Chapter 3: First Training Session
The doors closed behind us as Po and I were dropped off inside the Jade Palace. "Wait a second! I think there's been a slight mistake!" Po shouted. "Everyone seems to think that I'm, uh..." Po turned around and gasped with surprise.
"Dad? Where are we?" I asked.
"Ooh! The Sacred Hall of Warriors! No way!" Po cried.
"Wait, we are in the actual Sacred Hall of Warriors!?" I shouted.
"Yes! Look at this place. Check this out, Lana!" Po said. Po dragged me over to one of the displays. "Master Rino's flying armor with authentic battle damage!"
"Cool!" I said. Po ran over to the next display which was in the shape of a sword.
"Woah! The Sword of Heros! Careful, Lana. Said to be so sharp you can cut yourself just by looking. Ow!" Po said. Po made a fake cry of pain and sucked on his thumb, pretending he was hurt. Po gave out another gasp as another display caught his eye.
"The Invisible Trident of Destiny! I've only seen paintings of that painting." Po said. I've gotta admit, this place is pretty cool. Po and I enjoyed ourselves as we wandered around the Sacred Hall of Warriors. Po laughed with excitement as we looked at all the cool artifacts. I was caught by surprise when Po let out a loud gasp.
"No! The Legendary Urn of Whispering Warriors! Said to contain the souls of the entire Tenshu Army." Po said.
"Woah," I said. I leaned in to get a closer look. It was a medium size pot with orange and yellow patterns on it. Po leaned in closer as well.
"Hello," Po whispered into the pot.
"Have you finished sight-seeing?" The pot whispered back to us.
"Wow, it can talk!" I said.
"Sorry, we should have come to see you first," Po said.
"My patients is wearing thin." The pot said.
"Oh. Well, I mean, it's not like you were going anywhere." Po said.
"Would you turn around?" The pot said.
"Sure." Po and I turned around to see Master Shifu looking at us with a disapproving look. Po ignored Shifu's presence and continued talking to the pot. "Hey. How's it going? How did you get 5,000... Master Shifu!" Po cried when he realized Master Shifu was standing in front of him. Po ran into the display which caused it to fall. The Urn of Whispering Warriors broke as the display fell.
"Someone... broke that. But I'm gonna fix that. Do you have some... glue?" Po said nervously as he tried to clean up his mess. The display fell again, landing on Po's head.
"Ow! I have a splinter!" Po cried.
"Dad! Master Shifu is right in front of us." I said.
"So, you're the legendary Dragon Warrior, hmm? And so are you?" Shifu said, pointing at me.
"Uhh... yeah," I said.
"I guess so," Po said.
"Wrong! You guys are not the Dragon Warrior! You guys will never be the Dragon Warrior until... you guys have learned the secrets of the Dragon Scroll." Shifu said as he pointed to the Dragon Scroll that was resting on the ceiling in the Dragon's mouth.
"Woah," Po said.
"That's cool," I said.
"So, how does this work? Do you have a ladder or a trampoline, or...?" Po asked. Shifu just chuckled at Po's response.
"You think it's that easy? That I'm just gonna hand you guys the secret to limitless power?" Shifu said.
"No, I..." Po stuttered.
"One must first master the highest level of Kung fu. And that is clearly impossible if that one is someone like you." Shifu said.
"Someone like me?" Po said.
"And me?" I said.
"Yes, look at you guys! This flat butt! Flabby arms!" Shifu shouted as he hit Po with his stick.
"Ow! Those are sensitive in the flabby parts." Po whined.
"And this ridiculous belly," Shifu said, hitting Po again.
"Hey," Po said.
"And utter disregard for personal hygiene," Shifu said.
"Now wait a minute, that was a little uncalled for," Po said, moving closer to Shifu. Shifu cringed and backed away a bit.
"Don't stand that close, I can smell your breath," Shifu said. Shifu then pointed at me. "And you, you don't even look fit enough to fight," Shifu said. I cringed a bit at that comment.
"I try!" I shouted.
"Listen, Oogway said that Lana and I was..." Po was caught off guard when Shifu grabbed both of our hands in the one hold that I knew all too well. My dad taught this one to me when we were playing with our action figures. It's the Wuxi Finger Hold. This move sends any mortal back to the Spirit Relm.
"The Wuxi Finger Hold. Not the Wuxi Finger Hold!" Po cried.
"This one sends you back to the Spirit Relm!" I cried.
"Oh, you know this hold?" Shifu said with a smirk lurking on his face.
"Developed by Master Wuxi in the Third Dynasty. Yes." Po said.
"Oh. Then you know what happens when I flex my pinky." Shifu said. Po gave out a gasp.
"No, no!" Po cried.
"You know the hardest part of this? The hardest part is cleaning up afterward." Shifu said with a scowl.
"Okay, okay, take it easy," Po said.
"Now, listen closely, you two. Oogway may have picked you guys, but when I am through with you two, I promise you, you guys are going to wish he hadn't! Are we clear?" Shifu said. Po and I were shaken nervously. I didn't know Shifu could be really strong.
"Yeah, we're clear. We're clear. We're so clear." Po said.
"We're clear as well," I said nervously.
"Good," Shifu said with a chuckle. "I can't wait to get started."
Shifu led Po and me to the training hall where we saw the Furious Five in action. All five of them were busy doing their training. My eyes lit up with excitement, and so did Po's. We got to see Crane and Tigress doing a fighting match while balancing on a bowl. Mantis made his way through some spikes and Viper dodged some fire spits. I saw Monkey going through the monkey bars.
As Tigress was kicking and dodging at the wood, one of the pieces of wood that she broke went flying towards Po and hit him on the head. Po cried out in pain and held his head.
"Ow! Ooh! Ow!" Po cried.
"Let's begin," Shifu said.
"Wait, wait, wait. What?" Po cried.
"Do we seriously have to go through all of that!?" I cried. There was no way I could complete that obstacle course. Everything in that obstacle course looked really hard to do. Maybe Shifu was right. Maybe I was not fit to be the Dragon Warrior along with Po.
"Now?" I said nervously.
"Yes, now. Unless the great Oogway was wrong, and you two are not the Dragon Warriors." Shifu said.
"Oh, okay, well... I don't know if I can do all of those moves." Po said.
"Mean either," I said.
"Well, if we don't try, we'll never know, will we?" Shifu said as he walked in another direction. Po and I followed him.
"Yeah, it's just, maybe we can find something more suited to my level and Lana's. I don't want her to get hurt through all those dangerous obstacles." Po said. I nodded in agreement.
"And what level is that?" Shifu asked us.
"Well, we are not a master, but... let's just start at zero. Level Zero." Po said.
Shifu sighed. "No. There is no such thing as level zero." Shifu said. As I looked around in the training room, something caught my eye. It looked like it was a small punching bag. It was perfect for my size!
"Look at that!" I said, pointing at the small punching bag that was lying on the floor. Po saw the punching bag too.
"Maybe we can start with that," Po said.
"That?" Shifu said when he saw that we were looking at the punching bag. Shifu walked over to us and said, "We use that for training children and propping the door open when it's hot. But if you insist..."
I gasped with delight when the Furious Five walked up to us. Po's eyes lit up as well. "Woah. The Furious Five. You're so much bigger than your action figures. Except for you, Mantis. You're about the same." Po said. I cringed with embarrassment as Po said that. Mantis's antenna just twitched.
"Go ahead Panda and Lana. Show us what you can do." Shifu said. The Furious Five still stood around us which I can tell made Po nervous.
"Um, are they gonna watch or should I wait till they get back to work?" Po asked.
"Hit it," Shifu ordered.
"Okay, yeah, I mean, I just ate. Um, so I'm still digesting... So my kung fu might not be as good as later on." Po said.
"Just hit it," Shifu said impatiently.
"All right," Po said. Po then turned to the punching bag and prepared to fight. "What you got? You got nothing. 'Cause I got it right here. You picking on my friends? Get ready to feel the thunder. I'm coming at you with crazy feet. What you gonna do? Come on. I'm a blur. You've never seen bear style. You've only seen praying Mantis or monkey style. Or I could come at you snickity-snake."
"Would you hit it!" Shifu yelled.
"All right. All right." Po said. Po gave the punching bag a small hit which barely did nothing.
"Why don't you try it again? A little harder." Shifu said. Po gave it a harder hit this time. This time, the bag hit him, causing one of his teeth to get knocked out. Po fell backward and onto the training course.
"Can I give it a try?" I asked.
"Go ahead," Shifu said. I got into my fighting stance and prepared to punch the bag. I punched the bag really hard. It fell back and hit me really hard like Po. I fell back and onto the training course like Po did. The Furious Five ran towards us but Shifu stopped them.
"Woah!" Po cried as we were trying our best to keep our balance on the spiral-moving balance beams. Po did a spit and held his parts in pain.
"Ow! That hurts!" Po cried. I gasped when I saw a box with spikes swinging at us.
"Watch out!" I cried. Po and I screamed as we were hit. We fell into the bowl. I screamed as we kept getting hit, so did Po.
"This would be easier than I thought." I heard Shifu say.
"I'm feeling a little nauseous," Po said as he fell to the ground.
"I think I'm gonna be sick too," I said. Po and I then went through the field of spikes. We kept getting hit by the spikes as we were walking through. The spikes hurt like hell.
"Ow! Those are hard!" Po cried.
"And they hurt," I said. Po cried in pain when one of the spikes hit him hard in his parts. Ouch, that has to hurt.
"My tenders." Po whimpered. Po held his hand on one of the poles to catch his breath but he accidently tripped which caused the spikes to hit him over and over again. I accidentally fell on Po and got hit by the spikes too. We finally got through the field of spikes and into a clear area. I leaned on Po's shoulder to catch my breath for a minute. But things went wrong when I looked down and saw that we were standing over the fire minefield.
"Uh-oh," I said when I realized what was about to happen. We were going to get cooked. I screamed when the fire hit us. Po and I tried dodging the fire, but it kept hitting us. The Furious Five cringed as they watched us get burned by the flames. After the painful training session, Po and I dragged ourselves over to the group. Some leftover flames still lingered on our bodies.
"How did we do?" Po groaned.
"There is now a level zero," Shifu said as he put out a flame on Po's head with his fingers. Later that night, Po helped me get up the steps as I was a bit sore from the training session.
"You doing okay?" Po asked me.
"Yeah. I'm just tired." I said. Ahead of us, we could hear the Furious Five talking. It sounded like they were talking about us.
"There's no words," Mantis said.
"No denying that," Crane said.
"What was Master Oogway thinking? The poor panda and his kid are gonna get themselves killed." Viper said.
"They are so mighty! The Dragon Warriors fell out of the sky on a ball of fire! When they walk, the very ground shakes." Crane said. Monkey laughed at his comment.
"One would think Master Oogway would actually choose someone who knew kung fu," Tigress said.
"Yeah, or could at least touch their toes," Crane said.
"Or even see his toes," Monkey added with a laugh. I sighed as they were walking to the Jade Palace. Why did they not like us? Was I not good enough? I'm starting to think that Master Oogway chose us on accident. I was not fit to be the Dragon Warrior. As I felt a few tears in my eyes, Po put his hand on my shoulder.
"Hey. It's gonna be okay." Po said. I smiled and hugged him. Po hugged me back. When we got inside the Jade Palace, Po and I did our best to be quiet as we were trying to find our rooms.
"Okay," Po said nervously. The floors were very squeaky so we did our best to be as quiet as we could so we didn't wake up the others. "Great," Po said with frustration as he took a few more steps. I followed carefully behind him. I cringed when he fell down, breaking the floor in the process. I was too nervous to walk on the floor so Po picked me up and carried me across the hallway, but we accidentally stumbled into Crane's room. Shit. Crane looked at us with wide eyes. This was awkward.
"Hi. You're up." Po said. Po sets me down.
"I am now," Crane said.
"Hi, Crane," I said.
"Hello, Lana," Crane said.
"We were just uh... Some day, huh?" Po said. "The kung fu stuff is hard work, right? Are your biceps sore?"
"I've had a long and rather disappointing day, so, uh... yeah, I should probably get to sleep now," Crane said.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course." Po said.
"Okay, thanks," Crane said.
"It's just... Man, I'm such a big fan! So is my daughter. You guys were amazing at the Battle of Weeping River. Outnumbered a thousand to one, but you didn't stop. You just..." I had to duck as Po pretended to fight. He accidentally ripped the wall when he kicked it. Monkey looked annoyed as he was doing his meditating.
"Sorry about that," Po said.
"Look, you two don't belong here," Crane said. Po sighed, so did I.
"I know. I know. You were right. I don't have... I just... My whole life I dreamed of..." Po stuttered. Crane shook his head.
"No, I mean, you two don't belong here. I mean, in this room. This is my room." Crane said as he raised his wing. Crane tapped his foot on the ground to show us. "Property of Crane."
"Oh, okay. Right, right. So, yeah, you want to get to sleep. I'm keeping you up." Po said.
"Yeah," Crane said.
"We got big things tomorrow. All right. You're awesome. Last thing I'm gonna say. Bye-bye." Po said. Po closed the door to the room.
"Woah." I heard Crane say. Po slammed the door open excitedly.
"What was that?" Po asked.
"I didn't say anything," Crane said.
"Okay. All right. Goodnight. Sleep well." Po said. Po closed the door behind him. "That seemed a little bit awkward."
"Mmhm," I said, nodding in agreement. I got startled when I heard another door open. This time, it was Tigress. She looked angry.
"Master Tigress! I didn't mean to wake you." Po cried.
"You guys don't belong here," Tigress said.
"Yeah, of course. This is your room." Po said.
"I mean, you guys don't belong in the Jade Palace. You two are a disgrace to kung fu, and if you have any respect for who we are or what we do, you will be gone by morning." Tigress said.
"I'm sorry Tigress. I didn't mean to upset you." I stuttered. Tigress ignored me and slammed the doors in my face. Po's eyes were wide. I had a few tears in my eyes. Why did Tigress have to be so mean? My whole life I've looked up to her and the rest of the furious five and now they see me as nothing. I guess it's true what they say. Never meet your heroes.
"Big fan!" Po called.
"Dad? Can we go to bed? I'm tired." I said. I've had a long day, and I needed some rest.
"Yeah, of course," Po said as he smiled at me. We started making our way to our rooms. I couldn't stop thinking of today's events. First, we went to the Jade Palace to see the ceremony and then Po and I were chosen as the Dragon Warriors. This was a lot to process.
As I lay down in my bed, some of my disappointment turned into a bit of determination. I would prove myself to the Furious Five and Shifu and prove my worth as the Dragon Warrior.
A/N: Hello everyone! Here is chapter 3 of my Kung Fu Panda fanfic! Sorry the updates took a while to do, I had a lot of stuff going on with my family and last week I found out that my grandpa has passed away so that's why the updates were kind of slow. I hope you guys understand and thank you Fiona and Willuna for the reviews on my previous chapter, I appreciate it. I think I am gonna try to start responding to some reviews when I get them, so here are my responses.
Guest: I know there can only be one Dragon Warrior but for this story, I decided to make two for the fun of it! :)
Fiona: I'm happy to hear you enjoyed the chapter! I'm glad to hear you're excited about the next chapter as well. Po and Lana will meet Oogway in a couple of chapters I think! :)
Willuna: I'm glad to hear you are enjoying the story! I'm glad to hear you're excited about the next chapter as well. Thanks for reading and reviewing!
The next update probably won't be for a few days on this story because I want to try to get the other stories on my profile updated that haven't been updated in a while. Stay tuned for more updates in the future and don't forget to review the chapters! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and have a good day!
- GalaxyQueen500