Chapter 14: Big Trouble in Little SkyDome
(A/N: The moment we've all been waiting for. Also, Panda Ming's lines will be in all caps and bold.)
General POV
Everyone turned around and above them. They saw a massive red panda with matching red eyes, glaring down at the audience. They all started taking pictures of it, assuming it was all part of the show. But it's not.
"MEI-MEI, WHERE ARE YOU?!" the giant red panda bellowed as she looked around the crowd for Mei. That was when she finally spotted who she was looking for.
"Mom?!" Mei exclaimed.
"Auntie Ming?!" Xia gasped in shock.
"MEI-MEI!" the giant red panda, who was actually Ming, boomed loudly.
"RUN!" Xia screamed as everyone scrambled away from the towering menace that is Ming Lee.
Ming pulled back the metal roof and jumped inside the stadium, causing a huge amount of the floor to break.
"Mei! Xia!" someone called out and Mei and Xia saw Jin, Ai, Chiang, Wu, Chen, Ping, Helen, Lily, and Mr. Gao running towards them.
Jin hugged Mei and while Chiang and Ai hugged Xia.
"Girls, we have to save Ming!" Wu said.
"She's gone loco!" Chen exclaimed.
"What is going on here?" Xia asked desperately.
"It's the red panda!" Ai answered.
"It has taken over her!" Chiang continued.
"Mei, Xia, we have to do the ritual again!" Jin explained.
"What happened? She's huge!" Mei exclaimed.
"I told you guys she was big!" he answered.
"But that big?!" Xia questioned, stressed.
"MEI-MEI!" Ming shouted, scooping Mei up into her giant red panda paw.
"Mei!" Jin, Ai, and Chiang cried out.
"Hey! Put her down!" Xia exclaimed.
"Let her go, you monster!" Kendra shouted.
"Don't hurt her," Miriam pleaded.
"YOU ARE IN BIG TROUBLE, YOUNG LADY!"
"Mom! Let go!" Mei strained as she tried to escape her grip.
"I'M SHUTTING THIS DOWN RIGHT NOW!" Ming boomed, as she grabbed the giant 4 Town prop off the backdrop.
Mei watched in fear as everyone was running away and all five members of 4 Town were curled up in fear, hanging from the ceiling with their angel wings.
"EVERYONE, GO HOME!" Ming bellowed at the crowd who was running away, "WHERE ARE YOUR PARENTS?! PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!"
She dropped the giant 4 Town sign causing it to smash when it hit the floor.
"THIS ISN'T YOU!" Ming shouted at her daughter and that's when Mei has had enough of her mother.
"This is me!" Mei yelled back as she poofed into her panda form, biting her mom's paw very harshly.
Ming screamed in pain, releasing Mei and making her fall to the floor. It hurt when she landed but she were alright.
"Oh my gosh!"
"Mei-Mei!"
"Mei, are you hurt?"
All of her friends and family members rushed over to Mei to check if she was okay. Mei got back up and poofed into her panda form again as she started to stand her ground against my mother.
"I'm not your little Mei-Mei anymore!" Mei yelled, "I lied, Mom!"
"WHAT?!" Ming exclaimed, shocked.
"It was my idea to hustle the panda!" she continued angrily, "My idea to go to Tyler's party! It was all me! I like boys! I like loud music! I like gyrating! I'm 13! Deal with it!"
For a brief while, there was a silence as Mei hoped her mom finally understood what she just said, but she was wrong. Dead wrong. Her words only made Ming even more furious that she let out an ear-splitting roar that can be heard all around the city.
"The ritual! Everyone in position!" Wu instructed Chen, Ping, Helen, Lily, Chiang, and Ai as they all got ready, "Mei-Mei, keep her busy!"
"Oh, I'll keep her busy!" Mei hissed, glaring at her mom as she started running around as Jin drew the circle around Ming with a chalk trolley.
"Mei! Keep her in the circle!" Jin called out to Mei.
"GET BACK HERE!" Ming bellowed demandingly.
"Make me!" Mei yelled back.
Meanwhile, Mr. Gao went to the upper seats and saw that the lunar eclipse is over halfway finished.
"YOU THINK YOU'RE SO MATURE!" Ming scolded as Mei kept running away from her booming footsteps, "LYING TO ME! BLAMING ME?!"
Mei hopped into the air and poofed into her human form but once she landed on a broken part of the stage, she turned back into a red panda.
"HOW COULD YOU BE SO... SO.. CRASS?!"
"Oh ho ho! That's nothing!" Mei replied defiantly, "You wanna see crass?"
That's when she started gyrating and twerking to provoke and annoy the heck out of Ming.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! STOP MOVING LIKE THAT!" Ming shouted in disgust.
"What's wrong? Is this bothering you?" Mei grinned as she continued my routine.
Xia, Miriam, Priya, Kendra, Abby, and Tyler cheered her on.
"That's it, Mei! Keep it up!"
"Shake that money maker!"
"Gyrate like you've never gyrated before!"
"Destroy her with that big butt! Yeah!"
"Start singing now!" Jin said as he finished creating the circle.
"Everyone," Wu began as she, Chen, Ping, Helen, Lily, Chiang, and Ai began chanting.
Jihng fa sām sān
Gán āk sáu sām
Yùhn hei gwāi wái
Jiht ngh fāan sān
The circle starts to glow but then it started to flicker.
"Sing louder!" Wu instructed.
Miriam looked around to see 4 Town had just got off from their suspension cables. That's when she had idea.
"Come on!" she said as she, Xia, Priya, Kendra, Abby, and Tyler ran over to the stage.
"Take it, Mom! Take it!" Mei continued twerking.
"STOP IT! STOP!" Ming yelled, turning around.
Unfortunately, this caused Mei to get knocked off by her massive, fluffy, red tail. Ai, Chiang, Jin, Wu, Helen, Lily, Chen, and Ping had to duck down, stopping the chant altogether. This hasn't stopped Mei as she climbed along her mother's tail.
"All I wanted was to go to a CONCERT!" Mei shouted angrily as she jumped into the air, changing forms. As Ming tried to reach out and grab her, Mei landed on her arm and ran along it.
"I NEVER WENT TO CONCERTS!" Ming boomed at her, attempting to pick her daughter up with her other paw and failing, "I PUT MY FAMILY FIRST! I TRIED TO BE A GOOD DAUGHTER!"
Once again, Mei jumped her off my arm, did mid-air shapeshifting jumps to avoid her paws before she landed on her face.
"Well, sorry I'm not perfect!" she yelled angrily as she once again jumped off into the air and changed forms simultaneously. "Sorry I'm not good enough! And sorry I'll never be like you!"
In her panda form, Mei zoomed at Ming with incredible speed. She hit her mother with such force that she collapsed backwards into the stage.
Mei fell to the ground, turning back to human to break her fall. For a few seconds, she was wincing in pain from falling but then realization hit her like a brick. Her tackle knocked her mom out. Half of her giant body is outside the ritual circle.
Mei's POV
"Oh no. Mom? Mom!" I worriedly called out to my unconscious mom before I turned to the moon.
It was still partially red but not for long. I still had to get her into circle for the ritual to start.
"Mum! You have to get in the circle!" I desperately instructed as I poofed into my panda form and ran over to Mom and started trying to pull her into the circle. But she was massive, she could barely budge!
"Wake up! I'm sorry! Mom! Please!" I tearfully begged at her before I hear someone say...
"Pull, Mei-Mei!"
"Grandma?" I was surprised to see Grandma Wu as a red panda (evident by her voice and the scar on her right eyebrow). She must have broken her jewelry to release the spirit and used it to help me pull Mom into the circle.
"I am not losing my daughter!" Grandma Wu told her before turning to my other maternal relatives, "Don't just stand there!"
Auntie Chen, Auntie Ping, Lily, and Helen all ran forward, breaking their pieces of jewelry, making them all poof into red pandas. They went and helped me and Grandma Wu pull.
"Make room for your elders, Mei-Mei!" Auntie Chen grinned.
"We're with you!" Auntie Ping told me.
"What are you doing? What if you can't turn back?" I asked them, anxiously.
"Your mom needs us!" Helen answered.
"She's family!" Lily added.
"Less talking, more pulling!" Grandma Wu instructed.
"This fur is so itchy!" Lily complained.
"Quiet, Lily!"
As they were all pulling, they started singing in Cantonese.
Jihng fa sām sān
Gán āk sáu sām
Yùhn hei gwāi wái
Jiht ngh fāan sān
The circle started glitching as Mom was moving into it more and more.
"Louder! Sing from the heart!" Mr. Gao called out to us from the roof of the stadium with his sword ready.
"Louder! The circle isn't working!" Dad yelled.
"We need more volume!" Uncle Chiang added.
As we kept on pulling, I heard beatboxing on a microphone. I turned to see Xia, Miriam, Priya, Kendra, and Abby all beatboxing to help and Tyler was using two drumsticks to make a beat. But if you thought that was surprising, the next thing absolutely shocked me!
4 Town rose up from the broken stage as the neon lights shone on them in a dramatic, beautiful way. They were all vocalizing and singing Nobody like U.
Never met nobody
Never met, never met, never met
Joyful tears came to my eyes as they sang in such a beautiful way.
Like you...
As Robaire let out a high note, the circle lit up and a massive beacon blasted into the sky.
I've never met nobody like you
Xia, Miriam, Priya, Kendra, Abby, and Tyler were all singing along with smiles on their faces.
Had friends and I've had buddies, it's true
But they don't turn my tummy the way you do
I've never met nobody like you
Mr. Gao raised his sword in the red moonlight and a bright red laser shone through it, hitting Mom, making her light up as she started floating.
You're never not on my mind
Oh my, oh my
You're never not by my side
My side, my side
And soon after, Grandma, Auntie Chen, Auntie Ping, Helen, Lily, and I began floating, too.
Never gonna make you cry
Oh cry, don't cry
I'll never not be your ride or die
Alright
Once the song ended, the beam shone even more brightly sending me and the rest of the red pandas into the astral realm.