Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or Kung Fu Panda. Any OCs however, are mine unless stated otherwise.

Chapter 3: Journey to the East

Palace servants could be seen cleaning up the once-battlefield. Just within the Training Hall, everyone could be seen discussing.

Mantis, as the present doctor, was currently helping check everyone for injuries as they all talked with the new, bulked-up arrival. Off to the side, the Trio Of Danger could be seen gagged and tied up. A special set of cuffs were attached to each of them.

"You're sure they won't break out?" Crane asked with a towel around his neck.

Banner gave a curt nod in response. "Positive. Disabler Cuffs are specially issued for containing Pokémon. They prevent them from using any supernatural powers they may have. If a Pokémon has one of those pups on, it doesn't matter if they're psychic, can breathe fire, or shoot lightning from their fingers. They block all of it off." Banner explained.

"Wouldn't they still have their natural strength though?" Viper asked curiously.

"They also sap the strength from the one with them on. You can't quite break them off if you can't even hardly lift them," Riley elaborated, wincing as Lyla sprayed his scorched arms with a Burn Heal.

Lyla turned to Banner. "Thanks for your help, by the way. Even if you were more than a little late…" Lyla grumbled the last part.

"I got here as fast as I could. Seriously, who builds a staircase that long?" Banner asked in disbelief.

Shifu pinched the bridge of his nose. "We have been made quite aware of how arduous the journey up here is. It helps to build strength."

"I don't have much of an issue," Crane remarked.

Lyla and Riley looked at him flatly. "You can fly, dumbass. Your opinion is invalid," the two said in sync.

"If we could get back on topic," Tigress interrupted, sending a leering gaze at the two before turning back to Banner. "You said you had come here specifically to capture these three, correct?"

Banner nodded. "Yes. As a member of Ransei's International Police Force, otherwise known as Interpol, I was assigned to detain these three troublemakers. If possible, I am also assigned to interrogate them for answers. It's not every day that criminals like these three would elect to head beyond Ransei and into territory where they stick out like a sore thumb. No. They came here for a reason."

"I think we can help you with that. As it turns out, they told us why before they attacked," Monkey stated, causing the Gurdurr to raise his brow in surprise before furrowing in thought.

"They monologued?" Banner asked.

"They monologued." Everyone answered.

Banner facepalmed. "Idiots."

"They were hired, by someone" Riley informed.

"All the fire one said was that this person wanted one of us dead." Tigress continued.

"Did they say which of you?" Banner asked.

Riley and Tigress shook their heads.

"No. As stupid as they were, they were smart enough not to say who the target was. Instead, they just chose they should try to kill all of us." Tigress admitted.

"Makes sense. If they told us who, then their boss could be narrowed down if one of the others had escaped and went to avenge them. Not to mention if their boss has a personal vendetta against one of us," Riley agreed.

"So…what now?" Mantis asked, popping up on Monkey's shoulder.

"Now, I need to haul the Trio Of Dimwits back to Ransei. We have specialized facilities for holding these types of folks, not to mention they can be properly tried there." Banner informed. "By the way, Riley. Are you and Lyla here ever planning on coming back? I don't mean to get all personal, but I was just curious. I'm sure your families miss you, especially yours Riley. Your father made sure to make your case known throughout Interpol."

Riley scoffed. "Of course, he would," Riley grumbled.

Lyla jabbed him in the side with her elbow. "You did accomplish your goal by coming out here. We don't even have to stay long anyway, think of it more like a work trip or something. And don't you wanna see how she's doing?" Lyla asked.

Riley sighed. "You're right. She'd probably be excited to see I evolved too." Riley said with a chuckle. He got up and stretched to pop some of his joints. "Alright then. I think it's time we head back to the motherland."

Shifu stepped forward. "You plan to leave the Valley?" Shifu asked.

"Yeah. It'd be nice to see how things have changed since I left. We also need to learn just who had it out for one of us, and we can't really do that from here now can we?" Riley responded.

Shifu stroked his chin for a moment. "Then perhaps we should come along as well."

Everyone present was surprised by the suggestion.

"Wait, what?" Crane asked.

"For real?" Mantis chimed in.

Tigress looked at Shifu with her own look of surprise. "Wouldn't we leave the Valley defenseless though?"

"I will make sure to contact other masters to watch over the Valley in our absence. Two of our comrades hail from a land not even I had heard of until Riley's arrival. This may serve as a learning experience to see their culture for themselves, including in combat." Shifu rationalized, before turning to the aforementioned foreigners. "Would you have us?"

Riley and Lyla blinked off their surprise as they realized he was addressing them.

"Um, sure," Riley responded.

"The more, the merrier, right?" Lyla said.

Shifu nodded. "Excellent. I will send word for other masters' aid at once. It'll be sundown soon, so we should head out in the morning." Shifu turned to Banner. "Would you care to stay in a guest room for the night?" Shifu asked.

Banner gave a small bow. "I thank you for the hospitality. Yes, and I was planning to head out tomorrow. If you lot are coming along too, I'd be happy to have you along for the ride. It'd be good to have others around besides the criminals for company."

Shifu nodded. "Alright then. I will have the message sent. For tonight, we should all simply recover. I would suggest heading to bed sooner after supper."

"I'll go make us all some Sitrus Noodle Soup. I don't think Oran will quite cut it tonight." Riley said as he excused himself to go make them all the aforementioned meals.

"I appreciate the offer, but I'll have to pass. Had some of that Oran Noodle Soup earlier. You got any Pecha Berries though?" Banner called out.

"Yeah. I can fetch you a few. Is that all?" Riley asked back, poking his head back around the door he had exited.

"Yes. And thank you all again for your hospitality." Banner replied with a light bow.

Riley nodded before heading off to the kitchen, as Shifu left to write his message.

The remaining people in the room began to talk amongst one another.

"Wow. So, we're going to see what Ransei is like?" Mantis thought out loud.

"I remember Riley telling me about other species of Pokémon that resemble monkeys. It would be great to meet some and see how similar our fighting styles might be." Monkey mentioned.

Banner smiled. "There's a number of them, I'll tell you that. I don't think you're style would be quite like an Ambipom though."

Monkey tilted his head as he turned to Banner. "How so?"

"Those guys not only have two tails, but those tails have hands on the ends of them," Banner revealed.

"Okay…I can see how that would be different," Monkey conceded.

"Um. Am I the only one here that feels like Pokémon are just genetically unfair?" Crane asked.

Lyla snorted at that. "You have no idea, both compared to you and between other species, or just evolutions themselves. There is a species that goes from being a fish, to an octopus."

The Five simultaneously looked to Lyla in pure disbelief. "How?" They all asked in sync.

"Lord or Mew knows how, but even the Octillery don't get it, and they're the ones that do the evolving," Lyla responded. "I will say though, that you do have a lot you could learn from them. Even if you may not be able to do it exactly like a Pokémon counterpart, you could still become even more dangerous just by training with them." Lyla gestured to Crane. "Like Crane. If there is any Pokémon he could become a force of nature by learning under, it would be a Flamigo. Believe me, they are not to be trifled with."

Lyla began to glow as her form was replaced by a flamingo-like creature. It had a rounded body and wings, and a long serpentine neck tied into a knot at the base. "They may look rather silly, but by my guess, all it would take is maybe four axe kicks from one to knock down one of the Iron Trees," Lyla said, turning back into her normal state.

"What about the rest of us? What Pokémon do you think we'd learn the most from?" Mantis asked.

Lyla shrugged. "Well, for you Mantis, it'd have to be a Joltik." Lyla shifted again and everyone had to look down. In her place was a small yellow arachnid with two sets of blue eyes and four feet, standing barely a decimeter tall. "The only thing that keeps people able to see these guys is the blaring yellow bodies."

Lyla shifted again and now 'stood' a purple serpent-like being, most closely resembling a rattlesnake. The eyes, underbelly, the thick stripe around its neck, and the rattle are yellow. There were three pairs of black lines encircling the body, as well as another line that connected to each slit-pupil eye and curved toward the nose. "Ekans is the closest size-wise. Weird tidbit, Ekans and their evolution Arbok spell 'Snake' and 'Cobra' backwards, though Cobra is spelled with a 'K.' Dragonair might be a good alternative though."

Lyla shifted back to her original form. "I won't show you all of them, but I'd say Monkey has quite a number of monkey-like Pokémon to choose from. I'd say a Mankey, Thwackey, or Monfero might be some of your safest bets though. For Tigress though, I'd say maybe a Persian, Liepard, or Torracat."

Banner decided to chime in. "If any of you want, I could lend you my Pokédex on the boat over to Ransei. It's an encyclopedia of all the various kinds of Pokémon, though the data on Legendary Pokémon is much less detailed."

Tigress raised a brow at the last statement. "'Legendary?'"

"Pokémon with immense power. Some are beings that embody core concepts of the world itself, like Life and Death, or even the Yin-Yang. Others are just exceptionally stronger than us, like the Kami Quadrio, or the Regis." Lyla explained simply.

Well…that was certainly something that sounded ridiculous. But given what they knew just from the Pokémon they already knew, the Five were more willing to believe the idea of tangible deity-like beings.

Tigress gave Lyla and Banner a deadpan look. "Would we be right to assume that most everything we think sounds ridiculous or like a fairytale is normal when it comes to Pokémon? And that trying to wrap our heads around it would only drive us mad or put us into an existential crisis?"

Lyla and Banner looked at each other and shrugged. "Honestly, yeah." They said.

Tigress facepalmed at that. She then walked to the exit and went into the hallway. "I'm going to go see how close Riley is with those noodles before I get a headache over all of this," Tigress stated, before leaving the others be.

Five days later

It took a while to get there (and a lot of complaining from the criminals), but they finally reached Ransei. It took them five days to get there, having reached the open sea from Gongmen City. They had used a special craft piloted by five barracuda-like Pokémon known as Barraskewda. And boy were they fast!

It had only taken them around two and a half hours before the group could be seen coming up to Port Humilau, a sprawling seaport that most seabound travelers pass through when arriving in Unova, the other being Castelia City. The Chinese natives marveled at the city from a distance as they looked at it. Tigress looks over the side of the boat to be shocked at some of the sea life that swam nearby. Large bass-like creatures with either a red or blue stripe swam around in groups, what looked to be living coral with faces floated near the bottom of the seabed with starfish-like creatures with gems in the center, and a number of rather unintelligent-looking fish with orange scales gaped around aimlessly.

Looking back at the port, Tigress could make out that the port was just that, but most of the city was sitting above or on the water. It was truly a sight to behold with all the other kinds of species she could see populating the boardwalks. There were species all around that resembled various birds, sentient plants, ducks, deer, and so many more.

As the vessel came to a stop and the plank was lowered, allowing Banner to shove the tied-up criminals across as two jellyfish-looking beings of different colors (one seeming to look male and the other female) and an armored sea lion with scabbards resting on each hip walked up to them.

"What do we have here, hm? The 'Trio Of Danger' brothers wrapped up all nicely for me. And to think it isn't even my birthday." The sea lion remarked with a smirk.

"If you want, I can always give it to someone else." Banner countered.

The sea lion chuckled. "That won't be necessary Banner." He turned to the jellyfish. "Would you two mind taking these three to the station?"

The two nodded as they each grabbed one side of the bundle of brothers, lifting them a foot into the air and floating away. As this was happening, the others were walking off the boat with Riley following behind them all.

"With that out of the way, might I meet these individuals you seem to have brought with you?" The sea lion turned his attention to the group.

"I'll allow them to introduce themselves, they've got some other Ranseians with them, so they've got their guides. I'll head on to the station as well just to make sure those three don't get any funny ideas. These three were apparently hired by someone to kill one of these eight." Banner said, shaking his head.

The sea lion nodded. "Alright. I'll talk to you later then. See if you lot can get any information out of them."

With that, Banner waved the group goodbye as he trailed the jellyfish and criminals.

"Now then, let's see who we have here." The sea lion gained a look of recognition upon noticing Lyla. "Well then, I see you've returned Lyla. How have you been?"

"Not bad Marlon. I see you're doing pretty good yourself." Lyla said.

"I have. Allow me to introduce myself to your new friends. My name is Marlon and this city you see before you is mine. I run things around here. You are all probably wondering just what I am, judging by the odd looks you've given me so far."

Some of the group begin to look bashful. Seeing this, Marlon chuckles. "No need to feel ashamed. It's rather common for most first-time travelers to Ransei to do the same thing. I am what's known as a Samurott."

Marlon peers through the group and notices Riley. "I see a Lucario is among your ranks as well."

"Not just any Lucario, Basculin-breath." Riley snarked back, walking up through the group.

Marlon's smile grew wide. "Well, I'll be damned. Looks like you did what you left to do, didn't you? Now I see why Lyla's back."

"We plan to head over to Opelucid while we're here. It's been a while since I've seen the place." Riley responded.

"Well then, I'll leave you all to it. And might I give you all a warm welcome to Unova and all of Ransei." Marlon bid his final words before heading off in the direction Banner had before.

Riley turned around to everyone. "Well everyone, welcome to the ridiculous realm of Ransei. If we head out now, we should get to Opelucid by midday tomorrow, including stops."

Shifu nodded. "Lead the way then."

Riley nods "Alright then. Let's-"

Suddenly Riley's sensors fly upward. He looks around frantically for a bit as if he's looking for something. The action catches everyone off-guard.

Lyla rests a hand on his shoulder, causing him to jolt a bit at the contact. "Riley, is something wrong?"

Riley's sensors dropped as he brought his hand to his head, shaking it a bit as he snapped out of his sudden trance.

"Nothing. Must just be these Aura senses. Haven't been back since evolving, so I probably just need to adjust to them." Riley wrote off his longtime friend's concern.

Lyla nodded. "True. Ransei is a lot richer in Aura than anywhere else. Must just be sensor overload."

"It's weird though. It felt like a wave of malice was being directed right at me. Whatever. Let's head out now." Riley shrugged it off as he began heading in the direction of Opelucid.

Shifu and the Five looked at each other warily before following. Tigress moved slower and found herself at the back of the group as she looked to her 4 o'clock. Her brow furrowed as she looked in the direction of an overcast alley for a bit before picking up the pace and getting back with her comrades.

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About a minute after they left, two yellow eyes pierced through the alley's darkness, watching them as they left before they narrowed.

Author's note: I hope you enjoyed and feel free to review! Let me know what you all think about the story so far, I...could really use the criticism.