"Good luck with this, buddy." Po said, putting a hand on Fung's shoulder as she stood with him and Peng by the edge of the village. "And, I understand that a lot of people want to be alone after they just lost someone but, if you want company instead, I will be right here with everyone."
Fung sniffled, still shaken by receiving the news of his mother's death. His eyes were bloodshot as he looked at the panda, and he nodded at him, thanking for being so kind. Then, with Peng by his side, Fung turned around and walked away, taking the road that would lead him all the way to his mother's old house, where he grew up.
He was still not sure how he would be able to handle being in there now that his mother was gone, but Peng let him know that he would be by his side.
Po looked at the departing two, before sighing and turning around to walk back. Monkey and Mantis were both there, just standing as they watched Fung wish good luck to the croc and snow leopard.
"You really hold no hard feelings for Fung, do you?" Mantis asked to Po.
"Not really." Po said, "I mean, he turned over a new leaf, didn't he? I kind of prefer let bygones be bygones."
"You are a nice guy, Po." Monkey said to him, patting his shoulder. "Maybe too nice."
"I kind of am still beamed with that croc." Mantis said to the panda. "But I do feel sorry at him for losing his mother. Hope he will be okay."
"Yeah, I hope too." The panda said, and the three friends started walking back to the village.
"Say, guys, I was surprised when I heard that Peng was invited to the Jade Palace's feast." Po was casual as he spoke that.
"Yeah, he did kind of gained an unofficial master title after he bested Master Slamming Goat in a combat." Mantis explained. "It was quite the memorable fight, as we heard, and the kung fu council members present were so impressed that they decided to award him an honorary title of master. Peng did accept it, but it was mostly out of respect."
"Wait, Peng defeated Master Slamming Goat!?" Po said, in shock. "When did that happened!?"
"Five years ago, shortly after you came back to China." Monkey said. "Most people had already heard that you had your name cleared and title restored, but Goat had not gotten the memo."
"He badmouthed you during a meeting, said a lot of things about you that... we better not go into detail." Mantis was being careful with his words, since he already caused two awkward moments by saying the wrong thing that day. "He was speaking those things to whoever wanted to hear, and Peng was close enough to hear it all."
"You know how Peng was one of those people who never lost faith in you during the whole Tianshang Weapons thing, right?" Monkey said. "He actually defended you whenever someone talked smack about you. And it was no different that time. He demanded Goat to take back what he just said about you, but you know how goats are."
"He said to Peng that he would only take back the things he said about you if he could best him in combat." Mantis continued, "Guess he was expecting Peng to chicken out and back down, but he didn't know him like we do."
"Peng kicked his butt." Monkey said. "Practically mopped the floor with him. By the end, Goat was squealing and begging him to let go of his arm, and he apologized for all the things he said about you and said he would never insult you again."
"And there was a member of the kung fu council in there with Goat." Mantis said, "He was impressed with how good Peng was, and he submitted a request for the other members to give him an honorary master title. They wanted to give him a proper title, with a ceremony and everything, but Peng refused, and they only convinced him to have the honorary one instead."
"And this is why Peng made it to the guestlist of this year's feast." Monkey concluded, while Po looked at them baffled, as his mind processed everything he just heard.
For one, he was shocked for hearing that Peng had managed to defeat the famous Master Slamming Goat, a mountain goat known for his strong and brutal style of combat and said to have defeated ten legions of warriors from the Southern Gorges by, quite literally, slamming his head through all of them as they tried to advance.
And he made him scream for mercy! That was no small feat, by any means!
And Po, the kung fu aficionado and lover that he was had not heard anything about it for five years since it happened!
And he did it all to defend me... Po thought. Once more, the panda was reminded that, even when his reputation hit rock bottom, he still had people who had faith in him and respected him despite of what everyone else said and were even ready to stand on his defense whenever someone attacked him.
Not only on the Valley of Peace, but on other places of China as well.
It certainly warmed Po's heart that Peng would not hesitate to go against a powerful kung fu warrior to defend his name and honor. And he gained a master title while doing so! And now he was going to celebrate on the Jade Palace with the other masters of the guestlist and...
Suddenly, Po stopped.
"Wait..." The panda was remembering something from a day before, when he passed by Shifu as he was revising the list, and he managed to take a peak on the list because he was curious who would be the guests this year.
"Isn't Master Slamming Goat coming for the feast with his son!?"
The other two stopped, as they realized that Po was right.
Slamming Goat and his son Zing were both guests on this year's feast.
Just like Peng!
Suddenly, there was a feeling of dread for a possible awkwardness on the feast table that year.
"Maybe Shifu plans to put them on opposite ends of the table?" Mantis offered, still standing on Monkey's head, where he'd been all this time.
However, before either of his companions could answer to that, they both heard a commotion going on.
The sound of explosions followed by screams reached their ears.
"What the!?" Monkey was looking forward with a surprised expression.
"Oh, man! Seriously!?" Po asked, "I was hoping that I would be able to enjoy a Winter Festival without anyone causing trouble, just for a change!"
Soon, however, Po's complains about the peace being broken by some guy who had way too much free time on his hands were forgotten, as the panda and his two friends were rushing forward in direction to where the explosions were happening. And they were not the only ones, as masters from two other different directions where rushing to that one spot where the explosions were coming from.
When they arrived there, they would see a face that was, at least to some of them, familiar.
"Ha ha ha! I had forgotten how fun this is!" The rhino said as he puffed his cheeks as he put some inner pressure, causing the mechanism inside of his prosthetic horn to trigger and to propel its contents outwards violently, making them come back as fireballs that connected with their targets and generated powerful explosions. Those caused the villagers to run in fear, as they wanted to avoid being caught up on the destruction that was being unleashed upon their houses which, just a few minutes ago, they were joyfully preparing for the upcoming winter festivities.
This should be enough to call the attention of the local defenders, especially a certain panda...
"You hold it right there!"
Speak of the black and white devil...
"You better be ready for... Hundun!?" Po said, as he was shocked to see who it was, alongside Monkey and Mantis. The rhino, on his end, only smiled at them.
"Ah, Po!" He rose his arms as he greeted the panda, his prothesis still smoking slightly from the explosive projectiles it just fired. "The very panda who I wanted to see as I returned from my long absence by returning!"
"Seriously?" Monkey said, "You are still alive?"
"We kind of thought you had died." Mantis said matter-of-factly.
"Well, I am alive and kicking!" Hundun said as he reloaded his horn. "And firing!"
With this, more flaming projectiles came from the holes on the fake horn, and the three masters had to quickly duck out of the way to avoid being hit by the fireballs that exploded like gunpowder behind them.
The three looked over their shoulders to see the results of the explosion, and they were quite something.
"Again with those exploding Fire Gems?" Po asked, looking at the rhino who he had last seen shortly before leaving the Valley of Peace to move with his goose dad to the countryside and who he had not even heard about since.
"Where do you even get those!?"
"Hey, it pays to have some good friends!" Hundun said, as he reloaded his horn with more of the orange gemstones, and then blew them in direction to the three of them at a much greater speed than the previous ones. So much speed, in fact, that the three of them could not dodge in time.
When the explosion happened, Hundun could barely believe it.
Did I get them!? Did I get Po!? Did I finally destroy the Dragon Master!?
However, he had not. For, as the smoke cleared, he could see that the three of them were still in one piece.
They had been protected from the explosion by a barrier of purple energy on the form of a turtle shell. Courtesy of Bao.
"You guys okay?" Bao asked as he looked back at his teacher and his two friends.
"Just peachy, Bao." Po said to his student as he looked back at him with a smile. Soon, other pandas were coming their way, joining their little group on facing the criminal who had just tried to murder Po.
"Oh... right." Hundun said as he looked at the newcomers. "There are other pandas now..."
"Okay, I don't know who you are, but I am going to kick your butt!" Jing said.
"He is Hundun! One of the villains I faced in the past!" Po said.
"I am going to kick his butt anyways!"
"Or we could try talking him into leaving?" Fan Tong said, still being the pacifist of the group.
"That a-hole just tried to blast Po to pieces! He is only leaving after I break his horn off his face!"
"Well, you are too late for that!" Hundun said as he removed his firing prothesis, revealing his already broken horn. "The Dragon Master already did that years ago!"
"He did?" Bao said in surprise, while Jing turned to her teacher.
"You go, Po!"
Hundun had replaced the prothesis on his broken horn by another one. This one containing a huge sword, which was soon joined by another pair of swords, which the swung wildly as he charged at the pandas, screaming like a madman as he did so.
"Fan Tong!" Nu Hai said, and the biggest of the Four Constellations was soon moving forward.
"On it!"
Soon, the Heir of the Red Phoenix was focusing his red chi, gathering it into the form of a sword, which he then swung to parry all three blades that the rhino was swinging at him.
It was evident how much Fan Tong, just like the other three, had grew in both skill and seriousness since the time they were kids. They were, after all, the Four Constellations. A group of mythical kung fu warriors and heroes on the same level (or very close) of the Furious Five.
Fan Tong alone was able to push back Hundun while the others only sat back and watched. Jing was even upset at this, as she thought she would be able to kick someone's butt, but her friend/teammate seemed like he had all of that taken care of yet, as he pushed Hundun back, causing him to land on the ground heavily.
However, there was a reason why Hundun managed to be such a nasty enemy to Po for the longest time.
Pulling out something from his back pocket, he threw it at Fan Tong, who dematerialized his sword as he instinctively caught the tossed object to see it was...
A horn?
That was ticking?
"Fan Tong!" Po cried in horror as he realized what it was, but it was too late by then. The horn exploded, and Fan Tong was tossed back by the force of the blast, landing on Bao and causing both pandas to roll back on the ground.
Hundun, seeing an opportunity, replaced his firing horn and shot more fire gems on his enemies, prompting the to once more jump out of the way.
However, as he saw his friends and students being attacked, Po knew he would not just be laying down.
He rushed into fight, expectedly jumping out of the way from each fiery blast that Hundun sent his way, until he arrived the rhino and, with a few well-placed blows, sent him back into the ground, laying on his back as Po crouched over him with a hand on his chest to keep him down.
"We've been through that, Hundun." Po said to him. "You know you can't beat me."
"Yes, its true..." The rhino looked up at the panda as he said those words, a smirk on his face. "I could never beat you when I was all alone. However, this time I am not alone in my loneliness."
Po looked at him with a raised eyebrow, when his attention was called by a cry as a massive form rushed to him.
The Dragon Master was so surprised that he didn't had time to duck out of the way as something very hard connected hard with his torso, sending him flying until he collided with the wall of a house so hard that it was nearly destroyed.
The panda was soon on the ground, and he was trying to get up when another figure, this one much smaller than the one who just hit him and slammed his head on the ground by landing on it with both feet. Then, this figure grabbed him by the arm and easily spun him around and tossing him into the air, before delivering a flying kick that sent Po skidding across the floor.
Po was dizzy, but he somehow managed to see now three figures standing before him.
On the corner right, was Hundun, laughing as he saw Po down. By the corner left, was the massive Temutai, holding the traditional weapon of the Qi-Dan, a double-headed weapon consisting in a long pole with a hammerhead on one end and a round mace on the other, glaring at the panda as he snorted. And, at the center, between the two of them, was Junjie, with his hands behind his back as he looked at the panda, who looked at them with surprise for seeing all of them together.
"We decided to come and visit for the Winter Holydays." Junjie said to the panda. "Sounds good, no? To have a reunion with you for the very last time. After all, holidays are great for reunions, aren't they?"
"I couldn't agree more!"
Who spoke that was Nu Hai, as she and the other constellations recovered and rushed forward, all of them ready to act in defense of their master. Temutai growled as he rushed forward to them, aiming for the panda that was the closest on his path.
Nu Hai, however, was ready, and she charged her fists with chi, creating blue dragonhead-shaped gauntlets that she used to parry Temutai's blows and hold back his attacks.
The massive water buffalo pressed down on her, but the Heir of the Blue Dragon held firm. In fact, she held so firm that her foot cracked the stone floor beneath her, as she pushed Temutai back, sending him reeling back to the others.
"No one will stand in the way of our revenge!" Temutai said to the pandas as he pointed at Mantis and Monkey, who were both unconscious. "I will knock you all out of my path just like I did to those two buffoons!"
"Why are you yelling so much?" Fan Tong asked, looking at the massive buffalo.
"Because that's his thing." Po said, before turning to face Temutai and the other two bad guys. "Just like it's his thing to come after me for revenge. Man, won't you let it go? It's been years! Seriously, I thought you had decided to turn your life around and live honestly like Fung and the crocs did! You too, Hundun!"
He then turned at the smallest of the villains, Junjie.
"And you... well, I know you are a lost cause! But I did think you had fled the country. You know, for the whole 'being sentence to death for stealing the Imperial Palace's sacred treasures and trying to frame me for it in the process'?"
Junjie growled at the panda as he was told that, glaring at him with murderous eyes. Meanwhile, Hundun came forward and spoke:
"Yes, you have defeated us many times and forced us into hiding, panda. But we have been brought together by a person who convinced us to seek for the ultimate revenge against you together by working together!"
"Wait, you guys were brought together?" Po looked at the three villains. "By whom?"
"By me!" Said a new voice, which was strikingly familiar to Po.
The next thing the Dragon Master heard were the cries of his students, one by one, as they felt something shocking them from behind and bring them down to their knees.
"What the!?" Po turned around just in time to see a small figure trying to stab him with something. However, he was able to react quick enough to grab the figure and toss them in direction to the other bad guys. Hundun grabbed this small figure and placed them on the ground, revealing them to be:
"Tong Fo!?" Po said in shock, and the small loris recomposed himself, looking at the panda.
"Po. It's been a long time, wasn't it?"
"How did you get out of jail!?"
"Ha! You should know that a common jail can never hold me forever, panda!"
"Who is that?" Bao said as he got back to his feet, recovering from the shock he just received.
"I am Tong Fo!" The loris said to him.
Bao and his sister shared a look, before looking back at him.
"Who?" The siblings asked at the same time. Needless to say, this pissed the formerly famous criminal mastermind off.
"I am getting both your pelts after I get the Dragon Master's!" He said to the two of them.
"Fat chance, pipsqueak! Here comes the Tiger Blast!" Jing then placed both of her hands forward, focusing her chi so she could release a blast of white energy that would blow all those jackasses away like leaves in a summer storm.
But nothing happened.
"What the?" Jing said, looking at her paws, and she found out that she could not access the chi of the White Tiger.
And now, the other Constellations were finding out that they too could not access their chi.
"What's going on!?"
"Why can't we use chi!?"
"You!" Jing was pointing an accusing finger to Tong Fo. "What did you do to us!?"
To that, Tong Fo only laughed as he showed what he had hit them all with, which was the stun gun-like object Junjie gotten to help with their mission.
"The Hu Zan Chi Destabilizer." The loris said proudly as he spun the little item on his hand with a smirk on his face. "Hope you kids didn't had any plans to use your chi magic for the next couple days."
"That isn't fair!" Fan Tong complained.
"Maybe not." Hundun said, as he reloaded his horn with more fire gems. "But it makes things a lot easier for us!"
And he fired more blasts. They hit the ground directly in front of the constellations, sending them hurling back above Po's head and landing heavily on the ground, groaning from the impact and barely conscious.
Po looked back in time to see the four villains charging at him at once.
Po, of course, put himself to fight. He was the Dragon Master and would not be going down without a fight. However, even the Dragon Master had his limits. Even he could only hold his own against strong enemies so far before they eventually overwhelmed him.
Tong Fo swung knives at him, forcing the panda to continuously dodge them, especially after he realized that the blades of said knives were coated in venom. They ate through his shirt, forcing Po to remove it quickly before the venom could get to his fur and skin.
"Man, that were new!" The panda complained as he got rid of his shirt, and the villains continued to attack him.
Hundun attacked both from up close with punches and kicks and from afar with his fire gems. Temutai used his massive size and just as huge weapon to attack the panda as much as he could. And Junjie, despite being a renegade master, was still an extremely skilled kung fu fighter, enough to force Po to go on defensive even when he was fighting him alone, even more now that he had those three fighting by his side.
It was only a matter of time before Po's defenses started to faulter. Blow after blow landed on him, and the panda was soon forced down into the ground, as he fell onto his hands and knees after a particularly hard pressure-point blow that Junjie gave to his arms and legs, and then he was sent hurling back by a blow from Temutai's weapon.
Po was now struggling to get up, while the four villains closing on him.
"Guess it's over, no?" Hundun said as he saw the panda liked this, before turning to the others. "What now?"
"Now I smash his head like a ripe, furry, black and white melon!" Temutai said, as he was going in direction to the panda, when a much smaller figure got on his way.
"Don't you dare!"
The other three looked with surprise at Junjie, who looked back at the three of them.
"What gives, Junije?" Tong Fo was looking at him. "Don't tell me you are getting cold feet about killing the panda? This was the whole reason why we got together! To make sure he meets his end!"
"And he will!" Junjie said, "But not now and not here!"
"Why not?" Hundun sounded confused as he asked that.
"Because the circumstances have to be right!" Junjie said back. "I need to see him on the right conditions for his end! I have a personal score to settle with him, after all!"
"We all have!" Tong Fo shot back.
"But I have a 'personal' personal score with him!" Junjie said to them. "We can't just kill the panda in any way! We need to do this right! We have to take the panda with us! Alive!"
"And give him the chance to turn it around on us like he did many times in the past!? No, thank you!" Tong Fo said back, "We should just kill him now and get this over with! I want to see him bleed!"
"I want to see him broken too!" Temutai kipped in. "Seriously, I fantasized about it for years!"
"Haven't we all!?" Tong Fo said, "And I say we don't waste any time with fancy deaths and just get this over with now!"
"I second that!" Temutai said, and he walked to the panda before Junjie could stop him. Po was trying to get back to his feet when Temutai placed a heavy hoof on his back, forcing him down once more, while lifting his weapon high in the air.
"This is for costing me my kingdom!" Temutai said as his arms tensed, as he got ready to bring his weapon down on the panda's head so hard there would hardly be anything bigger than a rice grain among the shards of his broken skull.
However, before he could a golden blur came out of nowhere and hit him right into the stomach, sending him flying back so hard that he slammed into the wall of a house and almost demolished it completely.
The other three villains flinched as they saw this, and then they turned to see the familiar figure of Tigress.
"You!" Junjie said.
"Are those clothes new?" Hundun asked, referring to the golden, fancy, long-sleeved garment she wore, which were quite different from her red sleeveless jacket from before. Tigress, on her end, only helped Po to his feet, and the panda was still a bit shaken and unable to firm himself properly.
Tong Fo, however, didn't waste any time, and he was quickly attacking again, only to be intercepted by Crane and Viper, who both attacked together and sent him flying back as they arrived.
"We heard the explosions!" Crane said, as they turned to Po, who was still leaning against Tigress for balance. Meanwhile, Hundun tried to fire more gems on them, but he was interrupted by Monkey and Mantis, who both came by surprise, knocking him over and then trying to attack Junjie, before being tossed back into the others.
"Man, he is strong!" Monkey said. "Po, you okay?"
"Junjie used some kind of pressure attack on me!" Po said, "Me arms and legs feel weak!"
"Let me!" Mantis jumped on Po, and he started pressing points on his arms and legs while Tigress helped the panda stay up. Junjie, however, would not just allow the panda to be helped, and so he charged forward, aiming to take down all the panda's allies and make him an easy target for the taking.
Then he would finally get what he wanted...
However, that was when, yet another figure showed up, repelling Junjie with a staff.
"You!" Junjie said as he stopped on the ground and saw the one who attacked him.
"Long time, old friend." Shifu said, the irony clear on his voice. Junjie snarled at him, while the others all recovered and started coming to the small renegade's side, while Po, now with Mantis just pressing the final pressure points on his other leg, recovered the sensibility and strength on his limbs.
Now, as Po stood with his friends, they faced off against the four of Po's greatest enemies, all of them looking like they were ready to trample over all of them so they can get the one panda who they were there for.
"Attack!" Tong Fo said, as he rushed forward, with the other three coming right behind, and soon the kung fu masters were all changing at them in return.
The battle was quite eventful, with Hundun taking on Tigress and Crane (and showing that he still remembered the weaknesses Po had told him back when he still thought there was hope of making Hundun give up his revenge), and the two masters were having some trouble to keep up with the rhino. Meanwhile, Monkey, Mantis and Viper all tried to fight Tong Fo, but the small guy had the advantage of the blades coated in a venom so deadly even Viper would not survive it and of the fact he was not afraid of fighting dirty.
Meanwhile, Shifu kept up with Junjie, who could give him a run for his yuan due to also being a highly-trained master capable of using advanced techniques.
And this left Po to deal with Temutai.
And now, Temutai didn't had the advantage of having caught Po by surprise, and the panda had faced him off enough times in the past to know how to deal with someone this big. Even with the big-butt weapon the buffalo was swinging at the Dragon Master while screaming savagely.
All in all, it seemed that the kung fu masters were in a serious struggle with the bad guys, who proved to be a challenge to them even after years without showing their faces.
And they had some new tricks up their sleeves.
For example, the item that Tong Fo pulled from his clothes, taking the form of a small gong with ideograms around its circumference. As soon as he hit it with a small drumstick, the gong let a sound like you would expect from a much bigger one, producing a shockwave that pushed all the masters attacking him back, while causing them to cover their ears in pain.
Hundun also had a thing to use, as he pulled a small pair of statues of foo dogs. As he put them both down, the statues glowed, and they turned into giant golden foo dogs, which barked as they lunged at the two masters attacking him, forcing Crane and Tigress to fight both the attacking creatures and Hundun himself, what was not easy for the two of them.
Shifu looked at this, and he recognized those items.
"The Zhou Gun Gong and the Twin Tsun Dogs!" Shifu said, looking back at the Junjie. "You stole those from the Imperial Treasury!"
"Yes, I sure did, Shifu!" Junjie told the other master. "Just like this!"
And he pulled out a ball made of jade with golden patterns in it. It immediately started to glow. Next thing Shifu knew, he was being lifted from the ground and then slammed into it repeatedly by an unseen force, before being forced into the air and made to twist so much he screamed in pain, all the while Junjie laughed hard with a crazed look on his eyes.
"Guys!" Po said, but he was stopped from going to their help but Temutai, who revealed another item that was given to him by Junjie, coming from the Imperial Treasury. This one was a wristband made of white jade into the likeness of a Chinese dragon. As it activated, the giant water buffalo materialized a giant energy hand like that of a dragon claw, which he immediately used to grasp the panda and start squeezing.
The battle shifted in favor of the bad guys.
However, said bad guys had made a big mistake.
They forgot about the Constellations.
They could have just had their chi blocked, but they were still kung fu masters trained by the Dragon Master himself. And, let me tell you, when they saw their teacher and his friends being attacked, they didn't take it lightly.
In no time, the four of them were rushing in to help.
Jing went to pair with Tigress and Crane. She took it to fight Hundun herself, giving the two masters the support they needed by letting them fight the Foo Dogs and without the rhino's interference.
Bao went to help Viper, Mantis and Monkey, and he did so by stopping Tong Fo from ringing the small gong again by snatching the small drumstick from his hand, and then giving the loris a punch right to the face as he turned to look at him. Meanwhile, his sister went to help Shifu, as she forced Junjie to turn his attention to her, causing him to have to drop Shifu.
The Jade Orb of Lu Tan could only focus on one target at a time, and this meant that Junjie could not use the power of the orb on the two of them at the same time, as they forced him to shift his focus from one to the other as they continued to attack him.
"Hey!" Temutai said. He had Po pinned to the ground with a hand, and he was about to use the giant dragon claw of energy to slash at him when he noticed how the rest of his team was being attacked by the other pandas. He was about to do something about it, when he felt something hitting his cheek and neck at once.
"HEY!" He turned around to see Li and Ping both in there. The goose was standing on the panda's head and he, like Li, had a big pan on his grip, which he quickly swung at the massive buffalo.
The pans connected to Temutai's face coming from both sides at once, and they left Temutai's ears ringing as they did. He stumbled back, and that was when Fan Tong came and, much like Po did one day in the past, started to pull on the bull's ears, causing him to growl in pain and to stumble back as he was forced to move away from the panda whom he had just been bullying.
"Dads!" Po said as he got up. "Right on time!"
"Hey, this is what we do!" Ping said as he spun his pan like a cowboy would spin a gun, while Li did the same as the goose stood on his head.
"Cannot let some oversized brute hurt our son, can we?"
Just as that was said, Po fell back as Fan Tong was tossed into him. This caused Li and Ping both to look at the direction the unusually big panda came from, only to both be snagged into Temutai's grasp.
His regular hand grabbed the goose, while the dragon claw generated by the hand with the wristband gripped the panda.
"I liked it better when your son was the only panda left!" Temutai yelled at the two of them, while Po and Fan Tong were getting up.
"Dads!"
"Stay back!" Temutai said, holding the two. "If either of you move, I'll crush them!"
He really could do it, in the situation they were now. Which was why the two pandas hesitated. Then Po looked at the side, and smirked.
"Okay then, we won't move." The Dragon Master said, "But they will."
Temutai blinked as the panda pointed to the side with his thumb. He looked at that direction on time to see three other pandas flying on his direction.
Temutai didn't had time to react as a fist and three feet connected with his body, sending him flying back. The dragon claw dematerialized as the wristband flew off his arm, just like Li and Ping both flew off his grasp, to be caught by Fan Tong and Po, respectively.
Temutai was dizzy, groaning into the ground as he tried to get up, only to have Hundun, Tong Fo and Junjie all tossed on top of him.
"And, once more, good triumphs over the machinations of evil!" Po said happily. "Seriously, you guys should have tried turning a new leaf already."
The four of them groaned in frustration.
This was the thing worse than being defeated. Having to hear the panda's speeches about how evil was bad and good was... well, good.
"So, guess now it's a wrap, guys." Po said, looking at everyone, including at the Four Constellations.
"Well done, kids. I'm proud of you." He said, and he bowed to his four students, and the four younger pandas, despite some of them having some problems with being called "kids" still, bowed back to their master.
"Where did they get those?" Nu Hai asked as she looked at the items that they managed to snag from the villains. The gong, the golden statues, the orb and the wristband.
"It this real white jade? I heard it is super rare..." Fan Tong asked as he examined the item on his hand.
". "That's the White Jade Claw of the Divine Dragon, and it belongs to the Emperor." Shifu clarified. "Like the rest of those items. He will be glad to have them returned to his treasury after five years. Let's send them back to the capital as soon as possible."
Shifu then turned to the fallen villains, and paid attention to one of them in particular.
"And you will be going along with them." Shifu placed the tip of his staff on Junjie's chin, forcing the fox to look him in the eye. "You have a meeting with the imperial executioner which is already half-a-decade overdue. And your accomplishes will be sent back to Chor Gom."
And that seemed to be how it was going to end, with the attempt of revenge of Po's old enemies being thwarted.
However, if it ended like that, then this story would have been far too short.
"Is this the best you guys can do!?" This voice caused everyone to turn their heads and see two figures walking forward.
"No wonder none of you could ever defeat that panda!"
"Who is that now?" Jing said as everyone looked at those strange animals coming forward. Po, however, recognized the two immediately.
"You!" He said as he looked at the two of them, who smirked back at him.
"Po, you know those guys?" Viper asked, and the panda quickly answered:
"Those are Klaus and Veruca!"
"The weasels from five years ago?" Monkey asked. He, like the others, was meeting those two weasels of whom Po told them about for the first time.
"Well, glad to see you remember us, pandy-wandy." Veruca said, a smile on her face as she looked at the panda and called him by his "pet name".
"I guess it must be hard to forget us with that eternal little reminder on your chest, no?" Klaus said with a smirk. Po reflexively took his hand to the left side of his chest. To the burn-mark scar in the form of a misshapen star, result of his final confrontation with the weasels back in England.
"What are you two doing here!?" Po demanded from the two, and it was Veruca who answered:
"Well, the same thing as those losers." She gestured at the villains who Po and his friends just beaten.
"Hey!" Temutai said, but he was ignored, as the two weasels still had their attention solely on Po.
"We came here to get you."
With this, she stretched her hand at a nearby tree. Said tree had lost most of its leaves due to the approaching winter, but it still glowed the same shade of green as Veruca's hand before its roots sprouted out of the ground violently and lunged at Po's friends, grabbing the ones who were the closest. Those were Monkey, Crane, Nu Hai and Fan Tong, all of them being lifted into the air as the roots wrapped around their bodies like the tentacles of a giant squid.
"Wow! It's just like Po said!" Fan Tong said as he was lifted from the ground by a root wrapped around his ankles. "She can control plants!"
"Sure can!" Veruca was smirking as she pointed at another nearby three, and made more roots sprout out, and those grabbed Tigress and Viper, pulling them back as the two ladies tried to struggle free.
"Wait, how are you doing this!?" Po was surprised as he turned back to Veruca. "It's not even night!"
As an answer, Veruca proudly showed him the new accessory she had on her wrist.
"Moonstone Charm." Veruca tapped at the pale-pink gemstone on her jewelry. "As long as I'm wearing this, it's like I'm under the full moon all the time."
Seeing this as an opportunity, the four villains were once more on attack. With part of Po's allies out of commission, this meant that it was easier for them to get the rest of them. Temutai was soon pinning Bao down while using his other arm to hold both Li and Ping in a two-for-one headlock. Hundun managed to work together with Tong Fo so they could hold both Jing and Mantis at poisoned-blade's point. And Junjie managed to knock Shifu back and pin him to the ground by twisting his arm painfully and stepping even more painfully on Shifu's bad leg.
This left Po all by himself, as the weasels both approached him.
"And now, for you..." Klaus said, as he pulled out something wrapped into a cloth, and he unfurled it to reveal...
"Bamboo stalks?" Po asked in confusion, and then the two weasels smirked. That was when he remembered that bamboos were plants, but it was too late.
Klaus had already picked four of those many bamboo pieces and tossed them in the air. Immediately, Veruca pointed her hand at them, working her magic and causing the bamboos to glow green. They immediately started to grow at an ungodly speed, their tips piercing the ground as they fixed themselves around Po as fully-grown bamboo trees.
Then, they attacked. Under Veruca's command, the bamboos bend and swung at Po. The panda did his best to block the blows, but the speed and strength of the bamboos, as well as the fact they have become thicker and stronger than regular bamboo under Veruca's influence, caused their blows to be quite powerful as the panda could only block them with his bare arms.
Eventually, Po was overwhelmed by the swinging bamboos, as they eventually flicked him forward, causing him to fall to his chest on the ground, groaning as he tried to get back to his feet.
At that moment, Klaus tossed the rest of the bamboo up, and Veruca worked her magic on them, causing them to grow quickly, their spiked tips traveling in direction to Po.
They sunk into the ground, their tips missing the panda and not piercing him as they became fully grown. However, since they grew so close to his body, it meant that Po was now immobilized by the thick, resilient bamboos while still on his knees. His arms pinned as they got stuck between the grow bamboos' stalks, rendering the panda unable to move or get up, even though he struggled quite a bit.
Po was stuck.
"Now we got you." Veruca said with a smirk. Meanwhile, Tong Fo did not wasted this chance, as he rushed forward while tossing Mantis at Hundun for him to hold. He jumped on the panda, planting his feet on the ursine's belly as he held the tip of the blade over Po's chest.
"I waited far too long for this!" Tong Fo said, a smirk on his face as he lifted the blade above his head.
"Po!" Li and Ping screamed in horror.
"Master!" Nu Hai screamed in just as much horror.
"No!" Shifu and Junjie both cried out.
However, before Tong Fo could bring the blade down straight into Po's heart, someone grabbed him by his belt and pulled him back violently, causing him to land heavily into the ground with the blade right by his side.
He looked up to see that it was Veruca who did it.
"Hey, what gives!?" Tong Fo demanded.
"Sorry, big-eyes." Veruca said, "Can't let you kill that panda just yet."
"Why, you little...!" The loris was getting up while looking at her with murder on his eyes, but he stopped as he felt a blade on his own neck.
"You better chose your next words carefully." Klaus was very close to Tong Fo as he growled those words. This was enough to make the loris stop and think better before insulting the weasel's sister. Soon, Klaus tossed Tong Fo to the side, while he and his sister turned their attention to the panda.
"Oh, just look at him." Veruca said, as she leaned over Po's stomach and started drawing circles on his fur with her claw. "I'll never get over how cute you look when you are all helpless.~"
Po didn't really like that proximity. The fact that Veruca was infatuated with him still made him ungodlily unsettled.
"Let me go!" Po demanded as he struggled.
"What, not happy for seeing me?" Veruca asked the panda. To that, Po answered:
"Five years ago, you guys wrecked my reputation, tried to kill me and my friends more times than I can count, and tried to take over the whole world! Sorry if you two are not really my favorite people after all of that."
"Well, that's too bad." Veruca spoke. "Because you are coming with us."
"Like heck I am!" Po started struggling harder, but he found out he could not free himself from the bamboos around him, pinning him in place.
"Oh, you definitely are, panda." Klaus pointed the blade he had at Po's neck as he spoke. "You have something we want, and we are not leaving without it."
Later, Po would wonder how he frequently found himself in situations like that. Also, how sometimes help, quite literally, fell right out of the sky.
Two loud cries coming from the sky caused everyone to look up, seeing two shadows hoovering above them.
Wait, are those... Po caught himself wondering. Then, the two flying figures dropped something down at them.
"Oh, snap!" Veruca said as she and her brother jumped back, as the two figures landed right where the two of them had once been, their swords drawn, while the two flying figures soon joined them in identical fighting stances of the falcon style.
"You!" Klaus said as he looked at the four.
"Falcon Twins!?" Po asked in shock as he saw the two familiar avians. He also saw the figures that they had dropped in the middle of battle.
"Collin!?" Po looked at the deer, and then at the figure in armor standing by his side, her sword drawn and ready for battle.
Even though her back was turned to him, there was no way Po would ever fail to recognize her.
"BLADE!?"
Luthera looked over her shoulder at the panda, smiling at him.
"Hey there, Po. Mind if we crash the party?"
The Dragon Master didn't mind one bit.