The Plan

"That was some good food, Po," Qiang commented. Po smiled as the servant ducks took up the dishes.

"Sorry to talk about business at the table, but we do need to talk about this," Po brought up. Tiger put down the cup he had been sipping.

"You're right. General!" He called. A mean-looking buff tiger with an eye-patch came in with a scroll in hand. He bowed and placed it on the table, "Everyone this is General Lu-yin, general of my army. He's made a map of all the places where Wong-Hu's attacks have occurred. The problem is that we don't know where he is." The general laid down the map that he had made. It was marked by x's. Po, Lee, and Leo stood up and gathered around the map.

"Well, looks like that trip to Japan will have to wait. I know exactly where he is, though," Po stated, "Wong-Hu's a Siberian Tiger, so he would naturally go to the mountains. That's why all of his attacks are near the mountain range."

"How do you know that?" Tigress asked.

"I've traveled a lot. You're not the only tigers I've seen," Po smirked.

"What makes it worse is that is that Wong-Hu's a white Siberian Tiger. It will make it more difficult to attack him in the snow," Leo said.

"You know a lot about your fear," Miwa mentioned.

"You have to in order to feel safe," Leo shrugged, "So what's the plan?"

"We could press your army to the mountains, but Wong-Hu's group has more experience there. That and fighting Wong-Hu alone will be dangerous," Lee argued.

"Not if we cripple him," Po said as an idea flew into his mind, "In theory, if we were to severely hurt Wong-Hu in a way where he couldn't fight, then that would eliminate him from the fighting field. Then his followers would have to fight and then we could easily follow them. Orange is easier to track than white." Everyone looked at Po with surprised faces.

"That...is...actually a very very good plan," Tigress slowly commented.

"Don't sound too surprised," Po grumbled. Lee patted Po on the back.

"Nice to have you back, Zaber," Lee smiled, "So, we'll go towards the mountains. I'll send word to the upper region of China to press down on the mountain side to trap them. We can't move until we hear word from them."

"Have them bring all the canons they can make too. General Lu-Yin, what season is it?" Po asked.

"It's nearing winter. About three days," The one-eye tiger said.

"Good," Po stated, "When the winter sets in we can easily bombard the mountains to get them out. And cause avalanches to crush them." Everyone looked at Po in horror. "Sorry, Tigra must be rubbing off on me."

"Oh sure, blame it on me," Tigra said.

"Anyways, we're stuck here until we can get the message through. General, is there a way for you to train your men to accommodate the wintry trail here?" Leo asked.

"There's a couple of snowy mountains below us away from Wong-Hu that we could train at. But it will take awhile," General Lu-Yin explained.

"Good. I'll have the messenger go to the Furious Five first then go to Upper China," Lee said rolling up the scroll and giving it to the general, "In the meantime, we need to be training too. We're a little sloppy since our golden years."

"I agree," Po said looking at his stomach, "I've gained a few pounds since last time," Lee and Mei looked at him, "Okay, a little bit more than 'a few'"

"There's a training grounds in the palace you could use to help you, but now I think we all need some rest. It's getting late," Tiger said yawning. Everyone agreed. The servants showed the team their beds. Mei and Lee were in one room and Po and Tigress in another. Miwa and Leo shared the same room as they slept in separate beds, which unnerved Leo to the highest, but Miwa calmed him down. Po was sleeping their room, but Tigress couldn't sleep. There was too much going around in her head. Questions. Questions that only Po seemed to know. She propped up on one arm to look at Po's back. She fought with herself whether or no to wake him up.

"If you want to talk," Po said startling her, "You just had to ask."

"I didn't mean to wake you," Tigress said apologetic.

"Nah, it's okay. What's wrong?" Po asked concerned.

"Po, could I ask you more about my family?" she asked. Po smiled

"Sure. Anything," Po offered.

"What did they use to work as?"

"Oh well, your mother, interestingly enough, was named La-Ju, the greatest assassin in China," Po said marveling Tigress, "And your father, amazingly, was the original Midnight Stranger. So when you had a crush on the Midnight Stranger, you really had a crush on your father."

"I didn't have a crush on the Midnight Stranger," Tigress denied.

"Oh sure, and you putting on perfume and anxious to see the him when I was him, was your normal greeting," Po smirked, "Your parents also had something to do with the Emperor of Japan, Bao-Ai, but I don't know what that was about. Abba kept that away from us."

"What was Bao-Ai like?" Tigress asked curiously.

"Very...characteristic. He was like Shifu but much less strict. He was very loving to all of us equally. Oh but he absolutely hated Windbag. Oh man, Lee said when he died, Bao-Ai said he would wring Wingbag's neck in the afterlife," Po chuckled as Tigress lightly giggled.

"You must miss him," Tigress said sadly.

"Yeah," Po said sadly, "I shouldn't have left. Should have stayed there and be with him."

"If you didn't leave, then you would have never become Dragon Warrior," Tigress pointed out, "I think your father would have wanted you to protect the valley."

"I know," Po sighed. Tigress felt sorry for him. She never can recall him ever really crying out of sadness. The only time he ever cried was when he was cutting onions. Tigress put her hand on his shoulder as he turned his head over.

"It's alright. I know you would have made your father proud. Good-night, Po," Tigress said finally going to sleep.

"Good night," Po replied falling asleep.

to be continued.