The Dragon Warriors
Chapter 4 - Chi Control! Confessions of the Dragon Warrior!
I don't read a lot of new stuff coming out unless it's by Pandafan. But I found this amazing one shot called For the Love of Kung Fu by PenLite1123. It's an interesting twist on how Po learns to make his action figures...and that's all I'm going to say, it's definitely worth a read.
I'm sorry this took so long but life is a thing unfortunately and I get distracted easily. Enough excuses away we go!
A Few Days Later
"C'mon, you can do it! Just concentrate!". Po's brow furrowed in concentration, he had his palm held out in front of him and his feet spread out underneath him. Shifu, Tigress and the others were watching from the sidelines inside the courtyard outside of the Training Hall. For the past couple of days Goku had been attempting to train his new friends in the art of chi control. None of them so far had been able to form any kind of ball of energy no matter how hard they concentrated, obviously due to the strain needed to attempt the technique only one of them did it per day and they only tried it once, to do it more times would risk injury or catatonia.
They had started with Monkey who couldn't produce anything, then Mantis who almost did it but couldn't keep it up and passed out, Crane was next and like Monkey didn't even get close, Viper was last, the others had felt the power coming off of her but the shape of her body seemed to disrupt the flow of chi fro some reason, even Shifu was perplexed as her form might of given the idea that chi would of flowed better inside of her then within one of the other masters. Shifu didn't participate as it took a lot out of him just to produce anything tiny as seen earlier but also because the strain of it might of been too much for his older body and caused him an illness or some sort of attack.
Po growled in frustration at his lack of any kind of result, the others were surprised, surely out of all of them Po could produce some form of energy seeing as how he was the legendary Dragon Warrior. Everyone had almost lost interest until...a yellow light started to form out of his palm, it's glow had a strange allure to it like it was almost as warm and inviting as the panda producing it. Po smirked with relief and started to focus on preserving the energy.
"Nice work Po!" said Crane supportively, Shifu smiled proudly at his students achievement. Mantis grumbled jealously, Monkey raised his fist triumphantly and Viper just smiled warmly.
Tigress looked in awe at the power that was radiating off of Po, she could feel the earth shake underneath her. Shifu's chi hadn't been that impressive and he had been a kung fu master for decades, "Po must just be naturally gifted at it...as usual, he really does learn fast when he puts his mind to it" she reflected. Po was nearly there until he gasped and fell to his knees panting heavily. Tigress and the others immediately ran over to make sure that he was OK. The yellow energy immediately dissipated.
Goku looked at where it had vanished, "Wow, he managed to do that on his first attempt? I can see why Po was chosen as this 'Dragon Warrior'". He was brought back to earth by Tigress's concerns.
"Po, are you OK?" Tigress asked worriedly. Po nodded and tried to stand up, his legs buckled out from underneath and he fell into her arms. "Yeah, I'm just wiped though" he heaved. Goku knelt next to him, "You were sooo close Po, I could feel the energy pouring out of you. It was really cool!" he said excitedly. Po smirked, "Yeah well just give me some time and I'll be running rings around you shorty".
Shifu stepped up, "Monkey, Mantis and Crane take Po to his room so he can recover." The three masters bowed and obliged, Monkey took one shoulder and Crane took the other and the four guys all went to Po's room. Shifu turned towards Goku, "I think that's enough for today Goku, I won't have anyone able to defend the Valley of Peace if my students are all exhausted" Shifu commentated dryly.
Goku nodded and he, Shifu and Viper went to walk back to the barracks to check on Po properly. Tigress hung back which was noticed by Shifu, "You aren't coming with us to check on Po Tigress?" he asked worriedly. Tigress frowned at being caught out, "Yes I am Master Shifu, I just wanted to check something first and then I'll catch up to you". Shifu stood waiting, "Privately" Tigress emphasized. Shifu nodded understandingly and left with the other two.
Tigress knew she shouldn't be straining herself but she just had to know something.
Tigress quickly check to make sure that nobody was spying on her indiscriminately, she spread her feet apart, held out her palm and replicated the stance that Goku had taught Po only moments ago. She quickly realized gathering chi was a lot more difficult that it looked, she could feel the effort taking it's toll on her muscles and body. She suddenly felt a surge of power flow through her arm and out of her palm, similarly to Po the energy came out of her hand and settled almost immediately. Tigress panted heavily and smirked at getting it right on the first attempt, The little orange ball bobbed about on her hand before quickly dissipating, "If I train in private like this then I might be able to make it last a bit longer".
She wiped a bead of sweat away from her forehead and went to stay by Po's side while he recovered. Tigress had to admit that the competitive side of her was happy that she had managed to upstage Po in something, even if nobody was there to watch her do it it was enough to know that something that Po couldn't do she could.
She gasped when she suddenly had a thought, "Could...could the baby be adding it's chi to mine and that's why I'm able to do that? Two people would naturally produce more chi than others obviously, but I'm only a few weeks pregnant surely it can't already be producing chi? Well I suppose chi is given early. But, how come I can do it and Po can't? He's the Dragon Warrior, I know I'm better with mental acuity as proven by Master Ding but still..." . Tigress thought of Po and decided to cast the thought out of her mind, she would ask Shifu later. Tigress padded softly away to join her beloved and the rest of her friends.
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Pilaf, Shu and Mai were camped out in a cave that had taken them two days to find. Due to the damage done to it, Pilaf's portal generator was taking an extraordinarily long time in order to charge back up again. It had been damaged by Pilaf dropping it onto the ground after falling over, somehow it had ended up being Shu's fault however.
The sounds of their hungry stomachs rumbling reverberated throughout the cave. Pilaf was trying to fix the device to make it charge faster, Shu and Mai were just staring into the fire they had recently created.
Pilaf was slowly getting more and more agitated by the sounds of silence and hunger. Right on schedule it happened again, he threw the device to the ground in frustration and stood up quickly, "CAN YOU TWO JUST GO AND SEE WHERE THIS CAVE LEADS?! I CAN BARELY CONCENTRATE BECAUSE OF THE NOISE YOU TWO IDIOTS ARE MAKING!".
Shu and Mai blinked stupidly at him before nodding, lighting a stick with fire and walking towards the back of the cave. They could hear Pilaf's grumbling even from far away.
They walked for what felt like hours until they came across the end of the cave. Mai sighed, "Looks like there's nothing here Shu, now we've got to go back to Pilaf and hear how it's our fault that this cave is pretty much empty". Shu went to agree but his eye was caught by a strange symbol on the wall, it was some kind of character with an inscription underneath it. The dog...ninja bent down to try and read it.
"Xiāohuǐ Huǐhuài". In blood red letters.
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Monkey and Crane placed Po slowly onto his bed, the panda had passed out on the way there which had only made carrying the large panda back to his room all the more difficult, Monkey gasped and collapsed. "I swear he's gotten heavier". Crane fell next to him, "Yeah" the bird huffed. Crane grinned to himself, "Hey Monkey".
"Yeah" the Golden Languor replied, "Po's out and no one's here" Crane said mischievously. Monkey quickly caught on and laughed evilly. They grabbed some paints that Po used for his action figures and stood over the unaware panda but a pair of firm hands grabbed them from behind, the paint fell onto the ground.
"Nice try guys but you'll have to be much quieter to get to Po through me" said Tigress while smirking evilly at them, she threw them out of the open door and they collapsed in a heap outside.
She sat on the floor next to him and waited for him to wake up, surprisingly as soon as she sat down he opened his eyes slowly. Tigress smiled at his goofy expression, "Hey Dragon Warrior" she said softly.
"How long was I out?" Po asked groggily, "Not long, Monkey and Crane only just struggled to get you in here" Tigress got up and laid next to Po. "I can produce chi now too" she said happily. Po gaped at her, "How? When did you do that?".
"I tried it as soon as everyone left, I copied your stance and I did it quicker then you", Tigress tried to keep all of the pride and cockiness out of her voice, regardless some of it manged to slip in.
Po smiled at her, "Nice job" he then frowned, "Just be careful, if it can knock me out then you don't know what it could be doing to you or y'know the b-", "You don't have to worry Po, I won't do it again for a while, it won't hurt me".
Po shook his head, "I know you'll be fine you're the fearsome and beautiful Master Tigress" he placed a hand on her stomach, "It's just this I'm worried about". Tigress smirked at him, "Do you know how attractive that is to hear you talk so protectively?" she purred. Po blushed, "I can still never get over hearing you talk like that to me, it was only last year that I was just your friend".
Tigress smiled and got up off of the bed, "I'll get you something to eat and then we can...talk more Dragon Warrior". Her tail swished seductively as she walked out. Po blushed and smirked to himself, he put his arms behind his head and sighed happily. "I don't know what's gotten into her recently but...I'm not complaining".
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Five minutes ago
Shifu led the others to the Training Hall, "I want all of your to work on physical training, like I said tomorrow we will try chi training again". The Furious Five bowed and began their training.
Goku walked up to Shifu and bowed, "What about me Master?", Shifu smiled at his politeness, "Goku, I'm not your master and you don't have to refer to me as such". "I wanted to ask you something concerning Po's abilities, is that ok?".
Goku nodded, "I don't see why not, although you probably know more about him then I do".
Shifu and Goku left the Training Hall and went to the Kitchen where Shifu knew that they wouldn't be disturbed. They both sat down, "What I wanted to know is whether Po's species would have any effect on his ability to harness chi or whether it would affect the amount that he could store in his body".
Goku shrugged, "I don't know, where I come from animals can't really harness chi so I can't answer that for you". Shifu raised his eyebrow in confusion, "What's an animal?". Goku blinked at the red panda stupidly.
"Ummmm...well...it's, never mind" he said in defeat. He wouldn't know how to explain that this world was inhabited to animals. "All I really know about manipulating chi is that some people are naturally gifted at it and some people aren't, my friend Krillin is really good at it and no one knows why. I think he just practices a lot".
Shifu stroked his beard in thought, "It appears it's just something else that Po is naturally good at" he sighed. "It's frustrating sometimes that he just attains abilities like this and when he learnt Inner Peace last year".
Goku scratched his head, "What's Inner Peace?". Shifu put his hands together, "Inner Peace is the ability to harness the flow of the universe, enabling one to do the seemingly impossible. Inner Peace must be achieved, which is possible through many various ways. One, the first and most common method to attaining it is to meditate for fifty years without eating or drinking in a cave". "Another way", he specified, "Is to endure pain and suffering, this is the way both Po and I achieved it".
Goku nodded and absorbed the information, he was about to reply but was interrupted by Tigress entering the kitchen. "Hello Tigress, is our Dragon Warrior feeling better?" asked Shifu.
Tigress nodded, "He was still asleep when I left him" she lied. Shifu saw through it but decided to not bring it up, he reasoned that they were probably having some alone time. "I was just getting something to eat and then going back to him" she continued.
Shifu nodded, Tigress grabbed some leftover dumplings that were on the side and left the two in the kitchen. To be honest, Tigress had grabbed the food mainly for herself, she was starting to get a craving for them.
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Later that day
Po stirred and flinched in his sleep, he was having a nightmare. He'd had a few a couple of weeks ago but this was for an entirely different reason.
Po's Dreamscape
Po stood in the center of a field with the bodies of his enemies surrounding him. Tai Lung, Shen, Liu, Taotie, Temutai and even his evil self. Po felt nothing but satisfaction towards their deaths, he looked at his paws and saw that they were caked in dry blood.
He heard a gasp and looked up quickly, he saw Tigress and a small panger girl looking up in fear towards him. Tigress had one paw over her mouth and the other pushing the girl behind her, the panger was gripping Tigress's leg fiercely out of fear.
Po felt a twinge of hurt at his family being afraid of what he had done, Po took a step closer and they backed away more. "Tigress..." Po said softly, she picked the girl up. "Stay back you monster!" she yelled in panic, "You're not the panda I fell in love with, you're just a cruel beast who knows nothing but pain and destruction".
Po felt a shard of ice pierce his heart, it pained him beyond belief to hear Tigress talk like that towards him. His arms fell by his sides in defeat and Po felt a tear run down his face.
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*GASP*
Po suddenly woke up and bolted up into a sitting position, he checked where he was and turned to quickly check on Tigress. He could of wept with relief at seeing that she was still by his side purring gently completely oblivious to his panicked condition. He laid back down and wrapped his arms around her, she let out a soft purr and nuzzled his arm.
Po tried to get back to sleep but those disturbing images kept popping back into his mind's eye.
He removed his arms from Tigress's form (she frowned in her sleep but Po didn't see) and got up out of their bed. He decided to go and sit by the Sacred Peach Tree of Wisdom in order to clear his thoughts before returning back here.
He stretched his arms and softly opened the door and padded out, his movements didn't go completely unnoticed however as across the hall Goku heard the panda get up and leave his room.
Goku decided to follow the panda to see what was up with him, he wanted to be Po's friend so he decided to just go for it. Goku jumped out of the bed stealthily, put his Gi and shoes on and repeated Po's process of moving the door open as quietly as he could and following The Dragon Warrior down the hallway towards the Sacred Peach tree of Wisdom
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Po trudged up the mountain path towards the Sacred Peach Tree, he hadn't been up here in a while and he had forgotten how steep the path up towards the Sacred Tree could be. Po threw himself down into a sitting position underneath it's branches. He though about getting a peach to eat but his nightmare had completely drained his appetite which in Po's case was usually an indicator of how serious or unimportant the situation was.
His stomach rumbled on the contrary however so Po reached up and plucked a peach from a branch, he hadn't eaten one in so long that he had forgotten how nice that they tasted. He took a huge bite out of it and savored the rich, sweet taste.
He looked up into the night's sky. The stars were out and illuminated the scenery with a heavenly white. Po was startled by Goku's sudden appearance, "Hey Po, what's up?" Goku asked, Po gasped and almost choked on the peach he was eating, Po coughed it up and looked at Goku in embarrassment. In response Goku just acted nonchalant towards how much he had frightened Po.
Goku sat down next to Po underneath the tree. "Why are you sitting out here by yourself? Did that chi training hurt you so bad that you can't sleep?". Po shook his head, "No" he said simply.
An awkward silence fell between them, Po wanted to talk to someone about what he had been dreaming about. He couldn't burden Tigress with it, she wasn't in any condition to be stressed out by it and he didn't feel comfortable telling any of the Furious Five, Shifu was also out because Po had already talked to him about nightmares before and didn't want to seem redundant. Mr Ping also had enough on his plate at the moment too with having to run the noodle shop by himself.
Po swallowed his pride and decided to trust Goku, besides he might know the solution to his worries.
Po looked at Goku seriously. "Have you ever had to kill someone?" he asked quietly. Goku gasped, then frowned angrily "Of course I haven't, I only fight for the fun of it, I'd never kill someone in cold blood". He gaped in realization, "Wait...you...haven't have you?"
Po looked into the Valley below, "I killed someone who murdered my entire race". "Well you had a reason Po, now he won't be able to hurt anybody else" Goku admonished. Po didn't move his gaze at all, "I'm pretty sure I killed an insane future version of myself". He looked at Goku's confused expression, "It's not as complicated as it sounds trust me".
"And only a few weeks ago I killed someone named Liu who was threatening Tigress, I-I had no choice there wasn't another way!", Po sighed. "Instead of finding a peaceful way out of conflict I just take lives. I've done bad things to help the people I love, does that make me a bad person? I remember the feeling of satisfaction I felt when he died, the easiness of how I did it. Goku, it's getting easier". He looked back at Goku again, this time his eyes wide with fear and sadness. "I've got a kid on the way...", a tear fell from Po's eye. "I'm scared that when it becomes too easy my child will be too afraid of me or think that what I'm doing is right. I-I'm Tigress won't recognize me anymore".
Goku stood up and put his hand on Po's shoulder, it looked odd seeing as Po's shoulder dwarfed Goku's small hand. "You're a good person. Bad people don't feel bad for the things they've done. What you're doing is the right thing. What if you had spared Liu, would he have done the same thing for you?".
Po shook his head, "No, he hated me, nothing I said or offered him made him consider a different path". Goku nodded, "Exactly, you're not doing it out of spite but because there isn't another way".
Po smiled warmly at him, "Thanks Goku", his smile quickly faded. "I made a promise once when I became the Dragon Warrior after defeating my first enemy Tai Lung". "What was it?" asked Goku. Po looked out onto the Valley again, "Never cruel nor cowardly. Never give up and never give in, I haven't betrayed that promise yet so I think I'm alright".
Po stood up ready to get back to the person who meant most to him in the whole of China, "Thank you Goku for talking to me, while it isn't right my conscience is now clearer. I promise I will always do what it takes to protect the ones I love, whatever guilt and despair I feel from my choices will be my burden and reward for helping them, and you know what? It's worth it to see that they're safe".
Goku smiled, "No problem Po, I don't know what you have to do to get the Dragon Warrior title but I think that you deserve it. We don't need to compete against each other, I'm your friend for however long I'm here for".
Po smirked, "I need a rival Goku, my only other rival is currently sleeping in my bed carrying my child so she's out of the picture" Po shrugged jokingly and walked off, "I hope you're up to it kid, being the rival of the legendary Dragon Warrior is no easy task". Goku laughed and ran past him, "At least I can walk up a flight of stairs without getting out of breath".
Po growled, "Why you little! I'll get you tomorrow you little jerk!". Now that Po was alone he looked up towards the Peach Tree, he smiled sadly. "Whatever it takes". Po walked slowly back to Tigress and his offspring.
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