Chapter 4: Master of the Skies

By EDT

Disclaimer:

I don't own these characters, Dreamworks does. The story you're about to read is for pure entertainment purposes only. Enjoy!

Chapter 4: Master of the Skies

The party of Kung Fu masters continued onwards as they climbed rolling hills filled with tall golden grass. Tigress sneezed again and her stuffed sinuses produced a headache that made her feel even more miserable. Still, her situation could have been worse, if Po hadn't made any of his delicious noodle soup she would probably have been much more sick. The path they were on finally opened up and reveal the edge of a new terrain. The site before Tigress, Po, and Lin was something to behold.

Large gray boulders of varying shapes and sizes floated all around them. Some of the rocks had trees, some were just bare, while others were large enough to bear cascading waterfalls. Suon then pointed towards the skies beyond the floating rocks.

"The Master of the Skies is up there with the second child," the black bear said. "You will find him on the rock at the highest altitude."

Po turned to Tigress, "game time, watch yourself up there."

"Good Luck, Master Tigress!" Lin said.

Tigress smiled and nodded. She walked forward to the edge of a cliff face, she gazed down and saw that there wasn't a bottom; only clouds. The nearest floating boulder came into range and Tigress crouched to the ground and tensed her muscles. She launched from the ground and into the air towards the hovering rock.

Tigress landed on the rock and then bounded again to the next floating boulder. As she ascended the sky over each successive formation, the solid ground where Po and Lin stood looked further and further away. She continued to jump from one rock to the other steadily climbing the skies.

She finally made it to the rock at the highest altitude. Before exploring the immediate area, she dared herself to look down. She peered over the edge of the floating rock and couldn't help but whistle.

"Never been this high up before," she said. The solid ground was so far away that Po looked like a little black and white ant.

She turned towards the center of the rock and saw a lone tree. Underneath the tree was another Lotus shaped crystal, the master walked over to the area for a closer inspection. Inside the glass-like container was a little pink piglet dressed in a blue casual wear.

Without warning, Tigress suddenly screamed as she felt a violent blast of energy. The sensation traveled from her back up to her spine. She went down on her knees as blue sparks crackled and danced around her body.

"Foolish tiger, you let your guard down!" A voice said.

Tigress suddenly felt a large object hit her from behind and she went flying across the floor of the rock. She tumbled along the ground, regained her composure, and extended the claws of feet to anchor herself. The feline fighter gouged the earth beneath her as she came to a stop. She finally saw her attacking opponent.

Her enemy was a large bird of prey, whose feather was colored black and white. His beak was hooked shaped, his talons looked menacing, and his large round eyes had a piercing gaze that seem to be able to spot anything from a mile away.

"I'm Master Osprey," he said. "You will find your duel with me isn't as easy as Master Salamander's!" he pronounced and flew at her like a missile.

Tigress jumped to the side and barely missed her opponent's fast charge. The hawk turned in mid-flight and threw out blue pulsating orbs of lightning at her. She flipped backwards to avoid the first one and took cover behind a rock to miss the second orb.

The air crackled as the projectiles of electricity flew overhead. Then Tigress saw her enemy going higher into the atmosphere to circle over to her position for a better vantage point for firing off his magic attacks.

The next best thing to do was to keep on moving; so she decided to jump off the floating boulder and find a better area to defend against her opponent's offenses.

"Magic," she grumbled in annoyance as she descended through the air. "That coward couldn't even fight me in real combat."

She landed on a large floating rock with a thick patch of bamboo trees. Hopefully her natural striping could help mask her position from the flying master.

"Those trees aren't going to help you!" The Osprey said aloud.

Maybe not, Tigress thought and heard thundering crashes of the master's lightning attack. She instinctively leaped from the protection of the bamboo trees. The small forest exploded behind her and several pieces of destroyed wood and vines careened all around her. The force of the blast knocked her senses but it wasn't enough to distract too badly.

She looked downwards over the ledge and saw that the next floating boulder had a cascading waterfall. Her eyes widened as she noticed that near the base of the waterfall were numerous rocks of varying sizes. Struck with an idea, Tigress grabbed two arm-length long pieces of vine and wrapped them around her waist. She quickly leaped over the side of the forested rock and onto the waterfall.

As soon as she reached her destination, Tigress charged through the cascading waterfall and immediately scanned the cave's floor for palm sized rocks. The master found what she wanted and tied a rock on each end of the two vines. Once finished, she had constructed to makeshift bolas. Her ears perked as she heard a distant flapping of wings closing in on her position.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" Master Osprey said and rather confidently.

As soon as her opponent came within striking range, Tigress launched herself through the cold cascade and lunged at the bird of prey from the water fall. She lobbed two of her makeshift bolas at the Osprey, one whirled over his head while the other wrapped itself around his torso, effectively stopping the bird in mid-flight. He began to fall as he tried to desperately unravel himself. Tigress followed the bird's descent through the clouds while floating rocks passed her view at a harrowing free fall.

Tigress managed to grasp the black and white bird in her hands. She was still wet from jumping through the waterfall so this caused liquid to splash all over his feathers. Out of desperation, Master Osprey started to snap at Tigress's paws, fortunately, her hands were low enough to avoid getting punctured from his beak attacks. She turned the bird around and started to headbutt the back of the Osprey's head.

"There's only one way to end this fight," the winged master said almost groggy.

A large bolt of lightning shot down from the sky and struck Tigress with a tremendous blast of energy. Despite the tremendous shocking pain, she resisted the urge to scream and only hugged her opponent tight against her body. Another lightning bolt struck Tigress again and this time Master Osprey screamed. Even though he commanded the power of lightning, he wasn't immune to his own attacks especially since his feathers were still wet.

Tears welled up in Tigress's eyes and every muscle in her body, stung like a million needles, shivered, and twitched from the effects of electricity coursing throughout her body. Then she saw another bright flash quickly followed by the sound of thunder. The feline master instinctively twisted around and held the Osprey towards the skies to shield herself from the blast.

The lightning struck the bird full on and surges of electricity flowed from the opponent and throughout Master Tigress. As sparks crackled and popped the air, she let out a loud bestial pained roar that even the gods in the heavens could also hear. The Osprey's body crumbled between her fingers and his form disappeared into fine clouds of ash.

The victory felt hollow to her as the lightning strikes against her had taken their toll. Her arms and legs just flailed against the rushing air as she fell downwards. Fortunately, she fell onto a boulder that was covered in thick tall grass which broke her descent. She breathed heavily and felt terrible and for the first time...weak.

Being struck by lightning several times was probably the worst pain Tigress had ever felt in her life. If she hadn't trained so hard in Kung Fu, she probably would have died after the first strike of electricity. Now, she didn't care about her victory and the only thing she could do was to close her eyes and pass out.

Tigress had only left for fifteen minutes as Po and Lin stood and waited for her return. For a moment, he thought he heard distant thunder. Then he saw a vague silhouette of a bird far off in the heights above. Minutes later, he heard three consecutive cracks of thunder and most disturbing of all, he thought he recognized Tigress's bestial roar. Her call sounded as if she was in a lot pain, something he thought he would never hear.

What disturbed him most was long drawn out silence that followed. For awhile he kept his ears to the skies above to make out any hints of battle. The only thing he managed to hear were gusts of the wind.

"Climb onto my back, Lin," Po said to the young fawn. "We're going to go check on Master Tigress."

Lin nodded without question and did as instructed and as soon as she felt secured against his back, Po then turned to Suon.

"You can stay here," he said to the black bear. "Make sure you don't touch our supply."

Suon only shrugged at Po's statement.

The panda jumped to the nearest floating rock and made his way upwards to the skies.

"I hope Master Tigress is okay," Lin said.

"Me too, kiddo," Po said. "Me too.

Tigress stood in total darkness. "Tigress!" A familiar male voice said. A weak ambient light suddenly penetrated the darkness and she could almost recognize the round form of the former Master Oogway. Was it really him? She missed his warm wisdom so much. She felt herself being shaken awake, her vision went into focus, and realized that the round shape in front of her was Po.

"Wh-what?" She said groggily.

"Oh thank goodness," Po said full of relief in his voice. "You had me worried there for a moment."

Tigress held out her hand for Po to pull her up to her feet. As soon as she stood, she felt a sharp pain on her right shoulder, probably caused by her hard landing on the grassy rock. She noticed that her fingers started to twitch and random muscles throughout her body would go into a mild spasm. Then she let out a sneeze and sniffed her nose. Despite all of the electricity that she absorbed, all of that power still didn't get rid of her cold.

"Are you alright?" Po asked.

"I've had better days," she said "overall I'm alright. Come on, let's go find the second child."

"Did you beat the Master of the Skies?" the Panda asked.

Tigress nodded in confirmation, "It was a shocking experience to say the least," she said.

Tigress led Po and Lin from one floating boulder to the other as they leaped higher and higher, she could hear Po's labored breathing, jumping great heights was never really one of his strong suits. She started to hear Lin's snickering and then Po trying to silence the child.

"Sorry," Lin said, "I can't help it." Then the child snickered as quietly as she could manage.

"Shh," Po said politely to the fawn.

Tigress turned around and looked at Po curiously. "What's so funny?" she asked.

The panda went wide-eyed and tightened his lips while Lin clamped her mouth with both hooved hands and ducked behind his shoulder.

"Po?" she said again.

"Um..."

"Yes?"

He nervously pointed the at the small pool of water next to Tigress. "Check your reflection," he said while Lin snickered behind his back.

Tigress frowned slightly and knelt down to check her reflection in a nearby pool of water. "Oh no!" she cried out. The kung fu master was shocked by the image looking back at her, all of her fur stood on their end which caused them to stick out from underneath her clothing in an extreme way.

"You look like a big orange dandelion!" Lin said loudly and laughed.

"Yeah, yeah," Tigress said as she tried to pat down her stiff electrified fur. "Let's go retrieve the second child, ok?"

To be continued...

Author's note: Sorry for the slight delay in sending out this chapter, I had to transfer my writings and files over to a new pc I just bought. So yeah, i've been occupied and trying my best not to play any games while writing on this new fangled pc (keeping discipline is hard ;-;!). I hope you're all enjoying this story so far! As I'm writing this fic, I have a nice little system where I'm almost writing two chapters at the same time and surprised at how quickly I'm churning out these installments. Hopefully the quality doesn't suffer too badly since I'm double checking and triple checking each chapter. Editing and adding content that would best serve the story. Again, thank you for your patience and please send me your comments!