It was a dark and stormy night.

The wind howled and the lightning flashed outside the walls of Li Da Kung Fu Academy.

In a small storeroom in the bowels of the academy, a black crested crane swept up the dust and dirt.

He hummed to himself, musing of how his life had recently taken an unexpected and wonderful turn.

Two days ago, Crane had been a mere janitor in this very academy. But then, at top student and now best friend Mei Ling's suggestion, he'd taken part in the student try outs and suddenly gained the confidence to pass with flying colours (if you'll pardon the pun). Now he was a bona fide student of Li Da Academy, still humble enough to volunteer to continue sweeping until a new janitor was found.

Craaaaaaaaaneeeeee…

Crane stopped sweeping when he heard an eerie voice echo from somewhere outside the room. He looked in the direction of the door.

"That's odd…" He muttered sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "Who could still be out in the middle of the night?"

Craaaaaaaaaneeeee…

Crane sighed, set down his broom, and stepped out of the storeroom.

The second he stepped through the door, a demonic laughing echoed loudly in the corridor and a strange gust of wind blew out the candles, casting the avian in darkness.

"Very funny guys!" Crane called out. "I see your ventriloquism lessons are paying off! And nice rigging with that window opening and letting the wind in for a second there!"

Craaaaaaaaaneeeee…

"Guuuuuuuuuuyssssss…" Crane called back then chuckled to himself. Where these guys seriously still doing the same old pranks? "Come on, you've gotta do better than that! My skinny legs are practically knocking against each other like clappers!"

He slowly made his way down the corridor, grabbing and relighting a candle on the way. He carefully held the candle in one wing as he walked, keeping an eye out for hidden pranksters.

"Guys, you've been doing the same act since I came to this academy!" He said. "I've stopped being scared three years ago! Now grow up and show yourselves!"

He turned his head, just in time to see dark liquid trickling down the left hand wall.

"Oh dear!" He exclaimed, half covering his face in mock terror. "The wall is dripping blood! Looks nothing like the corn syrup I bought when visiting the market! The only thing scary about that is that you forgot to add the red food colouring!"

CraaaaaAAAAAANEEEE…

Crane heard a rushing round behind him, whirled around, and mock screamed as a hanging training dummy drenched in fake blood swung at him from nowhere, stopping just inches from the tip of his beak.

"Oh my lord!" He cried. "A fake dead body! Okay guys, that's the end of it! You can come out now!"

The corridor was lit up by a pair of lanterns, held up by the stupidly sniggering gorilla twins lurching their way towards him.

"Got ya again, skinny!" One of them laughed.

Crane sighed in annoyance.

The twins Bao and Sao had been making life difficult for Crane ever since he came to the academy as a janitor, and it seemed that Crane's recent promotion of kung fu student had done little to make them respect him a bit more.

"Whatever, just knock it off." Crane said and made his way back to the storeroom. He snorted in derision when he heard the gorilla twins following, still laughing like idiots. He ignored them and stepped back into the storeroom, where he picked up his broom and resumed sweeping. He narrowed his eyes when the twins came in after him.

"Face it, limp beak." Sao chuckled. "This is never gonna get old."

"Again. Whatever." Crane said, and let a tiny smile curl the corners of his mouth when he saw a certain mountain cat silently step into the room, her face obscured in a dragon mask. She stopped directly behind the guffawing twins, and waited.

"We got ya, admit it!" Bao grinned dumbly.

"Okay, fine." Crane groaned. "You got me."

"And don't you forget it!" The twins said, then turned to leave.

They caught sight of the masked figure and-

"WAAAAAAHHH!"

They screamed like little girls and passed out, crashing to the floor like flour bags.

Crane struggled not to burst out laughing as Mei Ling removed the mask, revealing an evil grin.

"Thanks, Mei Ling." He snickered. "I always wanted to get even with them."

"Anytime, mate." Mei Ling smiled. "Anytime."