Chapter 67

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Staring down at the captive mammals, Lord Shen began pacing backwards and forth, his gaze fixed down at them. "As you can probably guess…"

"-Ooooh," Po cut in, "it's super hard being a member of an evolved species where your unevolved counterpart outnumbers you ten-thousand to one, and you're such an odd rarity that people look at you funny wherever you go. Right!?"

His intimidating expression briefly drooped, his beak half hanging open and mouthing a silent word.

"-And that made you angry and you chose to be evil and do that Clockwerk stuff and…"

"ENOUGH," he called, the panda going quiet. The glaring peacock slowly pulled himself upright again, fanning back his feather train and clearing his throat. "I am sure you like to think that that's the source of my 'evil', the root of my callous bitterness, my cruelty, like you would think of any sentient non-mammals in such a situation. Yes?" His gaze lingered on Carmelita for a second, the vixen shrugging.

"To be honest, the very disproportionate number of villainous sentient birds I've had to face… Haven't ever expressed that as a root of their evil."

"Very well, neither is it mine," he said, before gesturing down to his exoskeleton. "I think it goes without saying that I too knew of the entity known as Clockwerk. He visited me, one time. You see, I got into the arms business the usual way. Hiring assistants and smugglers, organising trades between warring states. I found myself with a somewhat grand empire. But I wished for more, far more. Old scores to settle, destinies to reclaim. And while content to move guns and weapons systems like the Mister's and Richard Onslow Gopher's of the world, I aimed higher. Further. Not to supply rogue states and rogue armies with mere conventional weapons, but to supply very real states with the ultimate authority. Ones that wars are fought over to prevent them gaining ahold of, ones that dictators will starve their people for as they build the centrifuges and breeding reactors. But what, may you ask, can a mere arms dealer like I do in order to meet that need?"

He smiled as he threw his wing out towards the moon pool where they'd walked in from. "Those weapons exist out there for the taking, drowned at the bottom of the sea. Missiles, torpedoes, even the highly enriched fuel of some of the submarines that were lost to the depths. It didn't take much to retrieve them and, when we did? Well, it was worth shutting down almost everything else, lest the chicken feed lead the hounds of war to our overflowing granary. The rogue states of this world were more than happy to be my customers, not that they ever got to see me face to face. Nobody but my most trusted did. A necessary and successful precaution, one that worked even better after a miscommunication led to the world's security forces misinterpreting our very own name. And so I stood at my helm as the fools below squabbled and blundered or begged at my feet, proud of my untouchable position, the greatest of my own biological class by far… Until it found me." Up his wing came, holding the two Talismans.

"Clockwerk flew through our gunfire and missiles and stood over us at the front of our boat and waited until we were out, its eyes burning, its body untouched, all to give me a simple, single order…."

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A freezing wind cut over the bow of the listing ship, flecks of sleet cast a pale orange by her running lights and a ghastly yellow by the creature's eyes. The members of the crew, sheltering by the shattered remains of the lifeboats, huddled together, still clutching their empty weapons. Missile batteries, pulled out of rusting cargo hatches, lay empty, while the rotary guns, emerged out of the fake vent heads, stood still, their barrels glowing and hissing as the cold water hit them.

With a groan a metal door opened and Shen, ruffling his feathers up in a futile attempt to stop the bitter cold spray and wind from clawing down to his body, marched out. Forward he walked, legs staying himself from the storm, wings coming out to try and keep him steady against the slope of the ship as it tilted over to one side. He didn't know how far it wanted him to go, if this humiliation was what it desired.

He hated it, he despised it, and finding a hold on the deck he halted and looked up, holding and staying himself as the monster, perching on the side of the ship and weighing it down, its talons digging in and bending the metal in beneath it, spoke. "Shen…"

His nerves twitched at the terrible tone of the voice, colder than the freezing rain and water. Still, he had his dignity. "Lord… Shen," he spoke, as it stared down, burning cold eyes causing him to flinch away.

A slow rolling chuckle filled the air, mixed in with the pounding of the waves. "Then bow to your Emperor, Lord."

He'd set himself up for that… And so he did, despite the bile rising in his throat. "What are you, Emperor?"

"Clockwerk."

His beak chattering, Shen nodded. "And what do you want?"

"Around twenty years ago, on the Twenty-Second of September, Nineteen Seventy Nine, you were behind an incident in seas around the Prince Edward Islands."

"A vindication, if you will," Shen agreed. "In front of many very interested customers."

"I visited those seas ninety years ago. Something of interest of mine was taken from its home from within the caves near Greater Zebrabwe, bound for the British Museum. It was loaded onto a ship at Deerbun, at which point I found it convenient to intervene."

"Like… today?" Shen managed to say through his shivers, the bird bracing his body against the freezing cold as much as he could, refusing to let this creature think it was fear.

Another low, rolling, thunder-like chuckle. "If I came to you like I came to them, you wouldn't have been hearing this, and your ship would still have most of its weapons, monuments to their futility."

"I… Understand."

"I reclaimed what was mine, and let that ship float empty out into the Southern Ocean until it sank. It seems though there is a risk that it might be found again. I will provide you with the rough area. Find her, destroy what is left of her wreck so that you will be her last witness."

"Yes, my… -Emperor."

"Clockwerk. Just, Clockwerk. Do that, and I will reward you greatly."

He looked up, the monster opening up its wings.

"I have a reasonable respect for what you have built. You can enjoy it, for the remainder of your small, small life."

And with that it leapt back off the boat, wings sweeping forward and carrying it away. Shen braced himself against the deck but was caught in the wind regardless, thrown back across it and rolling across the freezing wet deck as it swung up, the ship rolling back to the level. Mammals screamed and held on, Shen pushed out with his wings as the ship tipped past level and rocked where it was. Feet finding a perch point, he balanced as its roll slowed before reversing once more.

All as its humbled captain, lord of his paper kingdom, looked up through narrow eyes, one last glance of the monster that had flown in and put him under his claws until he vanished into the storm clouds.

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"And so I did," Shen spoke. "At my own expense, not that I could help it." He moved his beak into what looked like a snarl, a burning rage in his eyes. "After all I had done, all the power I'd gathered, I was wise enough to understand that I was nothing against that creature. Nothing. I would be cursed to forever live under his claw, until one day I was freed with his demise."

"Some way to treat the mammal who did it," Carmelita said.

Shen looked at her for a second. "Thank you. Happy now?"

She gestured around at the stark surroundings.

"-Suit yourself," Shen waved off, carrying on his pacing. "Of course, understanding that creature, researching him, I knew of the power he had. I was among the first to loot the ruins of his facilities at the Krakarov volcano. Study his technology. Develop weapons and machines of my own." He gestured down at his exoskeleton. "I may not go to his own… -Extremes, but I have more than extended my lifespan, my power, my arsenal from the ashes of his work. Something that, were he to return, would not be taken to kindly knowing his character." He shrugged, swinging a wing into the air. "If I so wished I could lay waste to your city with a barrage from the death ray stowed in the belly of this ship, developed from his own death ray system. But even I wouldn't bet my own survival on that against its creator."

"So it's self preservation," Carmelita said. "You stop mammals bringing Clockwerk back, you stay at the top of the food chain. That's it, simple pure self preservation."

A slow rolling chuckle came from their captor. "That and the principle of it. Naturally, rather than understand what that monster had built, learn to harness it, some like a certain rat simply wishes to try and bring him back, and in a foolish delusion take over the body or something. At least that's what I figured when, via some mutual contacts with the North Koreans…" A deep look of distaste grew over him, his feathers ruffling up. Before he could continue though, Judy cut in.

"-Napoleon… Or someone Napoleon knew, right?"

Shen blinked at her before waving his paw. "A squirrel and hedgehog who had a contact with the pig called Napoleon, indeed."

"And that's why you sent us that anonymous tip about Snowball, that letter from 'Danny the Champion', isn't it?" Nick said, regaining his smirk. "You failed to capture it the night before, so you thought you'd help us out. Point us towards Napoleon's old comrade, which led us onto his trail and…" The fox paused. "Okay, before I was rudely tranq'd we were operating on the assumption that Napoleon was this slightly frantic florist pig who in hindsight was just a little suspicious, and seeing as we'd have known by now if we weren't trapped here… Is he?"

Shen blinked a few times. "I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that that wasn't all complete gibberish coming out of your mouth."

Nick backed away, scratching his head a little, all as the peacock continued. "Through Napoleon and the North Korean agents that the pig knew from his former life in that degenerative ideological school, that rat recruited me to transport the black box of a long lost ex-Soviet airship to him. One that, under the control of a group of renegade air pirates, foolishly took on a fight they couldn't hope to win." He paused. "Did my lieutenant tell you about that?"

The room was quiet.

"Either way," Shen continued. "Once we figured out what the rat was up to, and that he was after a backup-up device of his own, we played him. Used one of our own, that we found years ago at the foothills of Puncak Trikora over in Papua New Guinea, fighting through cannibals who still worshipped him even after his demise. They release a signal, as I'm sure the polar bear knows. But from my notes on his technology, I presumed that they would react to one-another. Only marginally, but we used ours to triangulate where in the city the bear was and, after a few goes, claimed it for ourselves." He smiled. "So thank you, we can now use the two together to triangulate the rest at a much greater range. Hunt them down, one by one, claim them all and deny any upstarts the chance to bring him back."

"-And do you know how to destroy them?" Carmelita asked, a slight smile on her muzzle.

"No," he waved off. "But I'm…"

"-We can help you," the Inspector vixen said. "If your motives are what you say they are. We are the last bit of your plan that you need. Return us back safely, shut down your operation completely, we could grant your people a pardon and…"

"-Or, I can follow my Lieutenants plan. Stick them on a rocket, fly them out and set them on an escape velocity from the solar system."

Carmelita went quiet.

"Or if I did want your help, I'd just use the mind-control system we salvaged from the ruins of Clockwerk's base to make you tell us. Now if you want to survive this, I'd advise you to stay quiet. Any acts of mercy on my behalf are on very tenuous grounds. -Now, as I was saying…" He paused for a bit, before shrugging. "Anyway, that about sums it all up. Of course, you already know the rest about me, given your dogged pursuit of my operatives."

There was a pause, Judy coughing into a fist before speaking up. "Actually, no. Again, we know nothing about you. The people pursuing you were another group. I think."

"We just got stuck carrying the hot potato," Nick carried on.

…

"Uh," Po began, "so are you going to monologue the rest, as I know even less than…"

"No," Shen cut off, turning to his wolf lieutenant. "You couldn't have even got one of those others who were actually against us, could you?"

He shrugged. "Hey, they weren't in the mission brief or anything, I got…"

"Fine, fine," Shen agreed, sparing the captives a glance. "Just not really worth the effort, is it?"

"Hey," the wolf smiled. "Preach to the choir here, I watched that whole thing. It really did lack that kind of…" He held up a paw, working a finger and thumb pad together. "Mortal enemies face off for the final time kind of…"

The peacock groaned, shaking his head, only for a voice to cut him off.

"-So, uh," Po began, "sorry to be a disappointment, but as we're not your mortal enemies or what not, can we all go now? Live and let there be no backsies…"

The peacock turned and glared at Po, slowly turning around and pacing towards the dividing window, his body rising up as he loomed over him. His rear end ruffled at his white tail feathers grew into a massive looming fan, stained red eyes staring down at the mammals. "Your insolence is quite annoying."

"Well your evil is very… -underwhelming!"

There was a pause as they stared off at each other.

"I could just kill all of you, instead of some of you," Shen shrugged. "It genuinely makes no difference to me. You see, that's why ultimately I'll win. Rattigan can't resist the spotlight, the chance to be this greatest villain of all. Whereas I rule from the shadows, my mammals being the sharks that occasionally pull down a victim before moving on. Lieutenant?"

The eyepatch wearing wolf nodded. "Yes boss?"

"Prepare the mind breaker. I want the ones to survive tonight processed and returned. Meanwhile, carry on at full speed."

The wolf nodded, moving out, Shen starting to follow on, leaving the prisoners where they were.

"-Wait!"

He paused, turning to see Judy walking out, holding her face firm. "What do you mean, the ones to survive tonight? I don't like you and you don't like me, but…"

"-Oh, but why not let all of you free?" Shen asked, smiling a little before letting his face settle into a cold rage. "Why don't you ask the panda!"

"...Hey," Po cut in. "Just because I ruined your evil menacing vibe a little, and I mean you really weren't doing it any favours there, doesn't…"

"NOT you!" He yelled. "Though I think you've earned your spot anyway. Him. That Panda!" He pointed at the Panda King.

"Wait, not me?" Po asked.

"No! Why would it be you!?"

"I… Just, kinda…"

"It was obviously, always, Panda King," Shen hissed. "Not you, why would it even be you?"

"You know…" Po shrugged, as Shen turned to the older bear.

"Isn't that right?" he hissed. "Remember me?"

Panda King shook his head a little. "No, I do not."

"Well, I remember you," Shen hissed, his tail feathers rising up and fanning out. "And this isn't the first time I've seeded my revenge against you, though this time it'll be permanent."

The Panda King remained silent, slowly shaking his head. "Whatever slight I gave against you, or you against I, I am sure it does not matter or justify…"

"-Justify what?" he scoffed, "Running amok, burning a village, demolishing homes and temples and sending terrified people running, scared? Starting a crime empire that stomped on the feet of those innocents for the next few decades?"

"I…"

Shen smirked. "-Insipid. Shows a complete lack of talent. No sense of beauty or grace. A blind mammal would be likely to do better…"

The Panda King's eyes widened. "You were one who snubbed my fireworks. Humiliate me. Laugh me out. Spurn me into using them for crime?"

"Oh yes," Shen smiled. "Maybe not the village elder, you and your mob had already made sure of that, but I still had old friends hanging on. Ones with influence. Enough to spite you and crush your dreams, payment for your past crimes. Turn your valliant and promising first foray into a crushing humiliation. Though I soon learned you had not learned your lesson."

"I…" Judy began. "What?"

Carmelita pulled her back and whispered into her ear as the Panda King carried on. "-The Panda King used to rule a criminal empire in the far west of China. He spent his youth trying to learn the art of fireworks, but after his first presentation was laughed out by the village elders he chose to use them offensively to get his own back, starting it all off until Sly Cooper defeated him."

"-I remember burning humiliation, yes," The Panda King said. "And in anger at that I choose to do terrible things. But it was not you I spurned or hurt. No, if what you say is true, it was you who chose that for me, not that I claim absolution for it. It was you who hurt me. Before that, I was cub, I was innocent…"

"LIAR!" Shen screamed, his tail feathers fanning out and billowing. He held the two talismans hard, clenching them tight as his eyes almost seemed to bulge out, tongue raised and sticking out like a hissing cobra.

"Then what did I do?" The Panda King asked. "What was my crime?"

"...You don't remember?"

"I do not remember."

"You don't…" Shen asked, before starting to laugh. "You don't remember."

"No, and what is so funny…"

"-The very fact that you don't remember the evil you did," Shen carried on laughing, before slamming his head into the glass divider. Once, twice, three times, screaming. "What you did to my family! Who watched over our valley for centuries. What you and your friends did when they marched in laughing, cheering, having the time of their lives. It must have been the best fun you ever had, but you don't remember! Burning their home and plucking them bald alive!"

"I do not…" The Panda King carried on. "It must have been another bear or…"

"No, it was you. Little four year old you," Shen snarled. "The little mascot of your troupe, doing it as I looked on from under the robes of my Nanny goat as she smuggled me to safety. I never forgot your face, not when you grew into a wannabe firework artist deserving to be cut down, not when you were one of Clockwerk's allies, and not now either with your so-called reformation."

"I do…" The older panda paused, cradling his head and shaking it. "Wait, was that…"

"-Can someone please explain this?" Judy asked.

"I…" Nick began, before pausing and looking at Shen. "Wait, it was when he was four, right?"

"Yes, not that his age is any reason for me to forgive him."

"And he's… Sixty, fifty five or…"

The older panda was still lost in thought, but Po cut in. "More or less, why?"

Nick just held up his fingers, doing some calculations before sighing and facepawing. "Oh great…"

"Nick?" Judy asked.

"Little kid in-nineteen sixties China," Nick said, pointing at the Panda King before pointing at Shen. "Son of an old noble family or something…"

Judy blinked a few times. "Is this some obscure bit of Chinese history you know or…"

"-Why do you act like I'm some kind of expert on Chinese history!? I just know the basics, okay? Such as during that time, all the little kids and teenagers were doing a Kozlov the Young Pioneer, and I'm guessing the peacock's parents were two of the million or so killed or something. Right?"

"He understands it," Shen said.

"Good," Po said, shaking his head. "Because I'm really lost here."

"You!?" Shen exclaimed, an eyelid quivering. "You're Lost! But… I… That was our people's history! The greatest genocide to hit anyone, ever! Your parents probably fled to escape it or something, DID YOU EVEN PAY ATTENTION IN HISTORY CLASS!?"

"Well, no, I was probably too busy imagining myself busting new kung-fu moves in the upcoming lunch break or playing with my action figures…"

"You…" Shen cut off, face-winging himself. "He's just an idiot."

"Hey, that's not very nice!"

"As for you," Shen carried on regardless. "I remember you, 'Panda King', a little red guard happily joining in with his family, spreading like a plague and destroying, burning, ripping up everything they could see. Capturing my family, torturing my parents, a little cub pulling at them like he would a bugs wings."

"And all I remember from so long ago was a big party, something about taking on 'the bad guys'" The Panda King said, looking up at the peacock. "This I will claim absolution for. I was very young child, could not know right from wrong. I am sorry for what part I may have played in their demise, but for you to kill me for this is no less wrong than what I did after you had my dreams burned to cinders. Tell me, what would parents think of you, if they could see you now?"

Shen smirked. "That they still loved me, and were cheering me on to claim revenge. Against you, against the system that killed them. Did I not say I planned to conquer China?"

"Oh yeah," Po said, nodding. "But again, kinda underwhelming…"

"-WHAT DO YOU MEAN UNDERWHELMING!"

"-I mean I guess it sounds cool," Po said, "but still. You have to admit it doesn't have the same kinda scary energy as 'we're gonna conquer America,' or something. Right?"

"BUT IT'S THE WORLD'S BIGGEST COUNTRY!"

Po blinked. "That's russia."

"POPULATION YOU IMBECILE!"

"Oh right," He nodded.

"-Anyway…" Shen began.

"-Hang on," Po cut in, "didn't India just overtake Chi…"

"YOU JUST CAN'T STOP CAN YOU!? ARGGHHHH… -Why am I arguing with a member of such a stupid species," Shen waved off. "You know what, you can die with the other panda too. There, hope that annoying me was worth it!"

"Well, not really now, but…"

"WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP!" Shen yelled. Chest heaving, he shook his head. "Over the years I've used my system, my organisation, my resources and the brainwashing system based off of what I salvaged from the works of Clockwerk and the Countessa to help set up powerful mammals throughout the Chinese Government and Military. Politicians, Generals, all waiting for a starting gun to be fired before pushing forward with religious fervour. We're just waiting for the economy to trip and stumble, the demographic timebomb to catch up, and then?" He smiled.

"A little incident and all these mammals in high up places will suddenly just lose faith in the government and decide to go it alone, mammal eat mammal, new warlords as a crisis explodes into a civil war that will burn the entire rotten system down to ash. Sterilise it, cleaning the country of the disease that's rotted it alive. And, when they've been wiped out like they wished to wipe out everything that came before them? A special subset of mammals I've prepared will start rebuilding a more appropriate system, and with my help and the support of so many others in high places we've primed, they'll be heralded as the new hope to pull the land out of the anarchy it descended into and set it free. More than that, return it to its true self, the China that existed for millenia. I'll see the mandate of heaven rise again over my home country, and be the one to bring the second century of humiliation to an end. With me in the background, not to be seen, but running the show."

"...Hundreds of millions will die," Carmelita said.

"A trivial sacrifice," Shen said, smiling. "Those two pandas will die too. And you will not remember any of this. You'll remember being taken in by Rattigan, and give your forces the leads to bring him in. All while I move forward with my plans, unopposed, unstoppable, by anyone or anything living or dead!" He held one of the talismans up and laughed. "You hear that 'your highness'" He cackled, "You lost, I won, and just like them nothing is going to stop me now!" He laughed, slamming it down hard onto the metal tabletop, head up and cackling out only to twitch and jolt, a spark coming out from under his feathers.

He froze, slowly bringing his wing up and turning it around to reveal the Talisman, broken apart, the wires inside disembowelled and spooling out.

The peacock could only freeze, looking at it for a second or two before glaring up at his wolf lieutenant, his paws already up. "Hey! It… It passed the radiograph test. I thought…"

He was cut off as Shen roared and screamed, throwing the ruined device at him before turning to the prisoners. "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!"

It was Kozlov who spoke. "-Night before last, mammals hunting for you visit me. Try to organise swap for device, give me copy that they say fool your detention system." He smiled. "Seems like they were right, ha!"

Nick looked on, blinking, before turning down to Judy. "Why… Why didn't you…"

"I tried," the bunny said. "But we didn't have enough time, then I couldn't reveal anything to them that…"

"Then where is the real…"

"-Yes!" Shen yelled. "Where is it? The real one! The one you shouldn't have been able to fake, only…" He cut himself off, growling.

"Some brave volunteers," Carmelita began.

"-Young pioneer," Kozlov added.

"-Are holding it for now. However, by this point in time the remaining members of the Cooper Clan should have arrived and taken it onboard." She looked up at Shen and smiled. "If your true intentions are preventing the return of Clockwerk, then you would be wise to give them your other remnant of his self. They are more than trustworthy in that regard, don't you agree?"

Shen just held himself there, staring at them, eyes glaring, beak half open and chest panting in and out.

"It's called a hustle," Nick said, siding up alongside Carmelita as Judy stood in front.

"Boom."

…

"You know what?" Shen shrugged. "I was thinking about sparing the fox seeing as he was deceived too. But now I think I'll kill you all."

He smiled venomously as he walked towards a control panel, turning it on and beginning to mess with it, all as the victorious mood among the prisoners vanished.

"-Without us, you would not know how to get to the Cooper Clan," Carmelita began…

"-Oh what's this?" Shen asked, sparing them a glance. "Begging? No longer acting like you got to taunt me, huh? No longer the invincible ones?"

"-The point remains," Carm continued.

"I can find them on my own," Shen cut in, turning to her and giving a sadistic chuckle. "But please, carry on begging, entertain me!"

"-Rattigan will still be out there," Carmelita continued, a panic rising in her voice.

"La-la-la… I can still return a few of you, send the ZPD after him. I think they'll be even more motivated this time, given the resources he must have to sentence you to such a terrible way of death."

With a grind, the plinth in the middle of the room began sliding down, the captive mammals starting to jostle, the cops trying to place themselves in front of the civilians before the three bears tried to place themselves in front of the foxes and bunny. All as Shen and the wolf looked down, smiling at the performance.

"You don't even know what it is yet!" Shen said, pulling a switch down with a flourish. Down the outside of the plinth slid, revealing an odd set-up. What looked like the bottom half of a sphere held within it the smaller top of another, as if half the white had been taken out of a hard boiled egg, the full round yoke left in and sticking out. Only the removed half was still present, hanging over it, kept up by a set of hydraulic jacks. All around the strange set up were some other heavy metal blocks.

It looked like nothing more than some sort of public art sculpture, but Shen's eyes widened at the sight as he looked up. "As I said, I first made it big by looting the remains of lost submarines, taking out the nuclear warheads and material." The group looked down at the looming contraption, their fur starting to stand on end. "The long answer is that's a small, highly enriched fissile core, currently subcritical. Of course, were I to lower the top half down, enough neutrons would be reflected back to… Ha-ha… Remedy that. And you will have all the pleasure of waiting in there for long enough to have your entire genetic code melted. You'll still live, for a while, but I've heard that the death you'll experience as your body falls apart is the worst there possibly is. The short answer is, I am about to tickle the dragon's tail, and you are going to feel its wrath!"

"Listen," The Panda King said, cutting in, "take me, leave them…"

"-Initiate criticality sequence," he ordered, the wolf flicking a switch.

The upper half of the sphere began lowering down, slowly covering the inner core. The captive mammals could only look on, glance at each other, step back and jostle as they tried to push themselves into the furthest corner of the room. Paws were out to shield themselves or each other as the time ticked on and the upper sphere lowered. All as their executioner laughed at the display. All as Nick, glancing forward, grabbed a protesting Judy and forced her into the furthest corner, cocooning her body and telling her he loved her. He always loved her. All as Carmelita, lip quivering, tried to push herself in front of Po, saying he was a civilian, and he forced himself in front of her saying he was bigger, he could shield her. All as Shen laughed. All as Kozlov slipped to the front and raced forward, ordering them all back, as he leant over it, trembling.

His eyes hardened, he looked up at Shen, the peacock now only looking on mirthfully. "My action lead to many mammals dying this death," Kozlov said. "And now I join them, to save the others."

"It's all pointless!" Shen laughed.

"No, it is not, this is where I, Pyotr Kozlov, wipe the ledger clean. Pay my debts. And…"

He was cut off, frozen, only able to look down and see the Panda King pinching one of his fingers with two of his. Even if he could have gotten a word in, the panda didn't give him a chance as he knocked him backwards, the bear stumbling and colliding into Po as the younger bear raced out to save his master.

"Master King," Po yelled. "I…"

"Do not…" Kozlov began.

Only for both to shy away as a brilliant deathly cold blue light shone from the other side of the Panda. No noise, no heat, just a bright blue light as Kozlov turned, pushing Po back, shielding him as he shielded the three smaller mammals in turn, all shielded as the Panda King leant over the dragon's tail.

Bathed in the burning blue glow, he stared up at Shen, the peacock laughing, cackling, watching on with a bloodlust. Panda King raised his palm and brought it down hard.

The peacock laughed harder. "Oh really!?" He scoffed. "What's that…"

He froze as another fast cut hit one of the small hydraulic actuators that had lowered the upper shield down, bending it. A sudden punch broke it in two.

"No!" Shen yelled, as the panda went for the one next to it, one punch then two, left and right, bending it and weakening it before he twisted his whole body and brought in one last powerful sideswipe, breaking it off at the joint. Making sure to keep those behind him still protected, he knelt down, dug his palms in the still remaining small gap and pushed. Pushed hard. He screamed, he roared, and with the sound of twisting metal the upper sphere was pushed up and then bent over and away.

As if a switch had been flipped, the silent blue glow vanished as the top cap was bent back, then forward again, back and forth until it was ripped off and thrown at Shen, a spiderweb of cracks forming where it had hit.

The peacock looked on, beak hanging to the floor, as the Panda King stood up and, despite the odd tremble and blink, raised his fists up and showed his muscles, staring at him defiantly amidst a mist of fresh ozone.

Behind him, Kozlov looked on, forward, mouth agape. Po slipped out from behind him and rushed forward. Carmelita, Nick and Judy, pulled themselves out of the corner.

"You better be okay," the bunny hissed.

"I didn't taste metal or anything," was all the fox could say, looking at Carmelita, who nodded. Po was too busy up next to Panda King, while Kozlov looked on, unsure, jaw working over itself and a paw rubbing his head.

All eyes though slowly turned to the mammal who'd taken the bullet for all of them, staring up at their executioner defiantly.

"I… You're still dead!" Shen spat. "You're finished. Your body is going to rot, fall apart, melt. Even if you were rescued now, there's nothing that could be done. What have you even accomplished!?"

"Life," The Panda King said, gesturing back to the others. "Five lives…"

"Really?" Shen laughed. "They're still my prisoners. I can keep them starving to death here. I could plug you with drugs and keep you going in agony long enough for you to see it. You've won nothing. There's no happy end for you. When will you get it in your stupid mind that I! Have! Won! And! Nothing! Will! Change! That!"

The door to his side slammed open, two wolves walking in. "Hey, we got another one of them here," one of them said, dumping a figure down on the ground.

Shen froze, looking at him. "...What? -Get up…"

The shaking figure rose up, two mammals down below shouting out the same thing at once. "-JACK!?"

"Yes," the striped hare said, giving laboured breaths as he stood up, shaking as he did so. "Trust me, there's a very good explanation… To all of this."

And then the smaller of the wolves who'd brought him in twisted, holding the one next to him in a chokehold and spinning him around, a shield and then a battering ram against Shen's chief lieutenant. All as the hare slipped a Bolas launcher out of his sleeve and let loose at the now attacking peacock. "We're the rescue party!"