Hey everybody
Hope you all had awesome Thanksgivings!
I meant to have this done sooner but the holidays have been busy

Please let me know what you think.

I haven't been getting as much feedback lately.

Making the Cut
Chapter 17
Planning to Win

June 13

"It's hard to keep track now" Shifu thought as he scratched another tic mark in the cell wall with a chalk-like pice of stone. He had forgotten to make the mark this morning. It was nearly dusk now. He wondered if recording the amount of days they'd been trapped was a good thing. Sure it kept track and made things easier to remember, but it also made it seem like the day dragged by, which was very easy when you were confined to a cell. Among the things he thought he would have to fear of being imprisoned he had never expected one of them to be boredom. Pacing got him nowhere. He must was sick of counting the bricks in the wall (512), meditating seemed pointless in relieving stress. Simply opening his eyes revealed his entrapment therefore adding stress.

Stress

And what was the stress in this case. The fear of uncertainty? The fear of death?
Was he afraid of death?
He knew Valko had every intention of killing them. Sometimes it scared him more than anything else. Other times he barely thought about it. When you were trained to jump into any possibly lethal situation at a moment's notice the idea that there was a chance you might die became common knowledge. Eventually you never even thought about in that split second. So why was he thinking about it know?

"Because I never had the time to think about it until now."

"Did you say something, Master?" Po said from his cell.

"Nothing important." Shifu said glumly. "I'm just thinking out loud."

Po said "You've been doing that alot lately."

Shifu massaged his temples "This place has a way of messing with my mind."

Po said. "I know what you mean. This food they've been giving us is terrible."

Shifu turned one of his disgusted glares at Po, something he hadn't done since Po's first day of training. "We're being held against our will, at risk of being killed, and the thing you choose to complain about is the food! For once, can't you think of something for a second besides your stomach!"

Po didn't give his hurt expression like Shifu thought he normally would. "Wow," Po remarked sarcastically. "Turning on someone when you're really angry about something else. It's not like you've done that with someone else before."

Shifu was silenced at the comment, and even as the words left Po's mouth, Po felt a pang of guilt at his sudden lashing. The words sounded like nothing he'd ever said before. A full 10 seconds passed before they both simultaneously said "I'm sorry."

Po began "Master I didn't mean to-"

"No," Shifu said. "If I'm constantly telling you all to learn from your mistakes I should be able to too."

Po twiddled his thumbs nervously before saying "The truth is, Shifu, I am still worried. I've been worried alot lately. I mean, everyone is. Tigress is trying not to show much emotion and neither is Mantis, but we're all worried deep down."

"I can hardly blame you all for that." Shifu said.

Po shrugged. "I guess talking about food was just my way of keeping my mind off of it. Food has always been my escape focus."

"You don't think I remember the training I put you through?" Shifu said with a smile. It was his first real smile in days.

Po smiled a laugh humbly.

Shifu went on "It's ridiculous for us to fight. If these are our last days, we shouldn't spend it feuding with each other."

"Master, don't talk like that. We have to keep our hopes up. For all we know Jo-"

Po stopped mid sentence at the entrance of Valko Montenegro. With the manner he walked in he seemed to say "I hold all the power." It was no different than his usual stride. He stood in front of Shifu's cell.

"Another day has gone by and your Oogway is still no where in sight. Neither is this rhino I'm hearing about." He paused just grinning at Shifu who had nothing to do but sit there angrily. "Well? Don't you have anything to say."

Shifu glared into the rabbit's eyes. "I have nothing else to say to you that hasn't already been said." Shifu said grudgingly.

"You might want to keep your voice down. I see the rest of your students are still asleep. You wouldn't want to wake them. Sleep is the only time they have to forget where we are. "

Shifu knew he hadn't been loud and that Valko's only reason for his comment was to remind them they were trapped.

Valko went on. "Does your Oogway not care enough. Maybe I should dispose of one of you first to get the point across. I'll probably start with that tiger."

Shifu launched himself at the bars extending his arm through the bars trying with blind ferocity to grab hold of any part of Valko. Valko stood smugly a mere inch or two from reach.

"Keep your temper, Shifu. You wouldn't want to hurt your hand anymore."

As Shifu slowed down he looked at his bruised knuckles.

He remembered, with some pain, how he had one day in a fit of rage pounded against the wall. They didn't hurt. He had long built up calluses and his tolerance for pain especially on his fist. But in his early teachings with Oogway he had been taught that striking in anger was never good idea. He knew it was a lesson Valko remembered, which made it all the worse.

What was happening to him? He was losing all sense of self. Maybe this was Valko's plan after all. It wasn't something obvious like death. He was trying to get inside Shifu's head.

Just then another being entered the room. It was the crane Shifu had heard called Quiang. "Master Montenegro." he said.

The dark rabbit looked rather annoyed, having been interrupted during a session of insulting his rival. "Quiang, I thought your were with the students-

Quiang cut him off. "It's some business with the new student. I think you'll want to know."

"Very Well." Valko said turning to leave with the Crane.

Once they left. Shifu slid his hands down the bars till he sat on the ground again. His breathing more composed, he spoke. "I guess it's a comfort to know he has students that cause problems."

Po didn't say anything for a moment, trying to not bring up the sudden outburst that Shifu had made only a second ago. Instead he asked something that had had him puzzled the last few days. "Why does he keep saying that about Oogway?"

Shifu said "This isn't just revenge against me for staying with Oogway. He's seeking revenge on Oogway too. Trying to use us as bait for a trap to get him too."

"He doesn't know Oogway's dead?" Po asked.

"Obviously not. He hasn't been to the Valley of Peace since Oogway dismissed him and Keen Lee. Right now him thinking Oogway is alive is the only thing that's keeping him from killing us now."

Po looked over his shoulder to the corner of his cell where the copy of the Pearljing Gazette lay folded. That night Shifu got ahold of the copy he had passed it to the rest of the Furious Five for them to read as well but he kept it to himself since then. He decided to keep hold of it because he was sure if he did not have it with him he would eventually believe he had imagined it. There was no chance of that now though. He had read it a thousand times. At first it was out of amazement. Then it became out of boredom. Once he had memorized the article he read all the surrounding articles in the Pearljing Gazette as well. But there was another reason he kept it.

He didn't tell Master Shifu or Crane (his other neighboring cell), but the thing he missed more than the food was his little badger. Being an only (adopted) child, Po never grew up with any siblings. Jo had changed that for the panda. He hadn't a doubt in his mind now that the one mentioned in the newspaper was Jo. He knew Jo was out there. And he couldn't imagine how unfamiliar it must be for him. He'd been consistent with his prayers but the lack of results had caused him to wonder. Still as he thought this he closed his eyes tightly.

"Come on little buddy. I know you can do it."

"Po." Shifu said.

"Yes, master." thinking Shifu had heard him

Shifu asked "Do you know what 'rhino' he was talking about?"

"No, I thought you knew."

Earlier that day

"So am I supposed to finish every sentence with 'Master'?" I asked.

"Not necessarily." Cash said. "But it's customary. It's a sign of respect."
But does he deserve it?

Cash had been drilling me through need-to-know things throughout the school during lunch. This place had as many customs and rules as Shifu had at the Jade Palace. In between questions I'd worked on the plate I was given in the mess hall. Each plate consisted of a large slice of bread topped with an unidentifiable meat, an apple, and a small pile of plain rice.
Po, how I've missed your cooking
All the same, I ate all of it. I knew from training that it was better to have food in you to keep your energy up.

He even told me the mistakes he made when he first came here. Which helped me feel like I wasn't so clueless. Cash never had much emotion in his voice, or rather, he never had many extreme emotions in his voice, but he gave off this friendly vibe. I often forgot that he was supposed to be on the side that took the masters captive. How could he be... one of them.

"He's eased up on the punishment a lot in the last year from what I've heard from other people. Stuff ranging from being beaten with a bo staff, locking them up below his manor, and Chinese water torture."

"I guess I came at a good time then." I said. "So when does the training start again?"

"We actually have a couple of hours free after lunch before he starts up again. I'm probably gonna get some rest in before that. I'll see ya then." He stood up and started walking away.

"Where do we meet for that?" I asked.

He said over his shoulder "We'll have the one-on-one matches back in the training hall." and kept walking.

"One-on-one matches?"

I walked back to dormitory building dreading the next few hours I had to worry. I knew there was something I was going to hate about this place (more than I already did). We never did any actual fighting at the Palace, more correctly I never did any actual fighting at the Palace. The Furious Five and Po all had their occasional spars but I had never participated in any of these as I wasn't anywhere near the same level as the rest of them. What was going to happen when I had to face someone else in front of everyone?

Keeping with what I decided to do after what happened at Keen Lee's Academy, I decided to take things as they came. I'd worry about the matches when it happened. I tried to gain back the feeling I had a few moments ago.

The knowledge that Cash had given me had also given me a new feeling of accomplishment. I felt remarkably more confident than I had felt earlier today. Despite the fact that I was in a school run by a blood-thirsty killer it was the first time since entering here something made me feel safer. It had only been two days since I'd written a poem but I decided it was a fitting time.

Making sure no one else in the room was watching I pulled out a piece of paper.

I Plan to Win

I'm not your average type of guy
One look you think I'm shy
Well that may be, but I'm more than what you see

One glance you push me to the side
Don't bother to look inside
You assume I'm the worst, but you'll see what I'll be

I'm about to go all-out
Victory, there's no doubt
I've failed before but this is now. That's then
And I plan to win

Going for a k.o.
Never gonna say say "no."
Not gonna stop but only if I say so.
There are worst messes that I've been in

So you better step back
Going for a comeback
when you least expect it, I'm gonna attack
I'm not stopping and I plan to win

I wanted to write more but I realized my time was nearly up so I quickly signed the bottom

Jo Dakota Crevan
X.T.G.

and put the paper in my leather folder.

Montenegro wasn't in the training hall this time. It was only Quiang. I was grateful that I wouldn't be weighed down by Montenegro's imposing stare this time but Quiang wasn't much better. For a crane he certainly had hawk eyes. Rather than standing in the two rows like earlier today he had us assemble in a circle this time.

He said to the class "For those of you who don't know" (he gave a rude nod toward me) "I will call two of you up at a time and you will face each other for 5 minutes, or..." he gave not-so-hidden smile, "Until one of you can't fight anymore."

These fights while not particularly vicious were still pretty brutal. Nothing like the training at the Jade Palace. Most of them lasted the full 5 minutes but I began to wonder how these students went through this every afternoon and still managed to get up in the morning.

I remembered how the newspaper had said that Montenegro chose fewer students "in order to give precise attention to students." It was clear now that he had made the better choice than Keen Lee. Even knowing I had been able to get through Keen Lee's 52 students I doubted I had a chance of surviving Montenegro's 11...
Is that something I'll have to end up doing?
...as they were clearly better prepared.

The number of students that had gone began to dwindle. There was an even number of us so there was no hope of me not going because there was no one else. Finally, there was no one else left but two of us.

"Xanidor, you're up with... Mato."

I stepped into the circle hoping in five minutes I'd still be able to step out. Mato looked pleased with me as his opponent giving grin that only seemed fitting for a cougar. I could only guess what he was thinking before our fight.

"Bow to each other." Quinag said.

I bowed to him, at the waist without breaking eye contact (as Cash had instructed to me.) and we faced each other in a fighting stance.

"And... begin." Quinag said.

Mato had started on "and." He swung his fist at me knocking me on the side of my face. I was caught off guard but bounced back from it. I went to strike back but he blocked. I quickly went for three more and he missed the one. I had landed a nice blow right beneath the ribcage. He immediately retorted with kick to my chest that drove me against two other students forming the outer circle.

While I was still down Mato jibed "No wonder you couldn't even remember your last instructor's name. He obviously wasn't very good."

In one motion stood up I shot my foot up colliding with his face causing him to double over right before I brought my heel crashing down onto the back of his head in an axe kick. Mato dropped to the floor in a fit of fury and pain.

I returned to my fighting position ready for him to stand up, but Mato was hardly making an effort to get back up.

I looked around realizing that I had forgotten that there were still people watching. Each student looked stunned and Quiang looked mildly surprised. "Aren't you a bit of a bantam." he said. "Not even a minute in and you've managed to outdo your opponent. I'll need to inform Master Montenegro of this feat." He began to walk away before he stopped and said. "You may just make the cut."

Feeling as though I was walking on air I stepped back to place in the circle next to Cash. "Whatid I tell ya?" Cash said. "You did great."

"I'm still not believing it myself." I said. I looked over at Mato who was finally staggering to his feet. He grimaced to me but I didn't care. I knew I could take him now. I turned back to Cash. "But I have one question. What's a 'bantam?'"

Cash said "Quiang is saying your small but but a good fighter."

I shrugged with a smile. "I guess I'll take it as a compliment."

Thanks for reading.

R&R