Back in the Valley of Peace, the morning's light sets on the horizon, the early gong is rung in the bell tower. The second it rings, Master Shifu enters the hallway of his pupils' bunkhouse, preparing to greet his students and checking in on their new guest.
On cue The Five burst out of their respective rooms and stand outside their doors, prepared for inspection, as they do every other morning.
"Good morning Master" they all said in union,
However one door remains closed.
The new Avatar was stationed a room in front of Tigress, much to her displeasure.
Shifu called out the boy's name, but no reply came. He walked fast toward his room ready to show him the regulation it takes if he wanted to stay in the Jade Palace.
"Po, wake up!" Shifu slid open his door with huff in annoyance, but the room was empty practically untouched!
He let himself chuckle out loud, satisfied with a smug grin, "He's quit. As I predicted" he held his hands behind him and escorted his students out of the barracks, they remained silent and wondered what became of their newfound chosen Avatar, minus Tigress who looked equally pleased of Po's absence.
While Shifu walks with a bit more energy as he and the Five approach the training hall courtyard, for their daily dose of kung fu instruction.
Before entering, Viper spoke asking confidently with her hands were clasped in front of her delicately,
"Master, now that the boy is gone, what do we do now? Who will be the next Avatar Warrior? After all it was Avatar Oogway's decision to choose him as the next heir."
Shifu eyed his water bending student and replied rather light-heartedly, "All we can do is resume our training, and trust that in time, the next and true Avatar will be reveled."
And with that he opens the courtyard doors, only to find himself face to face with the last person he wished to see,
The 'chosen' Avatar was seen in the middle of the courtyard, his back was facing them with his legs spread wide apart on two training horses, to the boys of the group inwardly winced as it looked rather painful.
Shifu and the Five were astounded to find him still here, plus knowing he was up earlier than them was quite imposing.
"What are you doing here!?" Shifu glared, his mood was then weighed down into irritation and displeasure,
Po looked back over his shoulder to see the air bending master and the Five staring at him, rather surprised, he was expecting them to come at least a little later on but blamed himself for loosing track of the time.
"Oh! Ah-hi-um, Good morning, Master! I just thought I'd warm up a little before we started our training session for today." He tried to lift one of his legs but he realized they felt rather numb and he couldn't move.
While the other watched unwillingly as he grunted trying to make the effort of getting him out of his split but failed
"You're stuck." Shifu said, eyes narrowed
"Stuck? Me? What-does this look stuck to you- Yeah, I'm stuck." Po muffled an excused but his attempt only caused him more embarrassment as he heard Shifu,
"Crane, help him." He ordered, his posture unmoved
"Uh, Yes Master." The air bending student winced, and sighed mumbling to himself 'oh dear' as he approached Po.
He looked at the poor lad for a brief second and cautiously grabs under his arms, attempting to pull him up but Po proved to be a lot heavier than he looked for Crane as he dropped him midway, Po flopped on his back with a not so subtle grunt of pain.
Crane hovered above him to make sure he was still breathing, as Po immediately composed himself, getting to his feet letting out a sigh of relief,
"Ah, thank you." Po's face was bright as he stood next to the tall and lean bending student,
"Yeah, don't mention it." He replied rather indifferently, as he began to walk away
"No, really, I really do apprici-"
"Ever."
Po fell silent as he watched Crane cut him off and returned to stand by the group behind Master Shifu,
"Did you really think you could learn to do a full split like that in a single night?" he asked not wanting an answer but rather stating a point and continued,
"It takes years to develop one's flexibility," as he suddenly flung two wooden boards into the air, as Tigress stepped forward rather coolly reading her position as she squatted her knees, "And years longer to apply such a technique into combat."
Shifu then snapped his fingers. Instantaneously Tigress leaped rather high up and executes a perfect split kick. Much to Po's pleasure is awestruck. His favorite fire bender demonstrated such an 'awesome' technique right in front of his eyes!
As Tigress landed her straight ponytail whipped around her face and glared back at Po, his face still in mesmerized by what he just witnessed, gave him a haughtily huff and returned back to her position before.
The now broken chunks of the boards rained all around Po, a large piece knocked him on the head taking him out of his daze. He consciously picks up the splintered piece hiding it behind his back, hoping to cherish it as a precious keepsake.
Sadly the air bending master noticed all too well,
"Put. That. Down! The only souvenirs we collect here are bloody knuckles, and broken bones."
Shifu trying to intimidate the boy's motivation as best he can. Po tossed away the chunk and clutched his fist in front of him in anticipation,
"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Excellent!" he said excitedly
"Then let's get started. Shall we? Viper, you're first." he snapped his fingers, the Five gathered in a straight line in the courtyard,
The water bender was the first to challenge Po for a friendly face off, as she stood confidently in front of him in the middle of the patio,
"Are you ready?" eyeing the unsuspecting plump earth bender,
"I was born ready-"until Viper lashes out at him an elongated amount of water from her canteen she held around her waist, that literally felt like a whip to Po, as she flings him midair and brings him crashing back down on his back.
"Ow! Oh…wha-what happened?" he wailed a little in pain, as the whole thing happened too fast
"I'm sorry, brother! I thought you said you were ready!" she pulled a loose strand of her black hair behind her ear, she looked down to his level to make sure she didn't hurt him too bad,
"That…that was awesome! Let's go again!" still on the ground as he saluted with a grin on his face, anticipating his next opponent.
Viper was slightly taken back as she looks over at an irritated Shifu.
"Monkey!" he snapped his fingers again,
Without much hesitation the trained earth bending student was front and center. However he decided to use a bamboo staff instead of his bending, as he didn't want to hurt the poor guy. The one on one battle ended in less than a minute as he easily bruised Po and finished him by comically hitting his head with the staff.
Crane was next as he and Po prepared to spar inside the training hall on top of the edges of the jade turtle bowl, until Po lost his balance and fell inside being tossed around like mixed dumplings as Crane hovered above the bowl in a ball of air and looks back at Shifu, now angered.
Shifu snapped his fingers again. It was Mantis' turn, seeing how they didn't let Tigress spar knowing she do more than enough damage to him.
At this time it was sunset, as Mantis readied his stance in front of Po. Compared to the large boy Mantis was a midget, however he was very sensitive about his height, Po realized this and tried to stifle a small chuckle. Unfortunately, Mantis noticed this narrowing his eyes in offense and lunged at him with a quick lift of his arms a portion of pure earth lifted Po off the ground as he landed flat on his back finishing the spar between them.
Shifu smiled at his fourth defeat, hoping now that the supposed Avatar will finally give up.
However before he managed to get his hopes too high, Po manages a salute.
Now Shifu has had enough.
"I have been taking it too easy on you, boy, but now no more! Your next opponent…will be me."
"Phew, alright! Let's go!" with brimming confidence shown bright on his face
The Five, minus Tigress, exchanged worried looks to each other. They knew this newcomer was in over his head in the first place. But to be happy to face off against Shifu, their master who taught them advanced Kung Fu was to spar against an inexperienced earth bender? This could not end well.
"Step forth." Shifu sternly commanded
Po doesn't even finish the first few steps as Shifu whirls him around with his air bending with no effort and throws him to the floor, belly first, pinning his arm behind his back,
"The true path to victory is to find your opponent's weakness and make him suffer for it."
Despite Po being in pain he was delighted. Shifu threw Po around again tripping him to fall on the floor repeatedly and gripped him by the throat facing him,
"Until he finally falls, or quits," Shifu was sure this time around Po would beg for mercy and call it quits,
But Po was absolutely inspired!
Even though he couldn't properly speak due to Shifu gripping on his vocals, "But a real warrior never quits. Don't worry, Master, I will never quit!"
This was Shifu's breaking point. He then flings the poor lad into the air, leaping at him with a flying kick, hard enough to send Po soaring out the courtyard's entrance, tumbling down the palace steps.
The Five walked outside watching him unmistakably trying to earth bend the ground, or something, to make him halt going down the stairs so fast, frankly it only made him tumble further.
"If this proclaimed Avatar is smart, he won't come back up those steps." Said Tigress, hoping the earth bender will finally get the message.
"I have a feeling he will" said Monkey, Tigress had enough of this foolishness for one day as she saw the lad disappear down the bottom of the stairs and retreated back to the training hall for a good workout since she didn't have a opportunity to personally pummel him.
"Wow. He's really not going to quit, is he?" Viper asked holding a palm to her cheek. Being more worried about the physical safety of the newcomer, he did take quite a beating today, she felt sorry for him.
"He's not going to quite bouncing, I'll tell ya that." Mantis joked laughing, but Viper silenced him with a stern look as she smacked the side of his head with her free hand.
"Alright, now just for that Mantis, you're helping me get him up the stairs before sundown and treat his injuries." She said sternly, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and dragged him down with her,
"Wha-what! Why!? What did I do?" Mantis complained unwillingly following his companion down the stairs, receiving smug smirks and mocking laughter from both Monkey and Crane as they went back to their quarters.
That same night
Luckily they did make it back in time before sunset, Viper and Mantis managed to retrieve Po and take him to his new room in the bunkhouse.
Viper inspected Po, since he was complaining that his back was hurting a lot. She offered an acupuncture session with Mantis as Po gladly accepted. Inwardly he was thrilled to spend some quality time with his heroes that didn't involve him falling flat on face in pain.
She had him take his shirt off and lay on his belly. While Mantis went to go get the acupuncture needles from Tigress' room before he spotted him, luckily she was still not in her room yet.
After about a half an hour, all you could hear was Po yelling in pain,
"Ow! I thought you said acupuncture would make me feel, yeow, better!" Po said lying down with his head propped up with a pillow.
Mantis held a handful of needles and stuck a few in his back again,
"Look, trust me, it will. You're just too tense, you need to relax more. Plus it's not really that easy finding the right nerve points if you're moving so much."
But Po was skeptical and sighed,
"It's because I'm fat…isn't it?" turning his head slightly behind him seeing Mantis continue to feel for any tense nerves, with Viper, who was also in the room, sitting on her knees holding a diagram of acupuncture meridians,
Mantis made an awkward expression,
"Hey, that's not what I meant." Removing a needle and moved it to another part of Po's lower shoulder blade.
"Sure you didn't..." Po retorted back,
Mantis adjusted a needle and using his index and middle fingers, tapped on Po's back to feel for the nerves,
"Who am I to judge a warrior based on his looks or size? I mean…look at me, I'm no taller than 5 feet."
Mantis jabbed another needle into his lower back causing Po to yell even louder in pain,
"Maybe acupuncture isn't helping him," Viper stated, "Po, would it be alright if I tried my method of healing you?" she asked Po before attempting her procedure,
"As long as it doesn't involve anymore needles, I'm good with anything." Po shifted in his position a bit,
"Mantis, would you mind?" Viper nudged at him. He rolled his eyes and agreed, "Fine."
Sometimes he couldn't take Viper's big blue eyes when she pleaded for a favor and apathetically plucked the needles he jabbed in Po's back causing him twice the pain.
Meanwhile next door, Monkey was meditating in the first room down the hall, as he heard Po's frantic yelling and uncomfortable laughing. Annoyed at the disturbance he motioned his hands to his ears to stop noise.
Next to him was Crane practicing his calligraphy techniques. Po's yelling was even louder as he was stuck being right next to him. Startled, he accidentally smears the paper as ink drips all over his fingers.
Finally Po settles down as Mantis finished taking out, rather violently, the leftover needles as Viper glared at Mantis for treating his patient carelessly, shoving him out of the way and took over.
"Now Po I want you to just breathe in and out deeply, this should soothe some of your pain." Viper calmly stated, she prepared a bowl full of what looks to be ordinary water.
Viper placed both her hands over the bowl, and with a swift movement she controlled its movment swaying her arms gracefully, having the liquid covering all of Po's back region, without getting him wet. She then closed her eyes in concentration, the water then glowed a luminous blue as she began healing him with her water bending.
"Ahhhh" Po sighed out loud in relief, "that feels so nice"
Viper chuckled at this, "My mother is my villages' best healer. She taught me the fundamentals of first aid before I was taught Kung Fu by my father and Master Shifu. It's sort of like acupuncture, only by redirecting your chi throughout the body, using water as a catalyst" she explained to Po,
"Wow, that's totally cool! Ah, a little more on the left...there that's the spot!" he said enjoying this heavenly feeling,
"Maybe I should've done this first before Mantis stabbed you with those needles" she said continuing her work on Po's back glancing briefly at Mantis, who was still in the room but made himself comfortable by leaning against the wall, rolled his eyes at that comment,
"Hey I'm the best at acupuncture in this team. Not my fault some people don't appreciate my handy work" he pouted childishly
"Oh, sorry man" Po said giving him an innocent grin.
It was less than a few minutes before Po changed the subject,
"Guess today could have gone better huh..." asking nobody in particular, Viper noticed his tone
"Don't worry about it Po, I'm sure Master Shifu will reconsider you as the Avatar as Oogway did… eventually." trying not to dwell on the topic.
Just as Tigress, they were all disappointed just as much that they weren't chosen to be the next Avatar over some inexperienced bender.
"I mean, I know Master Shifu's trying to inspire me and all, but if I didn't know better…I'd say he was trying to get rid of me."
Viper and Mantis glanced at each other awkwardly, "Pretty funny right?" said Po as he chuckled, but didn't hear them laugh or respond and his chuckled fades into silence before Mantis spoke,
"I know he can seem rather heartless…but, you know, he wasn't always like that" Mantis explained while fiddling with an acupuncture needle with his hand while the other was clasped around his waist,
"Apparently, there was once a time when Master Shifu actually used to smile." She said in a rather hushed tone,
"No way…" Po replied still receiving treatment from Viper, unaware that a certain fire bender was walking down the hallway, wiping the sweat from that well deserved training session she had with herself. When she overhears Viper talk within Po's chambers, discussing a topic that involved Shifu and…
She suddenly halted outside the door eavesdropping,
"But that was before…" Viper hesitated continuing the topic further,
Po noticed the hesitation and looked back at Viper, "Before what?" he asked, but before Viper had a chance to finish Tigress suddenly barged into Po's room, catching them Viper by surprise she almost dropped the water all over Po.
"Before Tai-Lung, he-"she stated until Crane decided to eavesdrop in as well,
"Um, guys, we're not suppose to talk about him," the four benders saw Crane's shadow is silhouetted on the wall, "You know how Shifu feels about that subject matter."
But Tigress didn't seem to mind the 'he who must not be named' issue,
"Well, if he's going to stay here, he as well ought to know about him."
Po sat up enough to get a good look at the room wanting to share his bit of kung fu history with the Five, "Guys, guys. I know about Tai-Lung!"
Now Tigress was interested but not amused raising a brow as she walks closer to Po,
"He used to be Shifu's student, the first ever to master the thousand…" but before Po could continue Tigress approached the group giving Po a piercing stare as he nervously trailed off, "…scrolls of…kung fu. And well…then he turned bad and…..is now….in jail…"
Tigress decided to give him more information than just Tai-Lung's student life here at the Jade Palace and sat down in front of Po, Viper and Mantis.
"He wasn't just a student," she began to tell his tale;
"When Shifu was still in training with Avatar Oogway, he found him as a baby outside the palace. Feeling an amount of compassion he took him in and raised him as a son.
"One day during Shifu's training session, he noticed the boy showed a strong talent in Kung Fu and possessed fire bending abilities demonstrating how a mere boy of five years of age was able to knock down a training dummy across the floor knocking down the weapons rack smoldering half the dummy. Shifu was impressed with his skills and trained him himself. He believed in his ability, and encouraged that he was destined for greatness.
"However, as Tai-Lung reached adulthood, it was never enough for him. He wanted more power. He wanted to become the next Avatar, as he learned from his studies that it gave the chosen one immeasurable control of all four elements. But Avatar Oogway saw darkness in his heart and denied his request.
"Outraged by his answer, Tai-Lung let his anger blind him, abusing his fire bending, burning almost half the valley. He then returned to the Palace where he tried to slaughter Oogway so that he would force the duty on becoming the next Avatar. Shifu had to destroy what he had created.
"But how could he? Shifu after all raised Tai-Lung as a beloved son. Shifu's love penetrated him to stop him and failed at attempting to bring an end to Tai-Lung, Oogway went into the Avatar state and intercepts him with lighting speed striking him at his vital pressure points driving Tai-Lung into an unconscious state.
"Shifu was overcome by grief and disbelief. He loved him like he'd never loved anyone before …or since."
Tigress grew strangely quiet as she left a gap between her story. Po noticed her saddened features and continued to listen anyway,
"And now he has a chance to make things right, to train the true Avatar Warrior."
Wait, did Po hear that right?
"And he's stuck with you…," her tone became sharp narrowing her eyes looking at Po, "A clumsy, amateur earth bender who treats it like it's a joke."
To Po it practically felt like venom to his ears when he heard that coming from Tigress,
But she was right.
Po looked down to the hardwood floor, the flame from the lantern glinted of slight shame in his emerald eyes.
"Tigress, please, enough," Viper said trying to ease the situation, "He's had enough of pessimistic beatings for one day" she looked down to Po's back and with a last motion of her right palm she placed the water back into the bowl concluding her healing technique on Po.
"All done, Po" Viper softly smiled as she handed him back his shirt ready and folded for him.
After Po finished dressing, he stood up causing the floorboard to creek in the awkward silence and he still keeping his gaze to the floor,
"Look guys, I know Oogway chose me as the next Avatar when it should have been one of you guys…you totally deserved it more than me. You all trained hard and are real kung fu masters. But me…I'm just the son of a noodle shop owner. " Po explained with a heartfelt tone, as Crane and Monkey listened in on Po's confession, feeling a hint of pity in their hearts for the poor guy. They had eavesdropped earlier during whole story Tigress was telling earlier on.
Po honestly didn't mean to show up into their lives like this, all he wanted was to witness the greatness of their kung fu bending skills, not become something greater than them.
"Wait…a Noodle shop owner?" Mantis said with interest breaking the heavy silence, "Soo… does this mean you know how to cook noodles?" after that his belly groaned with hunger,
"Mantis!" Viper said standing up, fiercely getting worked up for his unnecessary comment,
"This is his first night here at the Jade Palace! You can't expect him to do us a favor cook dinner for us after we gave him a hard time!" just when suddenly her own belly betrayed her as it growled as loud as Mantis' he was stifling a laugh.
"At least, not after the way we treated him today…" she turned around, her long hair gracefully following, to face Po whose face lightened up happily.
"Actually Mantis, that's not a bad idea! I might be a terrible kung fu student, but if I know anything is to cook the second best noodles in the valley! Come on, I'll make you guys some of my dad's secret ingredient noodles, my treat!" suddenly Po's spirits where lifted soaring high again
And with that Po happily walked out of the room and escorted himself to the kitchen, with the rest of the Furious Five giving confused expressions toward another and shurgged it off following Po not too far behind, but that was before Viper gave Mantis another hard smack in the head for giving Po the idea.
So apparently i have this habit of posting super late at night.
Still continuing this story guys till i finish it, little by little just like the rest of my fics :P
so whether your anticipating this chapter or any other chapter from other stories you'll just have to wait and be suprised
Oh yes and i hope everyone had an awesome Christmas and New Years Eve celebration :))
God Bless! oxoxo
- Gabzgirl