Panda Scars Chapter 17: Po's Great Gift, a kung fu panda fanfic

Hard to believe that I'm in the end of the story and this chapter will hopefully get more readers. Enjoy it! Also, this chapter is dedicated to my awesome friends, klonokazeno and (my awesome friend) Wolf Mystic. Also, for Wolf Mystic, this song is pretty much the coolest song you'll see. Hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 17: Po's Great Gift

It's been a week and a half since the battle with Pyro has passed on and Po has been doing well with his training skills and being around family and friends ever since it progressed. Throughout the course of the situation, it seems as though his bio parents have been looking over their son for a period of 20-something years and will continue to look after him for 20-something years more.

At the bunkhouse, Mantis and Crane came into Po's room, where he was doing some meditating and simply just thinking positive thoughts about his future. He heard a knock on the door and responds, "Come in."

The door opens and in comes Mantis and Crane greeting him, asking him what's he doing. They engage in a few conversations about life after battling Pyro. Mantis asked, "So, how's life going for you?"

"It's going okay. I mean, right now, I'm just so in the moment where everything in my life is going along really well and it's to the point where I'm really happy and content about where I am and hope where I'm going at this point. Ever since I defeated Pyro, it's like a whole new person. I mean, here I am, as a cub, frightened about going to sleep, knowing that he was coming after me and finish doing his business and right now, I learned to grow up and face my demons and not be afraid of anything." Po said.

"And how do you feel at this point?" asked Crane.

"Stronger. It's like I have something coming through me and it generates more than I ever thought it would."

"So, seeing your parents as angels last night, how did that make you feel?" asked Mantis.

Po sighed and felt like his heart was in the right place where his life reached a full amount of happiness all over him. He said, "What doesn't make me feel? It just makes me feel happy and amazed that they really care about me and they gave up their lives for me and make me a better person. Even though, I've known them since I was a baby cub, it's like a part of them are there with me, even if they're not around. I've spent my whole life around my dad and it makes me more comfortable and safe to be around him. They're awesome angels and I know, without a doubt, they'll watch over me at any time."

Crane smiled and looked at Po and told him, "Well, it's amazing that you're really this amazing person that wants to accomplish his destiny and be something that they are and ever since you came into our lives, you really brought in a lot of fun and happiness in our lives. We went from cold-hearted warriors to happy and joyful people and we're really grateful to have you as our master."

"I feel the same way as Crane does. Me, personally, it just made me realize that be joyful about everything about life. It might get us down sometimes, but for some reason, you always pick us up again and be this awesome, yet joyful person that we don't know about, but feel really lucky to be around with. Just someone to talk to about everything and have a laugh or two and you're the one who does that. If anyone could choose who the Dragon Warrior is, I'd choose you, always." Mantis said.

Po chuckled and told them, "You guys are really cool to be around and for that, I'm proud to call you master."

"Same here." they said, in unison.

Another knock came in on the door and it was Musaki coming in holding some piece of paper on his hand. Po asked, "What you got there?"

"Just a song I wrote in just 15 minutes." said Musaki.

"Cool, I heard the talent show happens at the back of the Jade Palace. You performing it?"

"Actually, I came over here to see if you like it."

Musaki hands the song over to Po, took a look at it and after 30 seconds, Po completely fell in love with it and hands it back to Musaki, but he told him, "You keep it."

Po looked kinda confused and asked, "But it's your song. Why would you want me to keep it?"

Musaki started smiling and answered, "Because this is your song and you're gonna sing it at the talent show tonight."

Crane and Mantis dropped their jaws and Po was in total shock that the song Musaki wrote was Po's song. He smiled goofily and became really surprised about this and told him, "This is my song?"

Musaki nodded his head with excitement and Mantis asked, "And Po's gonna perform it in front of millions of people tonight?"

"That's right." he answered.

"And we're around to hear him sing?" Crane asked with excitement.

"And you'll see him perform either backstage or in the front-row seats."

They looked at each other and they were screaming with excitement and in craziness. Musaki laughed softly and asked, "I take it that's a 'yes'?"

"For the front-row seats, that's a 'heck yes!'" Crane shouted.

"I thought so."

"Well, the backstage might be cool, but seeing him in front-seats, that's WAY awesome!" Mantis shouted.

"What is all this noise?" asked Shifu.

"Master Shifu, the coolest thing has ever happened to me. Musaki wrote a song for me and wants me to perform it on the talent show tonight." Po explained.

"You're gonna perform? That's excellent."

"It happens in about 5 hours, so I think we're gonna have a good time. And you know the reason why I wrote this song? Because of your isolation and loneliness about your past and wanted to confront your nightmares about and I started to have the same feeling, so I wrote this song to kind of commemorate the traumatic side of our past. By surpassing it, I thought it would be better to vent both our feelings in song." Musaki said.

"Wow. That's cool." Po said.

"I know, right?"

A few hours later passed on and everyone is in the stadium at the back of Jade Palace, where there's a huge audience gathering around to see other animals perform. Po was backstage ready for his amazing moment, but became a little nervous about this process. He has defeated Pyro a week ago, but he was a little worried that people might not take interest in this song, because Musaki wrote it.

"Hey, Po."

Po turned around and saw Musaki standing there and asked, "Doing okay?"

"Well, I'm just a little nervous." Po said.

"Nervous how? Is it a good nervous, bad nervous or freaking out nervous or nervous nervous?"

"It's kind of a mix between freaking out nervous and bad nervous. I'm not so sure about the nervous nervous stuff."

"Freaking out nervous. Same thing happens to me before I come on stage. When I get in that mode, your confidence gets lost pretty quickly, you get the symptoms: loss of confidence, thinking about what people think and also doubting yourself that you're good enough. What I do is stand in the mirror and say to myself, 'I can do this. I am gonna rock this world tonight.' And when you come to the stage, the outgoing rock-star persona suddenly releases and every inch of nervousness fades away quickly. One minute you're nervous, and the next minute, you're really rocking the night away. It happens most of the time and I have nothing but confidence in you."

"You really think I can do this?" asked Po.

Musaki smiled at him and told him, "What does your heart tell you?"

There was a long-12 second pause between them and Po blinked his eyes twice and then, his nervousness was dropping down quickly and looked at Musaki, rubbed his head and said, "I guess it tells me to believe in myself."

"So follow it, no matter where you go."

Po smiled at him and gave him a hug and whispered, "Thanks, Lil' Saki."

"Anytime. I'll be in the front-row seats rooting for you."

Musaki waled away and went back to the audience while Po took in deep breaths and shook out all the nerves, looked at himself in the mirror and tells him, "I am strong. I am fearless. I can do this. I am the Dragon Warrior and I will show awesomeness tonight."

Soon enough, someone called for Po and he went backstage with confidence and headed towards the stage with crazed-out audience members screaming and cheering and as he looked down on the stage, he saw Shifu, Musaki and The Five rooting for him.

Then, the music starts playing and there's this band behind him playing a punk-rock song and Po grabs the mic and starts belting out the lyrics, like he's pouring his emotions out in front of everyone.

I remembered black skies, the lightning all around me
I remembered each flash as time began to blur
Like a startling sign that fate had finally found me
And your voice was all I heard that I get what I deserve

So give me reason to prove me wrong, to wash this memory clean
Let the floods cross the distance in your eyes
Give me reason to fill this hole, connect the space between
Let it be enough to reach the truth that lies across this new divide

The crowd went completely insane over Po's amazing voice and Shifu dropped his jaw in complete shock as he was expressing how he felt when he sung that song.

There was nothing in sight but memories left abandoned
There was nowhere to hide, the ashes fell like snow
And the ground caved in between where we were standing
And your voice was all I heard that I get what I deserve

So give me reason to prove me wrong, to wash this memory clean
Let the floods cross the distance in your eyes across this new divide

Then, the band dropped the bass in this punk-rock dance beat and Po started dancing along to the beat of the drums and soon, some strobe lights were coming in, blinking at every sight of lights that gets the crowd amped up, and as Po looked at the audience, he sees a brownish-grey goose sitting towards the front row and it was his father, Mr. Ping. He was shocked and amazed to see him sitting there rooting for his son. It made him feel joy and a whole lot more support coming from him. And as he looked at the audience, he suddenly feels amped up with his energy levels of performing the song, which gave him new found confidence and fearlessness.

In every loss, in every lie, in every truth that you'd deny
And each regret and each goodbye was a mistake too great to hide
And your voice was all I heard that I get what I deserve

Po leaped in 5 feet in the air and then landed on the stage with his feet and as the song stops, the lights slowly dims and the audience were cheering and applauding wildly and deserved a standing ovation. As the lights came back on, Po looked over the crowd and suddenly feels a bit of happiness coming through him. He waved at the entire crowd and looked down on the audience and sees Shifu, The Five and Musaki cheering wildly and he waved at them and they waved back and when he looked at the other end, he saw his dad cheering for him.

Then, Po wanted his dad to come to the stage to share this moment with him and he felt overjoyed at this moment. He leaned over to the mic and said, "This is my father. He's responsible for bringing me this much joy and happiness in my life."

The crowd completely went bonkers and continued cheering and then, he said, "Will Master Shifu, Musaki and The Furious Five come to the stage, please?"

They suddenly feel completely excited about being on the stage with Po and they got up and headed for the stage and as they got there, the cheering goes insanely higher and they received a bow from them and at this moment, it became the proudest moment in Po's life.

Backstage, they were really amazed with Po's awesome performance. Musaki looked happy and told Po, "Oh, dude. That was the most INSANELY AWESOME performance ever!!"

"Thanks, Lil' Saki and I guess it's because of you that I have total confidence on coming to the stage."

"Well, you know..."

"Musaki gave you a confidence boost? That's amazing." said Tigress.

"I refer to it as 'curing stage fright.'"

"When I saw you singing and performing, it was like a whole different person rocking out and being energetic at the same time. I was like, 'whoa, who is that dude?' It's like you're really having a great time doing it." said Mantis.

"Well, I'm glad you liked it, buddy."

"Your star has shone brightly with that song. I can honestly say, you're done really well, my 've really impressed me." said Mr. Ping.

"As am I." said Shifu.

"By the way, I'm really glad you came over, dad, to see me perform onstage." said Po.

"Well, I just know you're gonna do great things soon."

"Thanks, dad."

"And for that, I brough you something."

Mr. Ping hands out a red, green and blue necklace that has a picture of the sun in multi-colors. He gives it to Po and asked, "What's this?"

"It's a present. I wanted to give it to you before you became 21 or so, and I thought that this week, it was the perfect time to sort of give it to you for bringing me joy these past 20 years."

Po smiled at his dad and gave him a huge hug and said, "Thanks, dad. It really means a lot to me."

"Look on the back. It's something I wrote in there."

Po looks at the back and it reads, "Even though, you're growing up so fast, you'll always be, forevermore, my son."

He smiled at his dad in complete joy and said, "I cherish this forever."

He puts on the necklace and feels completely comforable in it and he really loves the present his dad gave him. Everyone looked at the necklace and they really started to like it more and knows that it was a gift from the heart, but the biggest gift for Po was family. And that's a gift that he will treasue for the rest of his life and one he'll remember by.

Wolf Mystic, I hope you like this chapter. And the song, that was Linkin Park's "New Divide". I'm the only one who hasn't seen either Transformers or Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. But, I've seen the video of the song and hear the song also and it's awesome. Hope you like it.

Well, this is pretty much wraps up 'Panda Scars'. I would like to thank Joe 'Po' Navark and Kippis05 for reviewing my stories, but my most thanks is for klonoakazeno and Black Raider for reviewing my stories. Much appreciation for it.

Azure Millenium, Wolf Mystic, Kippis05, Writerdragon, Joe 'Po' Navark, Skyyler and FalconMage, you can feel free to read this fic and review it as well.

And for FalconMage, please, please, PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE be nice to this story. I spent, like, the whole freakin' month making this fic and can you at least show some positive feedback from it. I'm cool with the constructive criticism, but please leave me with a positive note.

For anyone here that reviewed 'Panda Scars', thank you very much!

Much appreciation, Animation Universe 2005 (a.k.a. A.U. '05)