Chapter 24

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Kris would have rather done this in his karategi, black belt tied on firm and neat. He'd brought it all in a bag and everything, just never having the chance to change into it. And now, as he stepped up to meet his new panda teacher, he didn't seem like he'd be getting it. He could insist…

But looking back at Ash, he wondered if the fox would support him for putting his foot down on the matter, or brush him off and tell him to just do it.

What was the right option here?

"Okay, now I've heard you've had some practice before," Po said, an eager grin on his face. Kris looked back and nodded.

"I know karate."

"Ah, the awesome eternal rival of kung fu."

"What about taekwondo?"

"Along with taekwondo…"

"And Jujitsu?"

"And Jujitsu."

"And Krav Maga?"

"I don't know what that is but it sounds scary and cool…"

Kris' ears flickered a bit. "I actually have my karate uniform on me. I could change into it."

Ever the same tone, Po answered. "If that's what you want."

At which point the silverfox nodded, stepped out of the ring, grabbed his bag, and made off behind the screen.

On the sidelines, Ash looked up to a bruise rubbing Haida. "I was wondering when he'd put his foot down."

"You know," Po said, looking over. "We could use this time to give you a go."

Cracking his knuckles, Ash stepped up to the plate. "So," Po said, smiling. "Think you got fox style worked out already?"

"Wild animal craziness," Ash said, before his eyes widened, he let out a feral fox screech, and charged to the right, arms going crazy.

Po, planting his feet, turned to face him and then took off.

Behind the screen, Kris' eyes could only rise up, his head tilting in confusion as the bizarre sounds screeched out. His white uniform on, belt tightened, he stepped out, eyes laying themselves on the crazed scene.

His cousin was frantically feral, running left and right, arms either waving about or planting on the ground to carry him on all fours. He sidestepped left and right, jumping back as Po raced in and planted a fox squishing foot down at where he'd just been.

Ash just leapt around, doing a full cartwheel before retreating as Po came in.

The silverfox just watched it all, his head tilting.

It wasn't dignified…

It wasn't disciplined.

There was no grace, no practice, no notion that this was an artform or something higher.

It was scrappy, ugly, and as he watched on… It wasn't even working.

The closest thing to an actual hit on Po that Ash got was an occasional tail yank, that sent Po into a cartoonish 'ooooh' when he did it. But along with being a truly dishonorable target, it wouldn't even work.

Nothing would.

Ash thought he was 'winning', but in reality Po was just holding back for the sake of a lesson and letting him run around. His cousin would run out of energy, or the bear out of patience, and then snap… It was over.

Sitting down next to Haida, he saw that the hyena was studying it curiously. At least he had come in and tried his best, hadn't he?

Not like… 'OOOOHHHH!'

His eyes snapped back to the ring, Ash scurrying away from a tail clutching Po, looking a bit embarrassed. The silverfox felt a little cringe at that, pulling his own tail into his lap and holding it close.

Still light. Still thin. Still not the same after it had been grabbed, after it had been attacked…

Outside he at least felt that with the summer heat and the amount of fur left, mammals would pass it off as a heavy moult, or his decision to clip it down. But here, as his cousin resorted to the cheapest, ugliest, pettiest shots that wouldn't even do anything, and his teacher just let him do it… It just felt bald again, violated again. He glared as the fight kept going on, Po sliding in to corner Ash only for his cousin to pounce over the giant panda… Who didn't even jump up to grab his exposed legs as he sailed over.

That whole manoeuvre was like a target on his front, he should be lying on the ground now winded. Cuss it, if you were playing by his own ugly street game rules, he'd be hoisted by his own tail right now. Kris had been taught that the limb needed to be kept out of view, out of reach, out of the target range of any petty challenger. Just because you had the honour to not go for it didn't mean others didn't. Many mammals at his class had used their belts to pin their tails upright against their back, not that Kris needed to do that. He could keep his against his back, he wouldn't have let it flow long and exposed like a cape behind him as he flew through the air.

And he wouldn't be jiggling side to side, weaving his body on all fours right now. Po raced forward, a new determination on his face, while Ash raced under, stood up, and for once planted a flurry of punches to the back of Po's knee. That was better, Kris thought, and even though there was no real force to it, it made the Giant panda wobble a bit…

No, it was making him tip back.

That couldn't…

And then Kris' eyes widened as Po jumped back, Ash at first fleeing backwards but then forwards to avoid the crush, narrowing getting himself from under the pandas rear end but finding two legs blocking his way.

He backed up to jump over, only for two extended fingers to jab themselves right under his rib cage.

"JEEEE…" Ash said, spasming out as his feet gave way. The poking fingers turned into grabbing paws, and he never hit the floor, instead getting hoisted up by a smug looking Po. A few paw flurries tried to either spook the panda out or lift the fox away, not that Kris could tell, and then he gave in.

Po set him down, letting him catch his breath, and smiled. "You did great. Until you gave up the higher ground. Better luck next time, student Fox."

Haida clapped along, Kris didn't. He just watched as his cousin happily slipped out and sat down, before stepping up.

"Think you can do better, student Silverfox?" Po asked, smiling as Kris looked him down.

"I find it hard to imagine I could do worse."

"Ooooooh… Trash talk."

"I won't resort to dishonorable targets, I won't run around without even making an attempt to fight or win, I won't substitute cheap shots for a victory." He paused, before bowing. "I won't hold back, sensei. I only ask you do the same."

Po raised an eyebrow and bowed too. "I will honour your wishes. Though I hope you're ready." And with that he walked up, kept his stance, the two stared each other down as Po limbered up… And then raised his paw and sent it swooping down like a scythe, sending Kris stepping back. Eyes narrowed, he pulled a leg up and sent it into a snap kick down, knocking at the wrist as it went past and stopped and… His eyes widened as the entire arm froze, suddenly pulling back, wrist turning to grip Kris by the foot.

Rather than pulling it back he pushed down on it, feeling the resistance coming through.

For all his jolly humour, Po was not just a happy fat giant panda. Kris could feel the strength in the muscles under there, as the ursids entire frame lifted the arm up. The fox's weight, paired with gravity, was no match. Not even close.

So he pushed down further and faster, using his opponents strength to his advantage. Kicking off and sailing through the air, the fox's retreat was met with a fist coming straight for his gut.

-Find the weak spots…

In a nanosecond, both his arms were out to meet the oncoming fist. One paw latched onto his pinkie, the other his exposed thumb, and he levered them out and away as the freight train hit the buffers. His arms started folding in as they absorbed the force sailing straight for his body, he threw back some of his slowness the other way, levering out the panda's little finger and thumb, bending the latter back as far as it would go.

Muscles screamed as the speed of the fist was sapped off and into his own body, the final collision reduced to a mere bump. Kris threw himself off and away before the other paw could come, landing on his two feet and watching as Po flicked his paw, jiggling his thumb about…

"Ouch, that was…"

He was cut off as Kris raced forward and with both feet jumped onto Po's left foot, then his right, then pulled himself under to throw a sailing fist into the back of one knee and then the other.

He knew exactly how the panda would play this, and as the panda began to tip back to crush him, he leapt to both the back and the side. He could then round around and hit the inside of the el…

"Boo!" Po yelled, as he didn't fall over onto his back. One paw sent back to brace himself against the floor, he kicked off to send both feet sweeping around in a fox-bowling arc. Kris stepped back just enough to avoid the feet, sending a powerful punch into both sets of toes to bend them back.

If Po was hurt, he didn't show it, pulling both legs under him and looking amused and sassy. "Does the fox who doesn't go for dishonorable targets have anything to say?"

"A mammal against one of his own size must seek to topple and pin," Kris said. "A mammal against one large must seek to trip and bring down, to delay and disorder. A mammal against one smaller must seek to corner and capture."

"Oh I see," Po said smiling. "But didn't you say you weren't going to substitute cheap shots for victory? 'Cause the way I see it, if you're only bringing down me, delaying and disordering… You're just delaying the inevitable?"

"Victory is survival of yourself, not a defeat of your enemy," Kris said, repeating what he'd been told long ago. "If you were my own size, I'd go for both."

"Uh-hu, so you agree your other fox friend was winning… Up until the end. Cheap shots and all."

"A tail grab doesn't bring you closer to victory," Kris said, teeth gritting. "It's a cheap move by weak mammals who think it makes them strong. I'm better than that. I don't need to resort to grabbing tails."

"Confident, then," Po said, flexing his fingers and toes. "Though maybe it was just signalling that were it not a spar, he'd go for a certain target nearby." He let out a cocky smile nearby, while Kris' ears flickered.

"No… You…" He trailed off, words failing him as a driving-in punch took up his attention. A power stance to the right to dodge, arm coming out to guide it away. It shot back too fast to grab him, pulled back by its shoulder as Po twisted his body, sending the other arm coming. Kris did the same the other way, holding his stance as the panda began running.

He wasn't holding back anymore, a kick came, then another, then a punch and a sweep and a stomp. Kris danced this way and that, sending his arms out to bat them away, feeling a strain on his body as he pushed his strength to the limit.

The best defense is an offense…

Even as he fought back the assault, he put his eyes to work. Where to hit, where to go. In a real fight and not a spar, if he wanted a dishonorable shot to win, then the eyes were the prize. Pounce up, fists in, jump off.

But this was a spar and he knew it. And even if it wasn't…

Teeth gritting as he leapt out of the way of a foot sent gliding across the ground like a bowling ball sent to strike him down, he was drawn to the centre mass of the panda. While you could pin and hold larger mammals than yourself, this was too large. He couldn't lever, the big mammal's stamina was too high to outlast, pressure points to bring him down were the best bet.

The front was too exposed, but the sides…

Ash's spar had taught something, and as a strong right arm punch from the panda came, Kris leapt in front of it and then to the other side, outside of the panda's front target area. The paw pulled back to re-aim so Kris grabbed on, sapping the momentum and using it to send him flying straight towards his side. Feet skidding on the floor, he bent down and put everything into a piercing jab with his right paw into the side of the panda. In it dove, pulling out even as Kris raced behind to repeat the action on the other side, shoulder starting to scream as he did so. Racing around to the front, he could see his opponent falling, so he knew it was safe enough to bring the coup de grace. Both arms pulling back, gripping into a fist, he sent them diving into the solar plexus, as deep as they would go.

He could then leap away, go to the neck, force a…

His eyes widened as he felt his arms push back, forced out of the belly of the panda. Then he realised that the entirety of the belly of the panda was moving towards him, faster than he could…

He felt a soft cushion of fat impact him, envelop his front, push hard and send him moving, and then…

The spring sprung.

For a second he was flying, and then a foot paw hit the ground and his back was caught by the rings netting. The elastic pushed him the other way and his feet, unable to keep up, tripped over themselves. A few futile bounds and the floor came up to meet him, knocking the wind out with a soft whump as he lay there, prostrate.

A heavy paw touched down gently on the small of his back as a deep chuckling came from the mammal above him. "That tickled you know!"

Breathing in and out, regaining his breath, Kris sighed. Pressure points were far less effective when they were shielded by armour. Be it hard and thin, or soft and thick…

"Anyway, that was a big throw… You okay down there?"

"I'm fine, master," Kris said, standing up. Feeling his limbs, there was a light ache here and there, but nothing too far out of the course. It was a martial art, you got hurt in it, you accepted the pain, you kept going. You kept learning.

"-Ah, that's great then! You did good! Just the same as your cousin."

Kris felt his muzzle wrinkle slightly. "I did get far more valid hits on you, and you weren't holding back."

Standing up, Po folded his arms. "The first is up for debate, and oh, I was holding back."

"I asked you not to," Kris said, stretching before getting into a pose again.

"I used the ancient art of compromise, and held back a teensy tiny little less."

"And unlike him I have had training," Kris spoke. "I have had experience. I don't need that, I need the challenge and respect to rise too."

"As you wish, student," the panda said. In a flash a left paw came out, Kris dodging it, only to get clipped hard in the shoulder by the right. Spun around, a foot came down on his back and then pinned him to the floor, again. Releasing his foot, Po lent a paw to help the silverfox up. "As you wished, student Silverfox."

Closing his eyes and nodding, Kris gave a bow. "Thank you, Master. Though maybe we can compromise to a slightly different level."

"You and me both, kit," Po said, as he waved Ash and Haida on to the ring. "Okay, first up. I did like your style. I mean, the toe crusher? I haven't seen that since kitnergarten! But, it worked, or would have on a less well prepared mammal. And punching back up on my thumb… Oooohhh. I did not expect that. Same for both trying to stop my palm of thunder, then riding on it as I pulled you back! Alas, you made a slight species based misjudgment at the end there, but hey, don't we all?"

Kris looked up and smiled, feeling his tail wag.

"-In terms of good shots and the power behind them, your cousin could certainly learn from that," Po carried on. "Just like you can learn from his wild animal craziness…"

"But… how?"

"Ah, you see, your style with both scrappiness, persistence, mixed with power shots and trying to flank… Now, that's what I'd imagine hyena style would be." He pointed at Haida.

"So," the hyena asked. "I should learn from them both?"

"Yeah, he gets it," Po said. "But as a smaller mammal, you don't have the power to make those hits and kicks be the winners you think they are. Now, against a mammal more your size certainly, and you can certainly try those against your cousin and maybe even your hyena friend… Though maybe not, he is still pretty big. But, even though you were chipping and chipping away, you were so close that one wrong move and…" He snapped a finger. "But your cousin, he kept his distance, he kept moving, flanking, getting behind and being a sneaky little opponent. And that's perfect!"

"How?" Kris cut in. "All he managed to do was a tail tug a few times…"

"Ah, but in a real fight, that would be a punch! And it wouldn't be a tail. And when going over my head? Well, two feet into the eyes and then a bunch of attacks like you and down the enemy goes. Though of course, in a real fight, his scampering and shifting around would be in all sorts of places, and I bet you he'd be finding things and using them to hit the bad guy, or chucking them at him or all sorts! You see, the real difference between Kung Fu and Karate, is that Kung Fu knows you're gonna have a lot of real ugly fights in the real world. And it tends to be the guy who can improv and use the terrain the best who wins. The mammal who uses the higher ground."

"So doing the zappy thing to me," Ash asked. "That was improv?"

"Ooooh yes."

"And so was belly throwing my cousin?"

"I actually heard about that from one of the other masters here and trained in the technique," Po corrected. "You gotta inflate your lungs, firm up your belly, use your legs and back muscles to really give that across the ring push! -In fact, that's the first time I ever used it in a fight, which is totally awesome as I always wanted to use it!"

"I guess I should be glad to be the perfect willing test subject then," Kris mumbled.

"Well, from what I gather my Master only ever used it on a raccoon before," Po carried on. "So maybe not perfect-perfect, but pretty perfect."

"Thanks…"

Po looked at him for a second, before sitting down. "Hey, don't worry. I know it might not be what you imagined, but I know what that feels like. As I said, my first months here sucked too!"

"It's," he began. "I…"

"Hey, you still did good," Po carried on. "Really good, for a beginner."

With a flick of his tail, Kris held up a tassel from his black belt.

"Okay then, not a beginner. But a once well practiced practitioner of the art, having his first go against a similar but distinct one against a new and much larger master who likes to challenge students in different ways. And let me just say, those punches, some of your target finding and coming up with new ideas, those were great!"

"Thanks," Kris smiled, walking over.

"Yeah, and it's a perfect bridge to moving on. Finding that wild animal fox style where you can dazzle and confuse and play dirty against your enemies."

He froze, his smiled fading. "I… I don't want that."

"Hey, Kitto. Is it different? Yeah. But is it how fights go on in the real world, yeah. And is it the perfect place where you and your cousin can excel at…"

"Because we're foxes?" Kris asked, ears going back.

"Exactly!" Po cheered, "you've got it! Because you're…"

He trailed off as he saw Kris turn, an Ash beating grump plastered on his face. "I don't think this was right for me, you three enjoy yourselves. I'll sit out in the garden or something…"

"Woah, woah, woah…" Po uttered, coming up. "Hey, listen, everything okay? Anything… I'm not being too hard on you, or… Is it that this idea of 'real world' fights being too scary, scrappy or ugly, as I mean after practicing the way you did for so long it may sound scary and confusing, but getting into it can be the funnest part! I mean, sure, it must be hard to imagine…"

"You presume I need to imagine?" Kris snapped, turning around to stare at Po. "You think I don't have a good understanding of how real fights go? You believe I need to be taught that mammals can lash out at you any time, over the pettiest things, after planning it or setting traps or just deciding on the spur of the moment that they hate you or you're a pretentious possession that needs to be taught respect? You think I don't know what it's like when they decide to fight me in ways far too dirty for you to teach, where it's not even me who's the one who can get hurt the worst. I mean, you talk about the idea of real fights, but with all your fighting in here, how often have you found yourself against an opponent who wants to get you down and knock you out, and then do the real damage! I mean…" He choked slightly. "How often have you been forced into a fight you didn't want, where you fear for your life." He threw out a trembling paw. "So yes, I know how to improvise and survive, and no, I didn't go and prove all the mammals who thought that I was nothing more than a sneaky and conniving fox who deserved it all right. And I didn't come here to be told that I have to as I'm a fox and that's the only way." He turned and marched out. "This was a badly thought out plan. I'm going to wait outside until you're done."

Po fell silent as Kris stormed out of the room, Haida and Ash coming out of the room. The panda had a pained, tense look on his face, paws up and two fingers prodding and tapping into each other. "Should… Someone… Probably not me… I don't get it… Uh, you?" He looked down at Ash.

"I've been there. I'd let him cool off first, then talk to him. You two fight."

"Right, okay then…" Po said, sounding unconvinced.

He looked to Haida, Haida shrugged and Ash left, following quietly behind his cousin for when he needed him.

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Looking up at the lead ZPD investigator at the site, a certain interpol fox cop had a begrudging acceptance of how this conversation was going to go. "So, no trace of either party?"

"No," he said. "If there was, that snowstorm certainly covered it all up."

Carmelita let her tail flick out and swish behind her. "Tell me, do the criminals time their actions around these snow storms a lot in this district?" she mused.

"Only the clever ones," the caribou officer said back.

"I did try and get those burócratas obstructivos to delay it, but it seems that they are only interested in their department's performance reviews."

The caribou huffed. "This isn't the rainforest district where you can shut off the taps and turn them back on again. There's a rotation schedule for which areas get a heavy snow top up, all timed up so that the plows can move in and keep the roads open and free. You can't delay everything… Well I mean you can, but it'll make a lot of people very angry and is widely seen as a bad move."

"A badder move than letting an armed gunmammal get away?" she asked.

"Hey, take it up with their head, not me," he said, moving on to his computer screen. Flicking through some of the nearby cameras, Carmelita saw the annoying truth of the matter. Snow falling around, roads mostly kept clear as the plows moved past, and not a sight of their perps. Consulting the maps of the local areas painted the painful truth, presuming both had motorised transport they'd be able to skirt and push through the open snowfields nearby to one of numerous uncovered road points. A truck could be waiting for them, letting them hide in and shuttle out to wherever their base of operations were.

But, while she knew that one lot had snowmobiles, there were the other two. "Presuming the singular bear and fox didn't have a snowmobile, presuming they were forced to rely on public transport or an old car parked somewhere…" Opening up Zoogle maps, she traced a line in the direction they had gone, and nodded along as it appeared to go downhill. If planning an escape route, that was always a wise move, especially with snow under you. A medium sized forest would have come up on them pretty quickly, and running through the middle was a medium sized access road. "Are there any cameras on there?"

"One on the east side, none on the west," he groaned, marking out how the latter branched out into a web of roads. Easy to lose themselves into.

Carmelita mused on, only to pause. That urban area trailed down to the water's edge and then carried along it in a dock facing ribbon. Going underneath the forest, the pair might have just as easily crossed the road, carried on, and exited into a much wider crowd, and remembering the rough mammal-speeds she knew by heart... She hadn't timed the snow fall, so she quickly asked how long they were.

"About half an hour or so." Carm nodded, working it out on her fingers. Yes, there was lots of snow and probably awful visibility. But, a large bear could plow through, navigated by the foxes sense of direction. They'd make it at about the end of the storm, easily merging into the rest of the crowd as if nothing happened. More to the point, they could then slip down to one of the stations on the Tundratown Loop, Floe street, and if she got her map up… A few trips along, and they'd be at one of the big interchanges and…

She frowned. A few steps down, and by the look of it they'd be right next to the other lines, except for the fact that the Tundratown loop didn't connect to them. Not even at the obvious interchange that would let mammals move over to the short shuttle line right into the centre of downtown. In fact, you had to go up to Glacier falls, the last station before entering the rainforest, for the Tundratown loop to connect to anything.

"Is this map correct?" she asked, passing it over.

"Ah, struggling with the maps?" he asked back.

She gave him a deadpan look. "I understand the spaghetti on a wall that is the Paris metro, I can understand any metro map. What I can't understand is bad design."

He looked at it for a second before clicking his hooflets. "Ah, it doesn't show it on here but Wall street on our side, and Tundra Gate and Heat Street on the other are linked by a shuttle tram. It's only about five minutes from the first to the bit between the other two."

"And why doesn't it show that?"

"The metro operators are real arrogant snobs towards the trams and other stuff," he shrugged. "Heck, Flurry and Blizzard street are a two minute walk apart and you can get an out of station interchange, but the Lionden Underground map thought up marking those things first, so the ZTA decided not to out of pride or something. Honestly, if these are out of towners, they'd probably be going the long way around too."

Carm nodded. "Sadly we were here too long to intercept them if that was the case. Either way, contact the ZTA and tell them to suck it up and get a better map dammit." She put it down and walked away, leaving the caribou to make the call.

"-And tell them to send us their camera footage from Floe Street Station. Do that first. That is what I meant."