Dodging the Bullets
"You nearly set the whole barracks ablaze!" Master Shifu exclaimed. "What were you thinking?"
"I knew they would get past you guys so I had to do something to trap them," Po said.
"You didn't think we could take them," Viper asked offended.
"I didn't mean to undermine you guys," Po explained, "But as was evident, they got past you guys. Tigress and I both saw them entering and leaving the barracks. In fact, you guys didn't even know WE were gone." Everyone slowly calmed down.
"Look, it's obvious that we're dealing with highly trained assassins who know what they're doing. The best thing we can do now is to be around Po," Tigress suggested. Everyone agreed. They noticed that Po was reading some scrolls very diligently.
"What are you doing, Po?" Master Shifu questioned.
"There's a special Kung Fu move that I'm trying to perfect. These Killers are going to find out that I'm not as killable as they think I am," Po answered gruffly. "Ah, here it is."
"So what do we do now, my dear," Sheng asked. They were back at their camp outside the village. Liexing thought about it.
"When they won't go down, poison is always around," Liexing said with a smile.
"That doesn't really rhyme," Sheng pointed out.
"Shut up," Liexing retorted. "Come on, the Dragon Warrior's favorite place is this noodle shop. We can slip something in his soup when he's there."
"Good, come on. I want to see how the panda will combat this," Sheng said.
"You say that like you expect it not to work," Liexing huffed.
"Oh, I have faith in you, honey. The panda is another story," Sheng laughed. They snuck into town and waited for Po to come down the mountain.
"Po, are you sure that it's okay for you to be out in the open?" Monkey asked. Po, Tigress, and Monkey were down in the village.
"I have to tell my father. Plus, I'll be safe for the most part."
"'Most part'?" Tigress asked.
"The Killers don't seem like they want to hurt other people. If they did, they would have just blown past you guys," Po said bluntly.
"You really don't think we're capable fighting these guys, do you?" Tigress said narrowing her eyes.
"I don't need to guys getting in between me and those arrows," Po remarked. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get some food." Mr. Ping had prepared a bowl for Po on the kitchen's pick-up counter. Po and the others missed Liexing sneaking in and pouring the poison in the soup. She ducked out of sight and the two watched as the panda and his friends walked in. Po was about to take a sip of the soup, but he smelt something. The bitter side of the tongue is used so that you can detect possible poisons. Po's nose could smell that bitterness entering his tongue. He didn't taste it. He put some of it onto an open fire. The soup burst into a little flame.
"He burnt out the poison," Liexing said, amazed.
"What was that about?" Tigress asked as Po got some new soup. Po's eyes darted around trying to see if he could find the Killers.
"The soup smelt like poison. One of them must have been here," Po said, drinking his soup quickly and watchfully.
"That's impossible. We would have seen them," Monkey replied. An arrow sang through the air, but Po dodged out of the way of it. The three made a run for it.
"You were saying!" Po exclaimed. Liexing and Sheng stayed out of sight, but they still pursued Po. "Tigress, Monkey, stop running for a moment. It's me they're after."
"We're not leaving you alone," Tigress said.
"Get going before I make you!" Po threatened. Tigress was about to fire back, but Monkey stopped her.
"We should go. We're no match for these guys." Monkey said, pulling her hand. Tigress reluctantly went along. Po kept running with Sheng and Liexing on his tail. He ran to the outskirts of the town where he could see them. Sheng and Liexing came out of hiding.
"You come out to the open just to die. Huh, I thought you were smarter than that," Sheng said about to draw his crossbow.
"You can't kill me here," Po panted. Sheng and Liexing looked at each other with confused faces.
"Why? Is there some 'no tag zone' we have to observe," Sheng joked.
"I can deflect each arrow you shoot here, I'm trained to dodge them when I can't see them, and your explosives would be useless if I could deflect them here. In other words," Po said getting into a stance. "You have to fight me hand-to-hand. My way of fighting."
"See, I told you he wasn't dumb. And you wouldn't believe me," Sheng told Liexing.
"That is not what he told me," Liexing protested to Po.
"But you're right. But we're also trained in hand-to-hand combat," Sheng smiled evilly as he jumped through the air and came down on Po. Po grabbed his foot and threw him back. Sheng and Po fought each other hand-to-hand. Liexing quickly came around and tried to paralyze Po from the back. But once she touched his pressure point, it didn't phase him. Po retaliated by ducking down from Sheng's kick and sweeping Liexing's legs. When she fell down, something snapped in Sheng's manner. He grabbed Po from Liexing, tripped Po, and kept Po beneath his foot. Po noticed this.
"Oh, do you have a thing for the wolf lady," Po smirked as Sheng got his crossbow. "Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt her."
"Her name is Liexing," Sheng said seriously. "She's my wife, and I'm Sheng. The last things you'll ever hear. You lose panda." Po grabbed a smoke bomb from Sheng's jumpsuit.
"The name's Po and I haven't lost yet!" The smoke bomb exploded. Sheng felt thrown off. It was about ten seconds until the smoke cleared. Po had disappeared. Sheng picked up Liexing. Liexing smirked at the albino hyena.
"Go ahead say it."
"Aw, you care about me," Liexing smiled, batting her eyelashes at him. Sheng rolled his eyes. "You do worry about me when we go on these missions, don't you?"
"Every day," Sheng shivered. Liexing kissed him on the cheek, making him blush, and he blushed bright red. He shook it off when she was giggling. "Come on, we can still catch up with him. Maybe we can think of a new plan."
"No rush really," Liexing said, "We know where he's going." So they walked to the Jade Palace.
"You're okay," Monkey sighed in relief.
"And you would have been better if you allowed us to stay," Tigress grumbled.
"Okay, I'm sorry," Po simply said, but Po could see that Tigress wasn't really forgiving.
"We need someone to stay with Po," Master Shifu said. "Po's deduction that these Killers are only out for him was right. Thus, we need someone to be with Po."
"I'll stay with him," Tigress volunteered. Po wasn't really easy with it. Po and Tigress had been fighting for a while now. This forced togetherness would prove disastrous. Master Shifu seemed to understand that.
"Very well, but I do not want any trouble between you two. Po's life and other lives are counting on you," Master Shifu warned. Po and Tigress bowed.
"So you're going to be with me everywhere I go?" Po asked. Tigress smirked as she nodded. "Even the bathroom," Po said jumping in place. Tigress rolled her eyes and groaned.
"Go!" She muttered. Po ran to the bathroom. Unknown to the others, Sheng and Liexing were listening from the roof. They jumped off and walked off toward the entrance of the Hall of Heroes. Unknowingly to them, the bathroom was just in earshot of them.
"So what do we do," Liexing asked.
"We cause trouble between the two of them. We need to separate the tiger from Po. They're fighting already as it is. Separating them will be easy."
"But how do we do it when we'll be seen by the others?"
"Trust me, keeping out of sight will be easy," Sheng said confidently. Po had heard all of this. They were about to come between his best friend and him. Po sighed. It was because of him that Tigress didn't like him at the moment. "Come on, let's get going to the courtyard. There we'll be making some mischief," Sheng laughed his hyena laugh. Po pulled up his pants and exited the bathroom.
"It's time to make things right," Po sighed. Po met Tigress in the courtyard. He could hear movement on the roof. He guessed that was the Killers. He bravely stepped out. He actually feared Tigress more than the Killers at this point.
"Ah, Po. Master Shifu says that you need more training to help you fend off these 'Killers'. So we're going to spar," Tigress said cracking her knuckles.
"Tigress, can we put this whole thing behind us?"
"What do you mean," Tigress replied, trying not to bring it up. She wanted to settle it out in combat where she could really take revenge on Po. Po sighed. He knew this wouldn't be easy.
"Look, I'm sorry," Po apologized. Tigress was surprised.
"What is he doing? He's supposed to be making the situation worse," Sheng whispered.
"I'm sorry for the way I've been acting lately. And I'm sorry for cheating in the spar we-"
"So you did cheat," Tigress said angrily. "Why?"
"Because you're always telling me how bad I am when I make mistakes! It makes me feel like I'm useless. Like I don't matter" Po replied downcasted. Tigress immediately felt guilty. "So I cheated thinking you would think better of me. I'm sorry." Tigress finally came off her high horse.
"I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have made you feel like that. I guess I was..."
"Jealous," Po guessed. Tigress was about to protest but she could see the sincerity in his eyes. She sighed.
"Yes. I let my pride and... jealousy get in the way." Tigress looked down at the ground. Po placed his hand on her shoulder. His smile shone through.
"It's alright. Let's just forgive and forget," Po smiled. Tigress nodded. Po surprised her by hugging her. Tigress looked around to make sure no one was looking before she hugged back. Her back was facing the Killers' view. Po saw Sheng fuming with rage that his plan didn't work. Po stuck his tongue out at the white wolf.
"EYYYEAAAH!" Sheng screamed at the top of his lungs. He got his crossbow and started shooting his explosive arrows.
"Look out!" Po shouted, lifting Tigress and moving her out of the way. The explosion nearly took them out. "Come on, we need to get out of here." Po and Tigress raced down the mountain. "What's wrong, Sheng? Are you sore your plan was messed up?"
"I AM GOING TO KILL YOU PO!" Sheng shouted shooting another exploding arrow.
"I thought hyenas were supposed to have a sense of humor," Tigress asked Po as they were chased down the mountain.
"They are and he does, but he's upset that he couldn't make us fight each other. That's one of the reasons why I apologized."
"You apologized so you could live?"
"I made a stupid mistake anyway. Why not get rid of it," Po explained, dodging an incoming arrow. "Jump!" The arrow exploded behind them. Then something happened. As Sheng and Liexing chased the two down the mountain, they suddenly stopped. Sheng and Liexing ran out of all their arrows. Sheng growled.
"Come on, we better get to camp," Sheng said. So they went down the mountain a different way. Po looked back and saw them going past them down the other way of the mountain.
"We can stop. I think they ran out of arrows," Po panted.
"Come on," Tigress smirked, "I think you've earned some dumplings."
"Hopefully, Sheng and Liexing didn't poison it," Po joked.
In the far off the hillside, that overlooked the Village, the Killers ran back to regroup. "Dang it," Sheng cursed under his breath.
"It's not that bad. We'll figure out something," Liexing assured. Then she saw something in the village. "Looks like they're closer than ever." Sheng looked to see Tigress and Po chatting in Mr. Ping's shop. Po seemed to actually make Tigress laugh though he had to slip on something to do it. Sheng smirked. Liexing noticed. "You actually like them being together. This little hyena has a soft spot for the panda," Liexing teased.
"I do not," Sheng said defensively.
"So what do we do?"
"Well, we can't kill Tigress because of the code," Sheng sighed. Even though they were slightly deranged, the Killers did follow some rules. One of them was never to kill someone who isn't the target. Sheng looked at the two from afar. "They do look nice together." Sheng saw his black wolf wife's smirk. "Come here you," He said chasing her.
to be continued.
