Author's Note: Here's chapter 59, everyone! Now, on with the story!
Mouth Off
The next day, Leo, Tigress, Mantis and Po were fighting against several thieves at a temple that was located in the mountain. Leo knocked out a pig who was stupid enough to attack from behind. Tigress and Mantis were getting overwhelmed as Po was punching, kicking and talking at the same time. Leo ignored the panda's constant chatter throughout the fight.
Tigress and Mantis saw Leo had more thieves going after him and he wasn't having any trouble on his own. He was quick to block a sword from a rhino and a pig. Leo perform a backflip to the rhino's jaw and did an axe kick to the pig's head to stun him as well. He didn't hesitate to rush into the two of them and crashed into several others on the stairs to the next floor.
Leo quickly got to his feet and slices a spear in half from a water buffalo. Both of his hands were covered in a light red glow and strikes him in the chest with a burst of red energy that sent him flying onto the bridge. Leo knocks out a pig unconscious with a strong hook punch.
"See ya, suckers!" A rhino shouted, holding a brown bag of jewels.
"Gr!" Leo lets out a fierce growl as he ran towards the bridge. He fires beam that a gorilla dodges and hits the stone wall. The human spreads his fiery wings out to block all means of escape for the thieves. He quickly flew towards the gorilla with a strong knee strike to the face, forcing him to let go of the bag. Leo grabs the bag and flew back to the center of the bridge to make sure the thieves don't escape.
After the imperials have arrested the thieves, the four warriors made it back to the Jade Palace and were walking on the path to the Training Courtyard.
"Things could've been better if you focused on the mission, Po." Leo said to him.
"I'm sorry." Po apologized.
"Do you ever stop talking?" Mantis asked annoyed.
"I do when I sleep."
"Not when you're talking in your sleep, Po." Mantis pointed out.
They entered the courtyard where Shifu was waiting for them. "What seems to be the problem?"
"Po wa-" Leo was saying until he started yawning. "Excuse me. Like I was saying, Po was saying tons of stupid stuff that I had to ignore on this mission, Master. He needs to focus."
"Come on, Leo, I focus."
"No, Po. Leo is right." Shifu hops off the staff. "That is the lack of focus, not just talking a lot and-"
Leo lets out a yawn, interrupting his master.
"Come with me inside the Training Hall, Po." Shifu said as he turns around and walks toward the Training Hall with Po following behind him.
"Let's just-" Leo was saying until he yawned again. "Let's just hope he doesn't talk again like he did on the mission."
"He won't resist the urge to talk." Tigress said to him.
"Oh yeah." Mantis said.
Leo was at the Peach Tree meditating the next morning. He lets out a yawn and stretches his arms out. The young man walks into the kitchen to see The Furious Five laughing at Po who has a jar of yuan on the table.
"Morning, everyone."
"Oh, hey Leo. Po is taking a Vow of Silence." Monkey said as he watches the human approach the table.
"Really? To perform the Silken Moon Touch?" Leo took a seat next to Monkey.
"Yep." Mantis nodded his head.
"Hm. You really think you're taking this seriously?" Leo looks at the jar.
"Yeah." Po said.
"This should be interesting. You'll be working hard on this for the next couple of days?" Leo asked him.
"You got this, Po." Viper smiles at him.
After Leo got some breakfast, he heads to the palace arena to train until the afternoon. He threw out several jabs and a hook kick. Something in his mind stopped Leo in the middle of a pushup. Leo stands up and got into a stance while placing his hands together to his right as if he was a holding a ball. Then he thrusts his hands outward. Nothing.
"Hm." Leo said, looking at his hands. He spread's his fiery wings and lifts both of his hands towards the flames.
"What are you doing?"
"Trying something a little new." Leo answered. He closed his eyes and resumes his stance. Leo started concentrating. The flames began to form into a small fiery sphere. He opens his eyes and thrust the small sphere out into the open, causing it to disappear. Leo repeats the process again and this time the fiery sphere was at a medium sized.
"Hm." Kaira's voice said as she continues watching Leo perform the same attack. "I assume there's a point to try something new."
Leo sits down and closes his eyes before reopening his eyes to see Kaira behind the gate. "There is. We'll be facing off some powerful enemies in the future, so I want to be ready. Making a fiery sphere is something I want to work on."
"Interesting."
Later on, that evening, Leo was training alone in the courtyard. He threw in several jabs, a hook punch and a strong uppercut. He quickly turns around and blocks Enya's punch but was kicked to the side.
"What's wrong? Did I catch you at a bad time?"
Leo quickly got up with both his glowing light red. He threw in two palm strikes and Enya easily dodges his attacks. She moved faster to dodge his flying side kick and grabs his leg to throw him against the wall. Leo was lucky to nullify any damage by placing his feet against the wall and jumps into a roll on the ground.
"I can't rely on Kaira's powers yet. I'll draw too much attention here to myself." Leo thought.
"Is that the best you can do? Master Lee taught you better than that." Enya said as she quickly appeared in front of him and did a strong headbutt to stun him. She did a knee strike to his stomach before grabbing both of his shoulders and rolls backwards to throw him at the ground.
Leo shook his head as both warriors got up. "Don't say my master's name, you traitorous bitch." Leo sneers at her. "You'll pay for what you've done. You betrayed Grandmaster Suzu and everyone at the Tao Palace because of your actions.
"We'll see." Enya said before she folds her arms. Leo threw a throwing star at Enya, but the mercenary did a back flip over the wall.
The young man jumps onto the roof and saw Enya has disappeared once again.
"That Enya is a strong mercenary but mysterious." Kaira spoke in his mind.
Leo looks over his shoulder to see Po walking inside the courtyard.
"Leo, what are you doing up there?"
Leo slides off the roof and looks at Po. "I thought I saw that person again. The one we spoke about last night."
"Can you tell me more about this person?"
"I'll only give out some information. This person is a mercenary when the Grandmaster was still alive back then. She saved him from a bounty hunter in the city. The person was given to stay at the Tao Palace. The mercenary has hardly ever been seen at the Tao Palace because she had gone on many different missions. No one knows what she looks like with all that gear on she has, including the mask."
"Did the Grandmaster asked where she's come from?"
"The mercenary didn't give her an answer to that question. That one stills remain a mystery to this day."
"Whoa."
"After I settled in at the Tao Palace, I started doing research on her to know who she is and there was nothing on her. Even the masters and Task Force 493 doesn't have any information on her as well. But I came across that she was planning to kill the Grand Mistress with a weapon she had from SHIELD. Apparently, the weapon needs a rare energy source to power up. That's when I decided to be The Black Spirit from an old story."
"You came up with The Black Spirit from an old story?"
"I'll tell you another time about that old story and the mercenary. It's getting late right now."
"Ok. Night." Po starts to exit the courtyard.
"Oh, and Po?" Leo calls to him.
"Yeah?" Po looks over his shoulder.
"Try not to talk. You'll use the Silken Moon Touch soon when you focus." Leo called to him.
Po gives him a thumbs up.
The next day, Leo and Viper was sparring with one another in the training courtyard while Crane and Monkey watched. She slithers quickly to avoid his downward punch and went up his arm to wrap her body and made Leo punch himself a couple times.
Leo got out of her grip and delivers a side kick to her body. The green snake shook her head and looks up at Leo.
"That was a good move you pulled on me, Viper." Leo walks over to him.
"Thank you, Leo. You did great to slip out of my grasp."
"Thank you." Leo thanked her.
After everyone had gotten their lunch, the warriors stood in the Training Hall and watched Po training. He flips the Jade Tortoise Shell and balances it on a staff with the bottom of his foot. He thrust the shell to the side and jumps over to land with a pose in front of them. Everyone was surprised except for Leo because he was a little surprised.
Po faced the adversary and closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath to focus. Po used multiple hand stances. No one said a word. Then he tapped on the adversary. Nothing happened and he tried again.
"Hm." Leo folded his arms. He watched the panda pokes at it a few times and walks away. The panda came back with a staff and was about to hit it before Leo caught it with one hand. "I don't think hitting it will focus your chi, Po."
"He's right, Po. With all the hard work you put into on your Vow Of Silence, you should've mastered the Silken Moon Touch by now. I don't understand." Shifu approaches the panda.
"Don't worry about it, buddy. We're still impressed with you."
"I had my doubts, but with the efforts you put forth really proves you've been training hard." Tigress said with a grin.
"What about you, Leo?" Crane asks his human friend.
"Forgive me, but I don't believe you completely." Leo said to Po. "You expect me to believe that you would master this technique within three days while it took Master Wushen a week? Something's not right about this."
Before Shifu could speak, they heard a horn blowing outside. All of them rushed outside of the courtyard and Shifu takes out a telescope. "Temutai is here with his army."
Leo had quickly left the training courtyard to head back to the barracks to get his weapon. He spreads his fiery wings and flies off to the village. Crane had already made it to the village followed by Shifu and the rest of warriors. Leo flew several feet in the air above them. He notices two water buffalos wearing a blue vest and yellow vest.
"Is that the one?" Temutai points a hoof at the Dragon Warrior.
"That's him, Dad." Bataar answered.
The human lands beside Crane.
"You were mean to my good boys, Dragon Warrior!" Temutai approaches the panda with a sneer. "I demand an apology!"
All eyes were on Po. The panda smiles nervously and did a bow to the large water buffalo.
"What was that?"
"Honorable Temutai, Po has taken a Vow Of Silence and-"
"Enough!" Temutai shouted. "Hear me now! If the panda does not apologize, I will destroy your entire village!"
"Haven't we beaten you before like several times?" Crane pointed out.
Mantis hops onto Monkey's head. "How is this any different, big guy?"
Temutai raised a hoof and steps aside. There were catapults, cannons and a little water buffalo with a horn.
"One moment." Shifu said the Warrior King and turns around to the panda. "Po, I know that this Vow Of Silence is my suggestion, but enough. You must apologize."
Leo watches the panda shaking his head.
"What do you mean?" Shifu looks confused.
Po looks around at his friends and gestures a paw to come closer. He takes out a scroll and opens while covering his eyes. It was a acupressure chart.
"Oh fuck no, you didn't." Mantis said with a deadpanned look.
Po took a peek and nodded.
"What did Po do, Mantis?" Viper asked curiously.
"He paralyzed his vocal cords." Mantis answered.
"You mean we could've shut him up whenever we want?!" Crane exclaims.
"I fucking knew it!" Leo snarls.
Shifu looks at Po sternly. "I'll deal with you later. Can you fix him?"
Mantis hops onto Po's throat and jabs at the throat several times. "That should do it. It'll take an hour or more for him to speak."
"I demand an apology!" Temutai shouted, stomping the ground.
"We don't have an hour!" Monkey exclaims.
Mantis had an idea and hops over to a nearby pig and lifts the hat. "I got to borrow your hat." Mantis said taking the hat and rejoining the group.
Temtuai watches them whispering in a circle. "Are you talking about me? That is so rude!"
They were all done whispering and looks at Temutai as Po puts on the small green hat.
"Temutai, Po is ready to apologize to you and your sons." Shifu announced.
Po walks up to Temutai and started to "talk". "Most honorable Temutai, yammering beast with great horns, king of the Qiadan, no less. I, Po, would like to-" Then he started to fake cough that led Temutai a little confused.
"There's no air in here." Mantis coughed.
Po puts his paws on the hat.
"You're suffocating me, you idiot!" Mantis shouted.
The villagers and the army gasps, looking at Temutai. Leo facepalms in annoyance. Po started backing away with the hat off.
"Idiot? Idiot?!" Temutai growls angrily. "You will pay for this insult! You and your entire village! Attack!"
"Did it work?" Mantis poke out of the hat. He saw the army coming towards them. "So, no?"
The warriors got into their stances.
"Are we-"
Leo couldn't wait any longer and charges towards the army. He blocks a spike ball before delivering a knee strike to a water buffalo. Leo was quick to go on the offensive against three water buffalos. Their spears were slice in half and he knocks them all out. He saw several of them preparing the cannons and catapults to fire. Leo spreads his fiery wings and fires his beam. Warriors and villagers alike had to either dodge, duck or run from the human's attack. Several cannons and a few catapults were destroyed while others were pulled back.
Tigress caught two axes with her paws and knocks out a soldier from the back of the head. Crane dove and let go of another water buffalo to crash into a catapult.
Temutai threw Po in Mr. Ping's restaurant. "Chulun!" Temutai calls to his son. "Get Shifu with the archers from above!"
Leo was finished dealing with a medium sized water buffalo. He overheard the command and saw the archers getting into position. All nine archers aim their arrows at Shifu as he was dealing with three soldiers.
"Gr!" Leo growls furiously and flew towards the archers. He slices the first two bows in half and cut across the first two water buffalos across the chest. The two soldiers' yells in pain, clutching their chest until Leo pushed them both off the roof and hits the ground.
Leo didn't waste time going to the third archer by thrusting his sword in the archer's stomach. He grabs the archer's foot and throws him into the other archers. The human flew back across the street to deliver a palm strike across the face and shoves an arrow in the arm. He fires an orange beam to the roof across and the last archer went flying off the roof and landed in the garbage.
"Temutai!" Po yelled, getting the big water buffalo's attention.
The battle was stopped by the sound of a horn. Everyone watched Po and Temutai.
"I'm sorry." Po apologizes. "Please accept my sincere apologies."
"Well, in that case, no! It's too late to apologize now! Your village is now forfeit! Fight harder, Warriors of Qidan!" Temutai commanded.
Cannons were fired along with the catapults. The villagers started screaming and panicking as they started running.
"We'll squash him, Dad!" Baatar shouted as he and his brother runs toward the panda.
"Such good boys." Temutai smiled.
Leo watched the panda dodges Temutai's sons and resumes his fighting. But a cannon was fired towards him and dodges out of the way. He quickly stands up to see several buildings were destroyed. Leo notices the Furious Five were captured along with Shifu except for Po and himself.
He flew back in the air and fires several more beams towards the cannons and catapults. The cannons exploded and injured a few warriors. "Heh." Leo smirks at the injured warriors.
The human looks down to see Temutai and his army charging at the Dragon Warrior. The panda made several hand movements as before and pokes the Warrior King on the stomach. All of a sudden, a white flash erupts, causing day to turn to nighttime.
Leo looks up to see the Warrior King and his two sons flying with army. He quickly took off after the three warriors and sent two palm strikes to Baatar and his brother in the solar complex before placing his hands on their backs and and release a burst of red energy that sent them crashing to several others.
He appeared above Temutai's head before Leo brought both of hands behind and slams them extremely hard against Temutai's head. The warrior king spun and yells in pain on the way down before slamming into the ground.
The dark sky disappeared as the sun's light came back over the valley. Leo descended to the ground and sheathed his sword.
"Ugh..." Temutai groans as he sits up and rubs his head in pain.
"I said I was sorry, sheesh!" Po exclaims to them as he walks up beside Leo.
Leo spreads his fiery wings once more. This made Temutai, his sons and the army to start running away from them.
"Well done, Po, for solving a problem you caused." Shifu smiled as he approach them with the Furious Five as the two warriors turns around to them.
"Now that I can talk again, I've been keeping a list of things I wanted to say and couldn't say." Po takes out a scroll and unrolls it.
Shifu and The Furious Five groans at the sight of the scroll. Tigress saw Leo's eyes widen a bit in shock and his body became stiffened.
"Ahem, Po. Perhaps you should think before you write on the scroll." Leo cleared his throat.
"Huh? Oh. I'll cross that out when we get back to the Jade Palace." Po saw what he wrote and chuckles nervously.
"What did you write on that scroll, Po?" Tigress asked him.
"Some action figures I was going to say after saying what I want to say." Po smiled.
"Hm." Tigress folds her arms.
Leo turns around and spread his fiery wings before taking off in the air. He watched the army fleeing the village into the bamboo forest. The army disappeared from sight, and everything was normal. But there was something that was on his mind; Saber.
"Leo!" Crane calls up to him as the avian flew up to Leo. "What is it?"
"Hm." Leo turns his head to him. "I have a feeling Saber is out there."
"In the bamboo forest?"
"We won't know until we find out. Tell everyone to meet up at the entrance." Leo tells him. He dives toward the entrance of the village and stares at the clearing. Nothing. Nothing but silence.
"Leo!" Shifu called as they caught up to him at the village's entrance. "Crane says you have feeling Saber is there in the bamboo forest?"
"Maybe, but I'm not going to stand around to find out." Leo responded.
"Right. Crane, Mantis, you two got the sky together so you can spot the clone. Po, Viper, you're with Leo and listen to him when you're in there. Tigress, Monkey, we'll stay here in case we see Saber come this way."
"Yes, Master Shifu."
"All of you be careful." Shifu instructs his students.
His students bows to him. Mantis hops onto Crane's hat and the avian took off as Leo, Po and Viper look at each other and nodded.
The three warriors took off into the bamboo forest. They've been looking for any signs of the clone for nearly half an hour. Leo had to look at their surroundings carefully.
"Crane, did you see anything up there?" Viper asked as the avian landed in front of them.
"No sign of Saber when we were up there." Crane answered.
"Alright, thanks." Leo thanks them.
"It's been several months since your last encounter with her when you and James fought." Viper said.
"She's keeping a low profile." Leo said.
"Leo, if she did start attacking now, we would've gotten reports of a giant-ass white tiger right now." Mantis pointed out.
Leo looks at the green bug. "True, but Saber is not making her presence known to the people of China here right now, not yet. We need to be careful from now on."
"Should we head back to the village?" Viper asked.
"We'll leave after we check this area here." Leo answered.
Po and the others follow him to an open circular area. When they reached the area, there was a young woman standing in the center with her back to them. She was wearing a long black cloak with her hood off where they can see her long dark crimson hair.
"I'm glad you made it." she spoke. "I have to use whatever time I have."
Leo cautiously approached her with his hand slowly reaching for his diamond sword as Viper slithers besides her friend while Po, Crane and Mantis walks behind Leo and Viper.
The woman turns around to the two warriors. Her black eyes have met Leo's jade green eyes.
"You don't have to be afraid of me. I don't believe it's necessary for you to slowly reach for your sword." The woman spoke, watching his hand.
"I'm not afraid of you. "Cautious" will be the word that I would use." Leo spoke.
"Don't worry, I'm not here to harm you. I only want to talk to you."
"Then let's start with this." Leo said. "Who are you?"
"I am Risa. It's good to meet you. I've heard of a few things about you from Scarlet, Leo."
"You know Scarlet?" Leo asked her, folding his arms.
"Yes. He mentioned about you several times after you first met him with the wolf you met." Risa answered.
"So where is he then?" Po asked.
"He's busy right now. I apologize that he created the fake report. Scarlet was only to give you the message and not to test your skills like that." She bows her head to apologize.
"Hmph." Leo responded. "What is it that you need to talk about to us?"
"About the ones that saved James years ago." She answered.
"Who saved him?" Po asked.
"A secret organization that goes by the name Sparta. They "saved" James and puts him through harsh training while being tested as an experiment then he became The Dragon Soldier. James has been sent to assassinate several specific government officials. He was indeed successful on a few assignments until you and friends stopped and foiled the rest of the assassination attempts." Risa explains. "And since the last plan failed, the organization was planning to kill you until you disappeared that day, Leo."
"Whoa." Po looks at Leo.
"The Dragon Soldier was sent to hunt you down and kill you until he arrived here."
"And that was when Leo and James fought at the palace arena when the Emperor's grandson was here." Viper said.
"Shit." Mantis cursed.
"I'm glad that James is free from their control." Crane smiled.
"But how do you know about James and the Sparta Organization?" Mantis asked.
"We have eyes and ears on the inside." Risa responded before she looks over shoulder. "I should get going now before I get into trouble." She snaps her fingers, and a black portal appears behind her. Risa turns around and started walking towards the portal.
"Wait!" Leo calls to her, causing her to turn halfway and looks at him. "Who are you people?"
Risa responded to him with a friendly smile. "We're Twilight Titans." With that said, she turns around and walks through the portal and the portal disappeared.
Back at the entrance of the village, Shifu, Tigress and Monkey saw their friends coming back from the bamboo forest. Tigress saw Leo looking over his shoulder with a concerned expression as he was thinking about something.
"What happened?" Tigress asked her boyfriend.
"We didn't find Saber, but we did meet someone else." Mantis answered.
"Listen to this." Po said.
After Leo explains what happened in the forest, Shifu rubs his chin. "Twilight Titans. If they had spies from the inside, then it was good you stopped those attempts."
"This is the first time we heard about them, Master, including me." Leo folded his arms. "She didn't stay long for us to ask some questions."
"But hey, she looks friendly." Po said.
"We shouldn't start trusting her yet. It's too soon to do that. The only thing we can do is wait and see what else will happen." Leo replied.
"I agree." Shifu agreed.
Later on that afternoon, Tigress was walking down to the palace arena where Leo trains. She knew his training spots are the palace arena, the training courtyard and the Training Hall. But if he's not training, it will be meditating at the Peach Tree or the library. When she reached to the bottom of the step, Leo wasn't training. He was standing in the center of the arena with his arms crossed over his chest while looking up at the sky.
"Leo?" Tigress approaches up behind him. "This is the first time I've seen you not training with free time right now."
Leo looks over his shoulder and turns around to see his girlfriend. "There's a first for everything, Tigress. Do you want to spar?"
"After I see how you're doing when we got back to the Jade Palace. Were you thinking about James?" Tigress asked.
"Yeah. And Twilight Titans."
"Do you think they sent that Memory Warrior after you?"
"It's too soon to assumed that, Tigress. I remember that Panther, me and several others received an anonymous message one night about the Dragon Soldier's list of targets."
"You don't think it was them who sent it?"
"It was untraceable to know who sent that message, Tigress. I still don't know who sent that message or what their motive is."
"I'm sure that we'll all find out together, Leo." Tigress assures him.
"I'd only wish that James stayed with us longer before he left." Leo lowers his head. "It's nice to know he's alive, but I don't know how the others would react when they find out."
"That would be shocking, surprising and confusing for all of them." Tigress said.
"I could imagine the looks on their faces, especially James's family." Leo commented. "I don't know what they'll do when they find out James is The Dragon Solider."
"Wherever James is right now, I hope he gives Sparta hell."
"Same here." Leo smiled. "Thanks for checking up on me. I appreciate it."
"That's why I care about you, Leo." Tigress leans in and kisses his cheek.
"So, shall we spar?"
"Of course." The orange feline smiles at him.
Meanwhile, Serena and Ava were heading back to the Tao Palace with a couple bag of groceries in the nice afternoon of the city.
"We got everything on the list now for tonight's dinner." Serena smiled.
"That's good." Ava said, looking at the brown bag in her arms. "And we also did get Ju Fen's medicine as well while Xiu had to stay behind and recharge herself."
"You know, for someone who's an immortal, I thought she wouldn't get sick." Serena said.
"Serena, look!" Ava stops and pointed.
Standing several feet in front of them was The Dragon Soldier. The Dragon Soldier's back was in front of them. He turns around to them. There were many cuts all over him and he was bleeding badly. The two girls watched the dragon mask slides off and revealing James's face to them.
"What?!" Ava gasps in shock.
"James?!" Serena drops the groceries and rushes to him.
James didn't say anything to them. The soldier collapsed on the ground.
"James, hang in there! Ava, call for help!"
"On it!"
Serena had to take off her pink sweater and puts pressure on the wounds to stop the bleeding. There were so many things that she wanted to know. But it will have to wait until James is healed.
While the two women were busy, there was a mysterious person wearing black robes and the hood covered their face. A black portal appeared, and the person walks through. The person walks into a room. In the room was a muscular man in his late forties. His black hair is extremely short. The man turns around and his hazel eyes landed on the person.
"The plan was a success." the person bows to the man.
"You did well to assist him, Azel." the man said.
Azel takes her hood off to reveal her ponytail brown hair and black eyes. She bows to the man. "Thank you, Pepper."
"Has he found that person yet?"
"No, not yet."
"Alright then."
"I will see you at dinner then, Pepper." Azel replied and left the room.
Pepper turns around and walks over to the window where the full moon was out. He wonders how that person knew about them. Or even knew about them. What is this person's true agenda?
Author's Note: Looks like Leo and his friends have met a couple members of Twilight Titans. They had several people to spy on the Sparta organization. And James have finally made it back to the human world, revealing his face and shocking Ava and Serena! But what are the Twilight Titans planning?
Having Leo explain some information was a good call to work on for this chapter since Po discovered Leo's secret.
I think it was about time to introduce a couple more characters in this chapter and reveal Twilight Titans. No one knows what their plan is or their goal. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to Follow, Favorite and leave a review, everyone!