alleyway. The panda tried to keep his movements quick and quiet, if 'Giraffe' wasn't in this direction then he needed to come back and check the other way before he lost him.

Po turned a corner quickly and jumped out of skin when he saw 'Giraffe' standing at the mouth of the alleyway looking around the corner, Po calmed down and saw that 'Giraffe' hadn't heard him, the panda moved back around his corner and waited for 'Giraffe' to move on, after he got his heart rate down he realized that he had bitten his tongue...rather hard too.

They waited in their positions for about thirty seconds before 'Giraffe' moved away from the corner and went around it, Po cautiously followed him learning his lesson from before, he leaned up where 'Giraffe' had previously been and watched as his target walked quickly down the street.

Po saw 'Giraffe' walk towards a huge hotel that stood out on the bland street, it was huge; at least ten floors and it was colored a sandy yellow, which when compared to the dull grays and whites of the other properties made it stand out immensely, 'Giraffe' walked up to the entrance and went inside.

Po waited a couple of seconds again then darted around the corner and broke into a swift jog down the street. He opened the entrance and went inside.

XXXXXX

The inside looked exactly as one would expect a moderately decent hotel reception to, yellow again coated the walls of it and there were paintings of valleys and mountains hung on the walls, Po looked at the desk of the reception and saw what the panda might describe as an attractive looking leopard. She had obviously been told by her bosses to overdress to entice male customers in, Po felt quite sorry for her having to play up that side of herself, however that wouldn't stop him using all of his will, his intelligence and his cunning in order to get past her.

He decided to go with the simple approach...flirting with her. Po rolled his eyes at the thought but there didn't seem to be any other way, he didn't want to punch her for two reasons, one; he didn't like hitting women and 2; she would probably call security on him which would result in those guys getting injured too. Po walked up to the desk as confidently as he could, she looked up from whatever paperwork she had been doing and looked at the panda oddly, Po flashed her a flirty smile and he leaned on the desk when he reached it.

"Hey good looking, how's it going?" He asked directly, the leopard blushed and tapped the desk nervously, she obviously wasn't used to guys hitting on her so quickly. "F-fine I guess" she stammered. Po nodded, "That fellow that just came in, y'know? The large scowling giraffe", she nodded, "Yes sir, why?"

"I need to know what room he went to darling, it's important...police business yes! I believe that he has sinister intent and I need to talk to him" Po internally face-palmed, "Well here's another great moment in the legend of Po. Famous bounty hunter and womanizer of women that he only found moderately attractive!" To his surprise the leopard smiled softly and wrote something down on a piece of paper.

She finished and then pushed it towards Po, the panda picked it up and looked at it, on it was an address; 44 Tao Pi House, Po looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. She rubbed her arm nervously and blushed, "It's where I live, when you're done with Mr 'Giraffe' then we could maybe...get something to eat?" Po could have laughed in disbelief, why did this have to happen to him?

Po gave a fake smile to her, "I'd like that, now where did he go? I'll come and get you after I've dealt with him", the happy leopard looked down at the paper she had been writing on and ran her finger down it, "Let's see...he went to room 13, that's on the third floor" Po bowed and walk towards the stairs that went up.

He turned around quickly and looked back at the leopard who was smiling at him, Po nodded at her in thanks that went up the stairs, guilt started to creep into him because of the easiness with which he had just given that girl false hope, he looked down at the address that she had just given him and sighed. Po screwed it up and put it in his mouth, if he ate it then he might feel better.

He immediately swallowed it and gasped as it got stuck in his throat, he immediately reached into his mouth and pulled it out of his throat, Po threw the paper onto the floor and cursed at the strong confirmation of the existence of karma that had just struck him, "No one must ever know about this!" Po's subconscious agreed. Po shook his head and remembered his mission, he ran up the rest of the stairs, when he reached the third floor he quickly opened the door and went to room number 5.

As Po approached the room he saw that the door was completely open, the panda examined it and saw that due to it's hinges showing strain that the door must have been kicked down. "Give it back now 'Zebra'!" Came a voice from within the room, Po looked up and saw that 'Giraffe' was standing facing someone in the room brandishing a knife at the same person.

To Po's surprise 'Giraffe' lifted up off of the floor like magic and was thrown towards the window, the glass wasn't worth a damn and shattered upon being struck by 'Giraffe', 'Giraffe's' coat ripped from the glass but he didn't fall out of the window he merely hit it then fell to the floor. Po gasped and ran over to help him, he couldn't let his bounty go to waste!

Po looked at 'Giraffe's' attackers but they had vanished, Po turned his attention back to 'Giraffe' but he saw that there was also a stab wound to the throat, "When did that happen?" Po wondered aloud, 'Giraffe' was definitely dead.

"Oh great!" Po complained, "You die and I lose my bounty!", the body moved slightly which made Po jump out of his skin for the second time in an hour, "Dammit would you stop scaring me like that!?"

"D-don't be...fooled by him...by...by the way he looks" 'Giraffe' wheezed, Po frowned at him, "Don't talk! Try to stay alive!" 'Giraffe' seemed to ignore him. "N-not me, he...needs help now...help him".

'Giraffe' slowed reached into his pocket and Po tensed as he expected a weapon but 'Giraffe' pulled a small ring out of it, it had a small red stone on the top of it which stood out against the rest of the gold ring. "Th-this stone..." 'Giraffe' couldn't finish his sentence and died.

"Wait!" Po yelled, he frowned again when he realized it was no use. The panda pocketed the ring and then just left the hotel room the way he found it, now he just had to worry about leaving the hotel without at all encountering the girl who he had met downstairs whom he could only assume wouldn't like him as much when she realized he had no intention of finding her.

XXXXXX

Po had quickly gone back to the 'Bebop' to tell his friends about what had happened, Tigress and Ping however were more interested about the little ring that Po had brought back. Ping looked at the stone intently, "Hmmmmm" he murmured, Po and Tigress stood side-by-side and waited for an answer from the goose like a child who was waiting for a Christmas present from a parent, Crane was also in the wagon but he (Like always) didn't take any interest in what the others were getting up to.

"I can't be sure until I examine more closely" Ping answered, he then looked at the two with a smirk, "But this may be worth a hefty sum" Tigress whooped with delight and jumped for joy, Po's reaction was more conservative and he merely smiled, it was just nice to have a victory for once.

Ping handed the ring back to Po, "So what do you wanna do you with it?" he asked, Po shrugged "I have no idea, the guy gives it to me and then dies on me, I don't see any reason for why we shouldn't keep it".

Tigress quickly snatched the ring off of Ping, "There is a reason" she said, Po and Ping looked at her so she would elaborate. Tigress rolled the ring about in her paw, "You're not responsible for that guy after all Po!" She was referring to the pair that had presumably done that to 'Giraffe'. Po grabbed it back off of her, "Gimme that!" Po threw her a dark look, "This thing is gonna pay for our food!" Nobody ever gets between Po and his food!

Tigress folded her arms and scowled at him, "Y'know, I think your heart is made out of stone", Ping picked up a piece of paper and started to fan it under his face, "Not like me Tigress, I'm a nice guy", she looked at him with disinterest, "What are you talking about goose?".

Ping held it out to her, "I have a gift for you" Tigress beamed, "Yay! You do?" The goose nodded and Tigress took it out of his outstretched wing, "I wonder what it is?" Tigress said out loud. Her face fell when she saw it was a list of some kind, she turned it back around to Ping and pointed at it, "And what's this?" Ping sat down and put his wings behind his head, "It's an official invoice I wrote up earlier of all the expenses and food you've eaten since being on our wagon".

Tigress snorted and threw it back at him, "I'm not paying for this" she said flatly. Seeing Crane at the back gave her a thought, "How come Crane doesn't have to pay for anything? He just sits around all day do whatever he wants!" Crane looked up at her blankly, "He's a mute bird who for most of his life has been used as an experiment and has very bad social skills, what exactly do you expect him to do?" asked Ping acidly, "Besides, he does whatever I ask him to, I think he's in debt to me and Po for freeing him".

"Which is exactly why I'm giving you this" he picked the invoice back up and handed it to Tigress, "You've done nothing but spend our money so I expect you to either start pulling your weight or pay up and leave!"

Tigress pouted and tore up the paper "Yeah I won't be doing that anytime soon." Ping frowned and watched the small scraps of paper drift to the floor, "It took me an hour to write that up" he muttered sadly.

XXXXXX

Many desserts were laid on the table ranging from cakes of all kinds, sweets and trifles. They seemed to glow majestically in the sunlight.

"Why do you want to know about this dead guy?" Fanny asked Ping suspiciously, he would have been more inquisitive but the amount of food distracted him, which is exactly the effect Ping had been going for.

"Well...uh" the goose replied, Fanny laughed and picked a fork up to begin eating. "So, you were after 'Giraffe' too were you?" he stabbed a bit of cake with it and lifted it to his mouth, "Did you get a good deal?" he asked while smirking at Ping.

Ping watched him shovel into his mouth, "Enjoying the sweets?" He asked sarcastically.

"I always do, there's no bounty in it y'know?" Fanny ate another portion of cake. Ping rolled his eyes, "Yeah you're right, there is nothing to gain here at all" he replied sarcastically again. Fanny frowned at him with his mouth still full, he quickly gulped it and looked accusingly at him.

Ping put his wings up in front of himself and chuckled, "No I mean it there's nothing on the line here". Fanny raised an eyebrow, "Yeah right Ping, you're going to owe me one for today."

He put down his cutlery and looked seriously at Ping, "Alright, y'know that kid on the blues harp the other day? His name is Wen and 'Giraffe' was after the kid's so called father, he was an old friend of his and he went by the name of 'Zebra' ".

Ping leaned forward, "They were friends?".

"Jeez Ping you didn't even know that! You're getting rusty. The tow of them were the leaders of the Self-Defense Volunteer Squad, they worked together until about ten years ago."

Ping closed his eyes and rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "I don't get it, why was he after an old comrade?"

Fanny took a deep breath. "Ten years ago they had a confrontation with some raiders. A land dispute. It all came down at some R&D facility near the Valley of Peace. A few days later the raiders are wiped out, Zebras missing, and Giraffe is found blindfolded in a field. They say Zebra double crossed him so he could run the squad solo. Later, Zebra turns up in a wheelchair with the kid. Guess it didn't turn out the way he planned."

XXXXXX

Ping climbed back onto the 'Bebop' and saw Tigress laying looking up at the ceiling, "Where's Po?" he asked when he didn't see the panda anywhere. She looked up at him and sat up, "He left about an hour ago, he said he had a lead to check out."

Ping frowned, "Why did Po leave her here alone? How can he trust her not to rob us or steal the 'Bebop'?" he thought.

"So what did you find out? Did your contact tell you anything interesting?" Tigress asked snapping Ping out of his thoughts. Ping looked at her for a second before deciding to show her the same trust that Po had shown her by leaving her here with Crane, after all in the event he was wrong he got to say "I told you so" to Po and he always looked forward to that.

Ping sat down and explained everything to her that he had been told by Fanny, she nodded but mostly just listened to what was being said.

When he finished then she spoke, "So the bottom line is that 'Giraffe' was killed over some internal politics."

Ping shook his head, "Betrayal may come easily to you but men live by iron codes of honor." Tigress chuckled, "You really believe that?" Ping lowered his head, "After this case I'm trying really hard to."

XXXXXX

"AHHH" Po gasped, he sat up sharply and started to hyperventilate, he felt sweat on his hands and on his brow. Po looked around and remembered where he was, the room was thick with smoke from the opium that was being passed around the bar. Dim light barely coming from some overhead lanterns could barely get through the cloud, Po put his head in his hands and tried to forget what he had just remembered.

He had had a horrible dream.

A sharp, hollow sound pierced the air and made Po look up, his eyes drifted towards the small stage that was in the corner and he saw a young bear standing in the center of it blowing strongly into a harmonica, the tune he played was bluesy, not unlike the tune that Po often whistled to himself (Session #1). Po blinked a few times groggily then he grabbed the alcohol that was sitting on the table in front of him and downed it quickly, he raised himself slowly out of the chair and left.

Po waited outside for a while until the young bear from the stage earlier walked out of the place pushing a wheelchair that had a huge bear sitting in it. Po had been told by Ping the whole story and had decided to come back and get some answers from little Wen.

He let them get a little distance ahead of him before he set off on a comfortable fast walk. It went on like this for a few minutes with Wen taking the most complex route possible, Po had the sneaking suspicion that the young bear knew that Po was following him and was deliberately trying to shake him off.

They turned another corner and again Po waited a few seconds and then rounded it after them, he gasped when he saw that they had completely disappeared. "How is that possible!?" He said aloud, he saw a door out of the corner of his eye and decided to check in there.

He opened the door and closed it as quietly as he could behind him, he stood still and listened to see if he could hear any of the wheelchair's movements however the only noises that Po could hear in the entire room were his own calm breath and his erratic, tense heartbeat. The room was dimly lit by the small amount of afternoon light coming through a small window which was mostly covered with a vast, black curtain. With the little light available Po walked slowly towards the center of the room, he didn't draw his knife because at the end of the day it was a small kid and a crippled man so Po was pretty confident that neither of them would be a problem to him.

Suddenly the room exploded with light as the curtain fell away from the window as if it had a mind of it's own. It blinded Po and he raised his knife with one hand whilst trying to cover his eyes with the other.

A small confident voice echoed throughout the room, "Tell me, who are you?" Po whipped around and found Wen looking at him blankly from out of the shadows, next to him was the old man in the wheelchair who didn't even acknowledge that Po was there as he just continued to stare at the ground like earlier.

Po smirked and moved his hand away from his face as his eyes adjusted to the sudden change in brightness. "I'm just some suspicious guy." Wen's expression didn't change, "What do you want here?" he asked monotonously.

"Before 'Giraffe' bought it he asked me to come here to help you". Wen didn't reply and just stared at Po as if he didn't know what was going on. Po lowered his weapon and decided to try the more civil route, "C'mon there's nothing to be afraid of, come here and let's talk." Po reached his arm out and before he could react Wen swiftly threw a small bladed star at Po which embedded itself into his arm, he hissed, drew in breath and tried to raise his knife but to no avail, Wen had thrown it into the perfect spot into his arm which stopped Po being able to move it at least for a short amount of time at any rate.

"You'd better stay out of it" Wen said threateningly as he withdrew another star and looked set to throw it this time however at Po's head. "A little twerp like you stick his head in and you might find that it gets cut off."

Po frowned, "Don't give that crap kid!"

Wen tilted his head slightly, "Sorry to disappoint you but I'm not a kid."

"Yeah all kids say that" Po replied, the blood from his wound was now dripping onto the floor.

"I know what I look like, but I was alive when this place was an outpost before anyone came here to settle down. Do you get the picture" he sneered.

XXXXXXX

200 Years Ago

Wen stood up on a rock and placed the harp to his mouth, he take a breath and started to play a bluesy tune which his grandfather had taught him many years ago before had had died. The bear stayed that way for a few hours just getting lost in the sounds that he was creating until...

A huge *BOOM* pierced the moment, Wen looked up and saw a huge chunk of rock fall from the sky and land in a nearby field. The harp fell from Wen's lips in shock and he jumped off of the rock and quickly ran towards the crash site to see what had happened.

He reached the site and saw the crater that had been created from the impact, the bear had never seen destruction on this kind of scale before...not all actually. Wen saw the object sitting at the bottom of the crater and up close it looked like a black, gooey like substance. It pulsed like it had a heartbeat and it had a morbid effect on the bear, as if he felt a huge sense of empathy towards whatever it was.

He slid down into the bottom of the crater and reached out towards the object, it suddenly latched onto him and started to work it's way under his skin. The world went black but Wen could feel his legs turn to jelly and give out underneath him.

6 days later...

Darkness...all that could be seen was darkness. Wen tried to feel around but the never-ending blackness prevented much exploration, his hands felt something rough and he tried to use it as an opening to get out of wherever he was.

He used all of his strength and his black prison gave out and opened with almost no fight. The light blinded him, after six days of darkness what wouldn't? Wen fell out of the container which when he looked at it from the outside turned out to be the object that had fallen from the sky. The young bear panicked and ran away at the thought of being captured by it again.

He found the rock he had been sitting on nearly a week ago and grabbed his mouth harp. He stumbled before sprinting away to find his family and try to explain his absence to them.

"From that day on my body completely stopped ageing" an evil smirk found it's way onto Wen's face, "I can't die." Po gasped and held his arm tighter as his arm was starting to lose it's feeling. "C-can't die? You can't be serious" he replied shakily, the bear slowly nodded "Oh but I am you fool! There was always someone doing experiments on me but they all died and I kept on living."

He gestured with his head towards Zebra who still hadn't moved during the entire confrontation. "The end for this guy came during his time in the Self-Defense Volunteer Squad. I needed a new cover, someone to play my parent."

Giraffe's words from earlier echoed in Po's mind. "D-don't be...fooled by him...by...by the way he looks. N-not me, he...needs help now...help him."

"I think Zebra is the third guy I've used for this...or is it the fourth? It's been so long I can't remember" Wen said whilst shrugging nonchalantly, his expression then turned serious again as he focused back on the bleeding panda. "Now, where is the ring?"

Po decided to play dumb, even if it got him killed. "Ring? What Ring!?" He yelled back.

Again like lighting another star flew towards him but this time it harmlessly struck and stuck in the floor in front of him, a warning shot? He'd already hit him so why bother with a warning? "That's okay, even if you did have it it would just be a case of casting pearls before a swine."

Po quickly leaped into the shadowy areas of the building and quickly found cover, as he ran he heard the sharp metallic sounds of the tiny stars hitting the environment. Po quickly caught his breath and decided to make a beeline for his weapon, after all this kid...no, this guy had decades of combat experience and Po was wounded so the panda needed any advantage that he could possibly get. He focused and took a deep breath, he counted to three and then sprinted out again across the beams of light towards where he had dropped his knife earlier.

A small star grazed his forehead but he didn't stop. He dived into cover again and felt around for his blade, his paw found it and drew it in front of him. Even with his good arm he was still shaky but he was driven but an animalistic sense of survival, it had helped him many times throughout his existence and this would be one of those time.

He jumped out of cover and threw his blade with all of his strength towards his opponent, time seemed to move in slow motion as he watched it fly into Wen and into his hand, the small bear hissed with pain and dropped his stars. Po quickly stood up and ran towards Wen to finish this, Wen panicked and ran behind Zebra, Po stopped at the bottom of the small metal staircase that led up to where Wen had been standing and watched as Wen pushed Zebra's wheelchair with the owner still in it down the stairs towards Po.

Zebra fell onto Po and brought the panda down to the ground, Wen saw his chance and climbed up on some nearby boxes towards a high window. Po roughly pushed Zebra off of himself and ran up the metal stairs, Wen smashed the window open and jumped out. Po leaped up onto the boxes using all of his agility and went to jump out of the window too but stopped when he saw the massive drop onto the ground below. He saw Wen's broken form at the bottom and Po drew a sigh of relief at the bear's bluff...until the boy's body began to piece itself together.

"No way..." Po breathed.

Indeed it was true, Wen was immortal. Po contemplated this as Wen got up after his body had fixed itself and then he darted away into the night. "Dammit!" Po roared as he slammed his good hand into the wall, he frowned and took a deep breath.

His gaze hovered over Zebra's body.

XXXXXXX

"Ow!"

"Stop whining you big klutz! You're lucky that you got away with this big scratch on your arm" Ping said as he bandaged up Po's wound. "Yeah, I feel lucky" Po replied sarcastically, Ping pulled the bandage deliberately tight, "Hey think about me! If you had died I couldn't have paid for a funeral"

Po sighed, "I'm sorry" he said quietly. Ping stopped as he looked into Po's eyes and saw that he was being serious, the goose nodded and carried on.

I'm glad you two are having your little male bonding session over there but would you mind answering me one question? WHY DID YOU BRING A CORPSE BACK WITH YOU!" Yelled Tigress while pointing at Zebra's body which was laid on the floor of the 'Bebop', Crane was stood next to her and judging by his expression he agreed with Tigress.

Ping looked at them and frowned, "Oh shut up Tigress, and don't give me that look Crane. Don't be obnoxious either of you!" Tigress and Crane sat down and pouted with their arms/wings folded.

Crane looked at Zebra's face and saw something glint in the body's eye, the bird stood up and got closer. He looked into Zebra's eye and saw a tear streak down his face, the bird's heart skipped a beat and he jumped back in silent panic crashing into a table, "Dammit Crane! Watch what you're doing I'm trying to fix Po up!" Yelled Ping.

Crane stood up and went over to Tigress, he grabbed her sleeve and tugged on it desperately, "What do you want you cretin?" she asked irritably. He comically tried to both pull Tigress to Zebra and tried to mime what he had seen, "Hey guys, I think Crane found something on Zebra and he wants to show us" said Tigress in an unconvinced tone of voice.

Ping sighed and threw his first aid kit down, "If it'll shut you guys up for five minutes me and Po will look!" The panda stood up and they all looked at where Crane was pointing to..."He...killed Giraffe" Zebra whispered...Po, Ping, Tigress and Crane all froze and felt chills go down their back, there was a small silence before..."AHHH HE'S A ZOMBIE!" Screamed Po like a little girl, Crane leaped into his arms, Tigress tried to find something to destroy him with and Ping face-palmed at his crew's panic.

Ping calmed them down and sat near Zebra's head, "Do you know who you are?" he said softly. Zebra nodded slowly, "I don't have long...you need to know how to kill him" everyone hung on his every word, it was clear that this would be his last act.

Zebra tried to grab some air and seemed to struggle with it, all the 'Bebop' crew could do was watch the pitiful creature limp on. "Do...you..have the ring?" he mumbled, Po nodded and grabbed it off of the nearby table, "Yeah we do, what are we supposed to do with it?" Zebra ignored his question and carried on, "With it, you can return time to him."

"You mean make him mortal?" asked Tigress. Zebra nodded again, "You must...try and...administer it to him...through his bloodstream." Zebra's eyes glazed over, "I've...told you how to kill him...no do it" They watched as the life finally faded from his eyes, the last remnants of the Self-Defense Volunteer Squad was no more.

Ping closed his eyes over with his wing and then stood up, "This is what we do. Crane, you go and bury Zebra nearby and make it neat." The bird nodded and grabbed a shovel that was underneath the table, he walked out of the 'Bebop' to start digging. "Po, give me your knife and I'll try to out whatever is inside the ring onto it so you can finish him off." Po nodded and handed over his blade and the ring to Ping who immediately took the jewel out of it and started to work on it.

Po looked up at Tigress and gave her a small smile, he pointed at his unfinished bandages "Hey Tigress, would you mind?" She smiled and shook her head, Po sat back down where he had been earlier and Tigress took Ping's place. They sat in a comfortable silence but Po had the idea that she wanted to say something to him, Crane eventually came back looking dirty and tired, he carefully grabbed Zebra's body and put it over his shoulder.

They all stopped what they were doing and watched Crane take the body outside, they waited for a second and heard the *THUD* as Zebra's body landed at the bottom of the pit, they carried on after that.

Tigress finished Po's wrappings and they looked at each other for a second, some mutual understanding of what Po was going to do passed between them and Tigress looked...upset at the thought of Po going to fight an immortal creature. Po internally refuted that as he was sure that Tigress genuinely cared nothing for him and certainly nothing for Ping or Crane.

The moment was interrupted by a blood red knife being shoved into Po's face, Po and Tigress looked awkwardly up at Ping who was handing Po's weapon back at him. Po gratefully took it and looked upon what Ping had done to it, it was now blood red and it seemed to have a certain weight to it that it didn't have before.

Ping sighed, "I'm sorry Po, but there's no way to know whether this thing will actually work until you stick it into the kid and see what happens" The goose frowned, "Anything could happen, it could blow sky high the moment it hits and you would be killed" Po stood up and smirked at him, "I'm glad" he placed the knife on it's holster around his waist "This makes it much more interesting this way, after all we wouldn't want to make things too easy for that little runt."

Ping merely nodded and watched as Po grabbed his straw hat and tipped it over his eyes, the panda stretched and jumped out of the 'Bebop'. Tigress quickly landed in front of him, "Yes my dear?" he said charmingly. Tigress looked sad for a second again before covering it up very quickly, she folded her arms and smirked cruelly. "I just thought I'd come and say goodbye to you Po, after all it will be the last time that I'll see you."

Po chuckled, "What? You mean you're finally leaving us?" Tigress shook her head and jabbed her finger in his face, "No! I mean you're not coming back." Po looked up at Ping, "I don't like this set up Ping, I don't like it at all."

Po gently pushed past Tigress and walked off into the night to find Wen. Tigress watched his retreating figure with sad eye, "Po is such an idiot" she murmured to herself.

XXXXXX

Wen went back to the warehouse after escaping Po, he needed to get Zebra back, if that annoying panda found out how to kill him then he was in trouble. The bear had waited for a few hours in an alley nearby on the off chance that Po was still waiting on the inside for him , eventually Wen decided to just risk it after all he was immortal but that didn't mean much when his opponent was someone like him.

Wen reached the door and put his ear up against it, he heard nothing so he opened the door and closed it as quietly as he could behind him, he stood still and listened to see if he could hear any of the panda's movements however the only noises that Wen could hear in the entire room were his own calm breath and his erratic, tense heartbeat. The room was dimly lit by the small amount of moonlight coming through the now open window. With the little light available Wen walked slowly towards the center of the room, he didn't draw his stars because at the end of the day it was a heavily wounded and bleeding out panda so Wen was pretty confident that he of them would be a problem to him.

He felt something wet underneath his feet but it was so dark he couldn't' see what it was, he smelt the air and realized that there was a very pungent smell in the room. Before he could figure out what it was..."I knew you'd come back here, for someone who's immortal it's seems natural that you're a creature of habit" Came Po's voice piercing the darkness, Wen jumped in shock and whipped around trying to spot it's source. He heard a small striking noise and he turned and saw Po standing behind him.

In his hand was a box of matches one of which he had just struck, the small light showed Po showing a toothy smirk, before Wen could do anything Po threw the match a couple of feet in front of him and Wen panicked when he realized what he was standing in. "It's Naphtha!"

Po quickly jumped and then dived behind a corner as the room exploded in a huge fire ball. Po held his hand over his ears and covered his eyes just in case of any shrapnel. He waited until the world stopped shaking then he stood up, poked his around the corner and surveyed the damage, the whole room had been totaled with there now being a whole in the ceiling which let the full moonlight illuminate the arena.

Po smiled as he thought he had won but he saw a mass move about in the middle of the room, he moved closer to it and saw that it was Wen's arm. Po frowned and almost felt bad for doing that but he disgust was replaced by shock as he saw that it had started to shake more rapidly and something started to form out of it.

It grew into a body and then legs, Po watched as it distorted itself into Wen's original form, it had even managed to create the clothes he had just been wearing. Wen shook his head and laughed at Po's shocked expression, "That's the closest I've come to death in a long time panda! I can't believe you thought that would work!"

Po withdrew the knife quickly and Wen's eyes widened when he saw what it was, "No! Don't!" He said panicking. Po charged at Wen and thrust the knife towards him, Wen dodged and kicked Po in the face, the panda quickly recovered and charged in again quickly so that Wen would have no time for a reprieve. Wen took a star out in mid-air and threw it towards Po, Po didn't even flinch as it grazed his cheek and drew blood.

Po jumped over Wen and sweeped his legs out from under him, Wen hit the ground and quickly found a knife sticking in his chest. He tried to regenerate but he immediately felt that something was wrong as he felt some superior and unknown force stop him from regenerating the body that had been damaged. Po sighed and watched Wen die.

However Po was nearly sick as he watched Wen quickly decompose and hemorrhage, it was like watching a body rot in fast forward, Wen's eyes dried up and fell out of his head, his hands rotted and his claws fell out, the fur on his body quickly went grey/white and fall out in clumps to the ground. Wen reached up towards Po angrily but the life left him too quickly for Wen to do anything.

His body then turned into dust and most of it was scattered away to the wind. Po went to pick up his knife from the remains but groaned when he saw that the red blade had also dissolved leaving only the handle of his favorite knife, the panda sighed and threw the handle away from with all of his strength, Po reached up to his cheek and feel the blood running down his face.

"I'm sure that Ping will be glad that he's having to patch me up again" Po went to walk away back to the 'Bebop' but he saw something shiny sticking out of the pile of ash that had once been Wen's body, Po brushed the ashes away and scooped up Wen's Blues Harp. Po stared at it for a second before throwing it into the air, he smirked as it flew through the air and one saying came to mind as he pointed his fingers at it in a projectile like formation.

It's an old Chinese saying, a phrase of great power and wisdom, a consolation to the soul in times of need, it spreads hope to whoever hears it and grants fear to whatever evil may hear it.

"Skadoosh"

Teaser

Ping pulled up a stool and hopped up onto it, he cleared his throat. "Once in a while I do the preview myself, I'm Ping and I'm 36 years old, I'm often told that I don't look 36 but you shouldn't judge people based on what they look like…or how much hair they have."

Ping coughed in embarrassment and rubbed his bald head meekly.

"Things are never what they seem to be and that's how the next session is too, it's a story that seems very unlike the others, next session Waltz for Venus. Stuff like this is good too y'know"

End Teaser

It's been a while since I asked a personal favor but I just wanted to ask whether you would go to my new youtube channel and subscribe. We have all of our old videos there still so if you want to see anything from KFP month then this would be the best place to go to in order for you to hear my thoughts on this franchise. The channel is called Middlemencomms type it in as you see it and it is the channel without the space in it's name. If you do like it don't forget to leave a comment and/or a personal message. I'll even take question for it on here if you want.

channel/UCyOGGlO1Tuo8Od95KThn86w