Guess what movie got pushed back to 2016 again? Thank God for fanfiction or I would probably go insane.

Speaking of movies, the layout of the fireworks factory in this chapter is based entirely off of Kung Fu Panda 2. If you've seen the movie as much as I have, you can probably recognize every area I mention here.

Chapter 5: Fireworks

Ox and Croc didn't know how long they had been running when they finally saw the looming figure of the fireworks factory in the distance. All they cared about was getting there as fast as they could. Even with their recent injuries, they forced themselves to keep moving, knowing that the fate of Gongmen City rested on them.

The first sign that something wasn't right came when they heard faint sounds coming from the direction of the factory. Fireworks were still being used and sold within the city, but the production of them had ceased for the time being. The factory was supposed to be abandoned.

"No..." Ox gasped. Though they knew it wouldn't do any good now, they sped up even more, praying that they were wrong.

They weren't.

Once they reached the wooden walkways surrounding the factory, they could plainly see the shadowy figures of the Lang Qun moving around. There were only a handful guarding the exterior, but they knew there had to be many more inside the building already. The masters quickly hid themselves behind some crates before they were seen. "Damn," Ox swore. "We're too late."

"So it seems. What's the plan?"

"The plan was to get here first," Ox said dryly.

"Alright, so what's the new plan?" Croc had always been the more optimistic of the two, even if only slightly.

Ox took a quick look around the area, trying to find an easy way they could pull this off. There was none. "We need to get inside. It may be a deathtrap, but the whole city is at stake here."

The front door was out of the question, so they slowly made their way up the walkways, trying to reach one of the upper windows. With the low number of guards, it was pretty easy for even the rather large masters to sneak by. As they reached the top of the walkway, they hid themselves again as a pair of masked wolves walked by.

"Man, this sucks," they heard one of them complain. "We've been standing out here for hours with nothing to do."

"Consider yourself lucky," his companion chastised. "Would you rather be in there, working your tail off looking for those stupid blueprints?"

"I guess not..."

"See? Then you should count your blessings while- are you picking your nose?"

The first wolf pulled a claw out from behind his mask and hastily wiped it on his armor. "No."

"You were! I saw you!"

"So what if I was?" he asked defensively. "You got a problem with that?"

The second wolf stopped and grabbed his arm. "I don't, but you know Hui does. Remember what he did to that guy he caught scratching his ear with his foot?"

"Oh yeah," he laughed. "He was like 'you have paws for that, you cretin!'" Then he slapped him to the floor."

Despite the serious tone he had earlier, the second wolf laughed too. "Aw man, that was a perfect impression of him!" The wolves continued laughing as they walked away.

"Did you hear that?" Croc whispered excitedly.

"Yeah. Looks like Hui has a real kick for personal hygiene."

"Not that. I mean the part about them looking for the blueprints. The Lang Qun don't know where they are either."

"Forgive me if that doesn't make me feel better, considering they still outnumber us a hundred to one."

"Hey, do you smell something?" The two wolves had stopped just ahead and the first had his nose in the air, sniffing around. "Smells like something burnt."

"It's a fireworks factory, genius."

"No, I mean out here. Close."

The second wolf sniffed around himself. "Hey, you're right."

Hearing all this, Croc gulped nervously. "Um...Ox? Remember when I told you that I could smell your burnt fur from several li away?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I think they can too."

As soon as the words left his mouth, the wolves suddenly turned around and walked back towards their hiding place. Knowing they were about to be caught, Ox and Croc decided to use the element of surprise and sprung up as the wolves got close, grabbing them by their masks and simultaneously headbutting them unconscious. The noise they made was very little and ordinary guards would probably never notice it.

Unfortunately, as they were well aware by now, the Lang Qun were anything but ordinary. "Intruders!" a wolf below shouted. Now all the wolves left were rapidly climbing up the wooden frameworks to reach them.

"Great, more ninja wolves," Ox said, cracking his knuckles. "Bring em' on."

The first of the Lang Qun to reach the top was a wolf carrying two swords, much like the one they had fought in their last encounter. This time however, Ox had no man-made weapon to defend himself with, so he used a natural one instead. As the wolf tried to swing both swords at him, he blocked with his horns and shoved the wolf back. He followed up with a kick that the wolf dodged, and he charged back in again.

Croc was being attacked by a wolf with a bo staff. He dodged side-to-side to avoid the staff, while trying to find an opening to exploit. He was starting to realize how bad an idea it was to rush off here without weapons when the wolf landed a blow to his gut, deliberately aimed at his wound. Hissing from the pain, Croc tried to retaliate by swinging his tail back at him. The wolf twirled his staff, catching Croc's tail and flipping him onto his back. As more wolves climbed up and approached the downed reptile, Croc made a daring move and rolled right over the side of the walkway.

The wolf who had caught his tail was thrown over with a yelp of surprise and fell into a pile of crates below. Croc himself caught hold of a wooden beam and watched as two wolves jumped down to balance on top of it, slowly approaching him from each side. Croc swung his legs back and forth, gradually gaining momentum, until he was able to flip himself back up and split-kick the wolves in the face before landing back on top of the beam. "I love that move."

Up above, Ox had just finished off the sword wolf with a knee to the chin when he spotted three more trying to take the easy route up the large ramp to the side. Ox grabbed a nearby barrel of gunpowder and chucked it down the ramp at them. Predictably, they all jumped right over it...which is why Ox threw a second barrel right after that nailed them in midair. "How are those fancy moves of yours now punks?"

By this point, only a single wolf was left, and he had already lost his weapon. Realizing that he was alone and unarmed, the wolf took a deep breath, getting ready for a warning howl. Just as he was about to release it, Croc's spiked tail was stuffed into his open mouth, instantly silencing him. Croc swung his tail and the wolf was thrown over the side, joining his friends in the pile at the bottom.

Knowing that time was of the essence, Ox and Croc wasted none on words. They merely nodded to each other and climbed into the factory through a window, leaving behind a slew of broken wood and broken bones.

The fireworks factory looked very different than it had in the past. Having been abandoned for months, none of the machinery was still active and the glow of molten metal was absent, leaving only a dark, quiet, dried-up husk of the building it used to be.

The lower levels of the factory were practically crawling with Lang Qun as they seemed to be literally ripping the place apart in search of the blueprints. Thankfully, their frenzied searching, combined with the overpowering smell of sulfur that still clung to the area, made Ox and Croc practically invisible as they hid on top of one of the upper floors. Croc cautiously peeked over the side, only to immediately duck back in when a wolf looked up in his direction. "Okay, we're in. Now what?"

"I'll admit, I didn't really think this far ahead." Croc glared at him. "What? You're the one who wanted a plan."

Croc thought about the few options they had. "Well...we can't very well go down there, so all we can really do is search the places they haven't yet."

"Are there any places they haven't searched yet?"

He smiled. "Yes, I think so actually. By the looks of things, they're starting on the lower levels of the factory and working their way up. That means the upper levels haven't been touched yet." His smile quickly turned into a frown. "...Assuming that the blueprints aren't down there, in which case, we're screwed."

"And I thought I was being the negative one. Let's get moving."

The two started to search the upper levels, made harder by the darkness of their surroundings and the fact that they had to remain stealthy. Despite this, they didn't split up, knowing that that would only make things harder in the long run. For a while, they didn't see anything that even remotely looked like a hiding place, but there was one area that caught their eye. It was a raised platform in the middle of the factory that served as a place for the overseer to watch the rest of the building. There were two fire pots still lit up here, and in between them was a map of China...or what was left of one. The map had been almost entirely burned away, leaving only the very edges intact. The only reason they even knew it was a map in the first place was because they had seen it back when the factory was active.

"Looks like Shen went a little pyro here," Ox said, lightly touching the edge of the map. "Can't say I'm surprised."

Croc started looking around the area. "If this is where Shen oversaw the production of his weapons, then this seems like the most logical place for him to hide the blueprints." There were a bunch of scrolls sitting on shelves nearby, but Croc didn't even bother to check them. If they were hidden somewhere that obvious, they would have been found already.

Eventually, it was Ox who found the blueprints, and by complete accident at that. As he walked around the platform, his heavy hoof suddenly crashed through a loose board and hit something metallic underneath. As he pulled the object out, he saw that it was a scroll casing, sandwiched in between these boards and the ones below.

"Do you think this is it?" Croc asked. It seemed like a dumb question, but they had to be sure. Ox quickly unscrewed the top of the case and poured its contents out into his hoof. It was a series of parchments tied together with thin rope. They could partially see some drawings written on the parchments, as well as some characters and numbers. Even without unfurling them all the way, they had no more doubts about what they were holding.

"This is them alright," Ox said with a grin. "Now let's get outta here."

"I was wondering when you two would show up," a familiar voice spoke. As much as they really didn't want to turn around right now, their kung fu instincts forced them to.

Kai Hui was standing behind them, with about two dozen Lang Qun glaring down at them from above.