Kung Fu Lucario

Chapter 8: Outfoxed

*Hey, guys! Sorry for the delay. I hope you'll enjoy this chapter.

I also watched Kung Fu Panda 4 a few weeks ago and, despite what some of the critics said about it, I thought it was very entertaining. I personally liked it a little better than Kung Fu Panda 3, in fact.

Without waking Lucario and the others, Po got up early in the morning to exercise outside the Training Hall. He had no clue where to start or what to do, of course, but as the Dragon Warrior, it was better than doing nothing at all. His prior conversation with Master Oogway told him that much.

The panda looked around the courtyard, wondering what he should practice first.

"Hm. Well, I'm definitely not going to be chopping some blocks in half anytime soon..."

His stomach then began to growl, causing him to look down at it in annoyance. He swore it had a mind of its own sometimes.

"Ugh! We'll get something to eat later, stomach. We have some work to do first."

Po then glanced over at two elongated posts meant for doing the splits on. They comprised of multiple wooden sticks that were bound together by rope.

"Guess testing my... uh... flexibility could be a good warmup. Hehe."

Before he could even attempt walking over to them, he was interrupted by the sight of a small gray fox sleeping in the corner. The creature had tears in their eyes, much to Po's curiosity and confusion.

"Weird. How did a fox end up all the way here of all places?"

He quietly tiptoed over to the fox and got a better look at them. They definitely didn't look like any kind of fox he'd seen before.

"Meema..."

Po quirked a brow. He couldn't quite understand what the fox was referring to.

"Meema? Is that his mom or something?"

Wanting to get to the bottom of things, he took a deep breath and boldly tapped his finger on the fox's forehead. They slowly, but surely started to wake up, as Po anticipated.

"Hey. Wake up, little guy."

With that, Zorua's eyes fluttered open. He, to his horror, found himself face-to-face with a large white face that he had never seen before. The Dark-type handled it as well as anyone would in that scenario.

"AHHHHHHH!"

"AHHHHHHH!"

Out of shock, Po fell backward and plopped himself down on the floor. Zorua, meanwhile, stood on all fours and growled at him with malicious intent.

"You won't be eating me, you fat monster! My Meema will kick your big flabby butt if anything happens to me."

"Woah, woah, woah! Time out here, kid! Who said I was going to eat you?" The panda stood back up and frowned. "And no need to insult me. Words do hurt, you know?"

"Well, you're huge, funny-looking, and don't resemble any Pokémon I've seen before. Why should I trust anything you have to say?!"

Po vividly recalled the word this fox just mentioned. However, knowing about it made their existence even more confusing. Pokémon? Isn't that what Lucario called himself last night?

He then sighed, rubbing a hand over his face in sudden exasperation. First he was being insulted by his idols and now, some random little Pokémon that may or not have a connection to Lucario.

"Sheesh. Sounds like your Meema didn't teach you any manners."

Zorua stamped his foot on the ground. "She did so! She told me not to talk to strangers too!"