Chapter 22 Turtle Cannon Competition
Around 6:30 in the evening, First Squad and Second Squad arrived at the Turtle Cannon Competition. Qiao was excited and could not wait to start her very first Turtle Cannon Competition. As the original First Squad and Second Squad members warmed up, Apetrully pulled Qiao away from the rest to tell her something.
He said to her, "I am sorry, Princess Qiao, but if you play for either team the other team will have one less player."
She did not realize that, "Oh, I'm sorry." She sighed, "I'll just be in the audience." She looked so disheartened.
Apetrully felt a bit guilty, "I have always thought about creating a Third Squad. You could be one of the members. Once we find some members, we can create a Third Squad." He smiled through his shielded face, "I hate to see you so disappointed, so I have just figured out a way for you to be a part of this competition."
Her face brightened, "Really?"
"Come this way." He urged her to follow him.
Back with the two squads, Mighty Ray glanced at their rivals and smirked, "So you guys think you can beat us and claim the title 'First Squad'?" he chuckled.
Kowloon said calmly, "We don't care about the title. Why can't we just play for the sake of sport?"
Mighty Ray was in awe, "Woah. Xin really changed you guys."
Jumpy Ghostface smiled, "Let's have fun." He giggled.
The Lee brothers gave First Squad a thumbs-up in agreement.
The two Squads were positioned at opposite ends of an enormous maze: First Squad to the East, and Second Squad to the West; however, their captains were told keep a bird's eye view to guide their squads since the maze was so massive. Both Squads were required to ride a normal sized Turtle Cannon. Qiao was positioned in the middle on the maze and rode on two tiny turtles, one under each foot like roller skates.
Apetrully appeared on screen and announced the first stage of the competition, "The first part of the competition is called 'Seize the Princess'."
"Squad members must capture Princess Qiao, who will be attempting to flee from both squads, and bring her to one of the four exit corners to win the game." Apetrully explained, "Ready? Set. GO!" The starting alarm blazed.
The East and West gate opened and two squads launched themselves into the maze as Qiao panicked and began racing through the maze with a sharp eye out for squad members. The squad members dispersed to cover more ground and Qiao ran into Mighty Ray first.
"Gotcha!" Mighty Ray grinned and charged at her to seize her.
Qiao gasped and turned the other way to escape. Her tiny turtle tanks were much faster than the average sized turtle tanks that the squads were riding.
She managed to outrun the man in red but ran right into Jumpy Ghostface who pulled his jump rope out and swung it around to taunt Qiao. With Mighty Ray closing in behind her, Qiao could not find another way out from being cornered by the two. She glanced back and forth at the two and charged at Mighty Ray. The red man held out his arms to nab the princess, but Qiao was one step ahead of him and leap over his head, landing behind him and jetting off.
"Xin's heading East!" Alpha-Girl shouted.
"First Squad, Xin is heading East towards you guys!" No Hands hollered.
The princess took a deep breath, and then beamed with thrill. She never had this much fun in ages. She zipped around the twisting maze but then felt a grip on her wrist. She was pulled back by Yaksha and was captured by Mystique Sonia.
"You got me!" Qiao kicked about but laughed at the same time.
Mystique Sonia laughed with her, but once she was about to leave, she was suddenly pelted with dumplings. Hurricane Lee was hitting the pale woman with his homemade dumpling and one of the smashed itself right between her eyes and she released Qiao to tend to her face. Golden Eyed Husky jetted down and swooped up Qiao once Mystique Sonia released her.
Husky and Hurricane Lee raced down the maze closing in on an exit until they heard a famous war cry and were electrocuted. Unfortunately, Qiao was also zapped by Mighty Ray's electric eyeballs. Her hair stuck out like an afro and her whole body was smoking. She also heard Sima Cao chuckling in her head which made her huff.
"I got you this time, Xin!" Mighty Ray called out, racing towards her.
The princess glanced around for another route to take.
To your left…
She zipped towards the left and left Mighty Ray in her dust. She fixed her hair and dusted her qipao as she skated through the maze, but an arrow was shot near her and it spooked the turtles under her feet. She lost control of them and ended up running into a wall.
Archer Lee flinched once Qiao hit the wall, "Oops. Sorry, Xin." Qiao was laying on the ground; her and the two turtle's eyes were spinning.
Kowloon caught up with Archer Lee, "We got her! C'mon, let's go!" Kowloon lifted her over his shoulder and sped off with Archer Lee.
Qiao finally gathered herself together and began struggling in Kowloon's grip, kicking him and beating him.
"Hey, hey! Xin, hold still!" Kowloon wrestled with her.
She blew a raspberry at him and used her slender body to slip from his grip and flip over him to escape. She sped off back into the deepest parts of the maze with Archer Lee and Kowloon behind her.
As she jetted through the maze, she swerved past all the other members from each squad, but she had never once encountered Lin Chung in the maze. After hopping over Kowloon again, she was closing in one of the four corners which were exits. She glanced back and Kowloon was hot on her trail. She smiled at him and skated faster towards the exit, where there was another route to take her back into the maze. However, once she glanced back at the exit, Lin Chung was there waiting for her. She could not stop the turtles and skated right into Lin Chung's arms. She struggled in his arms, but he had such a strong, yet supportive grip on her. He sped towards the exit and won the game for First Squad.
"First Squad has won the first challenge!" Apetrully cheered.
First Squad members cheered in victory, and Second Squad congratulated them on a good game. Lin Chung still held a strong grip on Qiao, taking as much time as he could on holding her.
Qiao was stirring in his arm. "Lin Chung, let me go, please." she said politely. He slowly released her and apologized.
Lin Chung is still in love with you…
Woo the Wise appeared and escorted the two squads and Qiao to the next stage. It was a simple racing track; it was oval and large, possibly a mile long. There were five red lines spaced out evenly within the mile, and one of the red lines had a "Start" banner hanging above it.
Woo pulled Qiao towards a Turtle Cannon and asked her to sit on that turtle tank and this time explained the rules to her in person.
"First and Second Squad will be 'rescuing you' but you'll be running from them." Woo the Wise explained with a smile.
Apetrully appeared on screen again, "In this stage, our two heroic squads must rescue our beautiful princess from a runaway turtle tank. Squad members must score points by passing the red checkpoint lines while carrying Qiao. There will only be ten laps around the course. Whoever scores the most points will win this challenge!"
The squads lined up at the starting point. Qiao was about five feet ahead of them. There was also a starting signal above them, currently lit red. Five seconds later, it turned yellow and the Turtle Cannon that Qiao was on sped off. A second later, the light turned green and a siren blared simultaneously, allowing the heroes to finally start the race and catch up to the distressed princess.
"Don't worry, Xin! We're coming!" Jumpy called out to her.
Everyone was going at least seventy to eighty miles per hour in the race. Kowloon was the closest one to Qiao and became closer by the second. He reached out his arms to catch her but she steered away from him.
"What the hell, Xin? Get over here!" Kowloon huffed, chasing after her.
She giggle, but felt a tug on her leg and she was pulled back into Jumpy's paws.
"I saved you." He smiled.
She smiled back, "Sorry, Jumpy." And leaped out of his paws. She tried to jump back on her turtle cannon, but Kowloon caught her and held her in a tight grip.
"Got you this time!" Kowloon grinned. The princess stirred in his grip, but was unable to set herself free this time. He passed a red checkpoint line with her and scored ten points for Second Squad.
"Shit, they scored a point." Mighty Ray, who was extremely competitive, spat. He swallowed a whole banana, peel and all, and shot his electricity at Kowloon causing him to toss Qiao right out of his arms.
Qiao screamed while being in the air. Mighty Ray held out his arms to catch her, but was knocked aside by Golden Eyed Husky, who then intercepted her and scored another ten point for Second Squad when he crossed another red line with her.
"What do we do?" Mystique Sonia yelped out.
Lin Chung knew he could not harm the Liger King with his bamboo shoots nor could Mighty Ray hurt him with his electrical eyeballs.
Mr. No Hands suddenly conceived an idea. "Mystique Sonia, use your tongue to hold onto one of Golden Eyed Husky's arms while Jumpy Ghostface uses his jump rope to hold onto the other arm. Lin Chung will get Qiao from Husky then." He explained. Mystique Sonia, Lin Chung, and Jumpy nodded.
Archer Lee, however, overheard the plan, "Husky! Look out!"
As the Liger King glanced behind him, he then noticed a grip on both of his arms preventing him from keeping a tight grip on Qiao. This was the princess's chance to dash away, but Lin Chung already had a grip on her before she could escape. He sped past the rest of the players and scored ten points for First Squad.
"Great job, Lin Chung!" No Hands commended, "Now hold onto her tight so we can keep scoring points."
Archer Lee aimed his arrow carefully at Lin Chung, specifically aiming to shock his turtle cannon. He fired his arrow next to Lin Chung's turtle tank and spooked it. The turtle tank spun out of control making Lin Chung toss Qiao in the air and spin right into the wall. Archer Lee prepared to catch her, but Mystique Sonia used Yaksha to intercept her and then toss her to Jumpy, who was a few feet ahead, scoring another ten points.
The rest of race was spent tossing and intercepting Qiao. The scores were also tied. There was only one more check point to go before the challenge was finally over with. Qiao, whose eyes were spinning and could no longer fight back from being tossed around so much, was so far in the arms of Mighty Ray who kept all second squad members away by using his eyeballs.
"We're gonna win!" the man in red beamed.
Kowloon carefully stood up on his turtle cannon and launched himself towards Mighty Ray, kicking him off his turtle cannon and capturing Qiao. Seconds later, he scored the final ten points, winning the challenge.
"Alright, Kowloon!" Alpha-Girl praised as well as the other members of Second Squad. First Squad, in good sportsmanship, congratulated them as well.
"Second Squad has won this challenge! The scores are now tied. Now, it's time for the tie breaking challenge." Apetrully announced in glee.
Qiao, with her eyes still spinning, said, "Can I sit this one out? I'm… so… dizzy…" she collapsed.
"Oh, my dear Princess Qiao, we need you for the third challenge! It's just one more game." Apetrully insisted and helped Qiao towards the third stage.
Lin Chung carefully watched Qiao be pulled towards the next game, concerned about her health. Jumpy noticed and said, "She's strong." And patted his arm. Lin Chung though slightly assured, still felt uneasy.
The third stage was nothing back sixteen massive turtle shells lined up in a four by four row. All sixteen shells were connected to one another like tunnels, but in a small demonstration, it was shown that they could in fact move accordingly, shifting the tunnel paths. Outside of the massive turtle maze was an area outlined and written with yellow paint. It said, "Safe Zone".
"Our beloved princess is in one of the turtle shells. It is the Squads job to find her and bring her out to safety! Whoever can find and bring our beautiful princess to the safe zone will win this entire competition!" Apetrully announced.
Without turtle cannons, both squads climbed into the giant turtle shells and scouted for any sign of their princess. The insides of the shells were dimly lit, plus every minute, the shells would shift and heroes of both squads ended colliding with one another.
"Xin, come out!" Mighty Ray called out.
"Xin?" Mystique Sonia added, seeing a dark figure run across from afar, "I think that's her! C'mon, Mighty Dork!" The two chased after the figure and the pale woman complained, "I can't see anything. Light it up, Mighty Ray." The stocky man lit up one of his eyeballs.
Mystique Sonia then used Yaksha's arms to grabs the dark figure, but realized that it was not Qiao.
"Mystique Sonia! I'm not Xin!" Mr. No Hands hollered.
"Whoops, sorry." She laughed nervously.
"I got her!" Hurricane Lee's voice was heard from a distance.
"It's me, you idiot!" Alpha-Girl snapped.
"We got her, right here!" Kowloon and Archer Lee hollered.
"Let go of me!" Jumpy yelped.
Lin Chung used his panther vision to see from afar, and hopefully spot Qiao. He noticed a slender figure dashing across, and he knew it was her. He raced after her, but just as soon as he was catching up to her the turtle shells shifted, and she was out of sight. Lin Chung groaned in frustration, and caught another glimpse of a slender figure. He raced after the figure again, and grabbed her arm.
"What the?" Mystique Sonia yelped out, "Lin Chung, it's me!"
The warrior immediately retracted his hand, "Oops. I'm sorry, Mystique Sonia."
"I found her! She's on the run!" Archer Lee's voice was heard and sudden sounds of footsteps were heard running towards Archer Lee's voice.
First Squad decided to do the same and chase Archer Lee's voice, but the shells shifted again and Archer Lee's voice was heard behind where First Squad was heading towards.
"I'm still on her trail!" Husky informed, using his fire breath to light his way. He also could see Qiao running ahead of him guaranteeing him that it was really her. The Liger King then pounced on her and seized her. Qiao let out an ear splitting shriek, only because the pounce startled her.
However, the shriek caused Lin Chung to become extremely anxious and he jetted down the shells after that shriek. He found Husky, trying to escape with her, and rammed into him, causing the Liger King to drop Qiao. Lin Chung turned to catch her but Alpha-Girl already picked her up and was outside heading towards the safe zone.
Mystique Sonia launched her tongue at Alpha-Girl to prevent her from reaching the safe zone, but Kowloon kicked it away, and their captain reached the safe zone, winning the competition.
"Second Squad has won the competition!" Apetrully sang out.
"We did it!" Alpha-Girl cheered, "We won! We're First Squad, now!"
"Actually, that bet was nullified when Kowloon said you all wanted to only compete for sport." Woo corrected.
"DAMN IT, KOWLOON!" Alpha-Girl raged.
The karate master stammered, "I-I didn't think we'd win." But he then received punches and kicks from his captain.
Lin Chung raced up to Qiao, who was dusting her qipao, "Xin, are you alright?" he asked checking for any wounds on her body.
She beamed, "Of course." Then laughed, "That was a lot of fun, wasn't it, Lin Chung?"
Her smiling face put him at peace, "Yes. Yes, it was."
Apetrully walked up, "I hope all that practice prepared you all for the future." The Squad members seemed puzzled.
Woo decided to explain, "You see, we don't know when or if High Roller will rear his ugly head and try to capture Princess Qiao again. So we prepared you all for such an occasion. Qiao was taught how to escape from being captured, and the rest of the Squad members were taught how to retrieve her. Practice makes perfect and we should try this again soon."
Qiao was in awe because she never saw the competition as training. She smiled, "Thank you, Woo the Wise and Commander Apetrully, for preparing us." She bowed.
The other members bowed with her and agreed with one another to have a celebratory dinner together.