Cloudless Authors

Chapter l

Tigress groaned in pain and got to her feet while clutching her arm. "Can't stand any competition?" she challenged the snow leopard.

Tai Lung sighed. "I'll just ignore that," he muttered.

"The second that Shifu comes in here and sees you, you'll wish you had died!"

"Who?" Lord Shen asked.

"Look, Tigress," Tai Lung said, keeping a firm grip on Lord Shen. "I understand why you're suspicious of me, but I can easily assure you that I'm not here for blood. Or some other form of vengeance. In fact, I was going to talk to Shifu earlier, but I felt bad for spooking you, so I figured I'd come to apologize."

He glanced down at Shen, laughed, and then turned back to the master. "Guess I need to work on that a bit, huh?"

Tigress eyed him, but then relaxed her gaze. "Yeah, definitely," she agreed.

Tai Lung held his grip on Lord Shen and looked around the training hall. His eyes finally settled on one of the swinging clubs which was currently still over the untouched equipment. "If you want to grab one of those clubs," he suggested. "We could tie him up and keep him pinned down."

Tigress looked over in that direction. "Sounds like a plan," she agreed. "But if Shifu gets mad for the equipment being damaged, I'll be holding you completely responsible."

"That's fair."

Tigress quickly made her way over to the swinging clubs and leaped to the top of their support beams. She attempted to unwind the chains themselves, but they soon proved to be tightly bound to the wood, so Tigress felt obligated to take the second best route: smashing the beam in half with a single blow and grabbed the club before it could cause any damage down below. She then leaped to the ground and walked over to Tai Lung. The two then quickly tied Lord Shen, (the tighter the better), and then used the spikes on the club to keep him pinned to one spot.

"You're cutting off my circulation!" Lord Shen complained.

"You'll live," Tai Lung promised. He then turned to Tigress and asked, "So...who wants to get Shifu?"

"Po would be better," Tigress told him. "He knows how to deal with Shen."

"Yeah, and he also know how to "deal with" me, and I personally don't have a death wish."

Tigress gave him a funny look, her eyes taking in all of the scars across the snow leopard's body. "How did you even survive the first Wuxi Finger?" she asked.

Tai Lung shrugged. "No idea," he admitted. "When I regained consciousness, I was bleeding and I had so many gashes I'm shocked non of them got infected. I did what I could with whatever strength I had left."

Tigress winced a little. "What kept you going?" she asked curiously.

Tai Lung opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by Lord Shen loudly groaning and yelling, "Oh, who cares about him?! No one cares if his species passes! Nothing but trouble!"

"I'm assuming that was your logic behind killing Po's village," Tigress commented sharply.

"No one will keep me from assuming my rightful place!"

Tai Lung rolled his eyes and turned his back on the peacock as a way of tuning him out. "Okay, that's a story I'm curious to hear about later. Once he's locked up nice and tight that is."

"Agreed," Tigress said. She looked at Lord Shen, then to Tai Lung, then back to Shen, and then off to the side with her face contorted into a focused frown. Finally she said, "I feel that it might be better if I get Shifu...for multiple safety reasons...but I also don't feel comfortable leaving you alone with an arrogant psychopath. No offense."

"None taken. That's what I get honestly."

The two stood in silence for a few moments before Tai Lung asked, "How's your arm?"

"I'll be fine," Tigress assured him, waving it around a bit with a wince. "It could have been worse."

They fell back into silence and pondered over the conundrum until Tai Lung suggested, "We could always just drag him to the Sacred Hall of Warriors the both of us...."

"You drag me anywhere...!" Lord Shen threatened. "And it'll be the last thing you ever do!"

"You don't scare me, you know," Tai Lung told him.

Tigress scoffed. "You'd be singing a different tune if he was attacking you with cannons," she chided.

Tai Lung eyed her. "He mentioned that earlier," he told her. "What even is that?"

Tigress shuddered ever-so-slightly at the memory. "A horrible weapon designed to destroy those dedicated to kung fu," she explained.

Tai Lung winced. "Well..." he noted. "He's certainly ambitious."

"Noted." Tigress sighed and glanced back at Shen. "If we keep a tight hold of the chains, we can lead him back to Master Shifu."

Tai Lung nodded. "I can hold onto the back chains here and then if you lift the club-"

Before he could finish his sentence, he was suddenly knocked across the training hall and rammed into the Jade Tortoise. Tigress jumped in surprise as Po came to a rolling halt just a few feet away. Mantis, who had helped with the surprise attack, hopped over to Po and began to stare curiously at Shen.

"Oww..." Tai Lung grumbled from the Jade Tortoise.

The training hall doors then swung open and Master Shifu walked in with the rest of the Furious Five. "Good work, Po," Shifu said as Po whipped out a pair of eight-point acupressure cuffs and slapped them on Tai Lung's wrists. The grandmaster then turned to Tigress and asked if she was okay.

"Yes, I'm fine," Tigress assured him. "How did you even know we were in here?"

"You mean besides his legendary hearing skills?" Tai Lung piped up with a chuckle. "I think the question you're looking for is 'How did you manage to sneak up on two well-trained warriors and a deranged murder-happy peacock?"

"Speaking off which, how in the world is Lord Shen here?!" Mantis exclaimed. "Isn't he supposed to be dead?!"

Shifu loudly cleared his throat to get everyone's attention and prevent people from asking anymore questions. "We'll settle everything in the Sacred Hall of Warriors," he promised. "Someone please bring Lord Shen and someone please bring Tai Lung."

"I can walk there myself," Tai Lung offered. "I'm a grown-man."

Lord Shen, who had been sitting patiently tied up on the side of the room, slowly unsheathed a blade he had been keeping hidden in his feathers. When he had managed to position it where he wanted, he quickly shot the blade though the chains and leaped to the far side of the training hall, distancing himself from the panda.

"SHEN!" Po cried, running over to subdue the peacock. Lord Shen quickly stretched the soreness out of his feathers and then fired blades at Po in a string of rapid motions. Po let out a cry of alarm and quickly pulled the damaged club up to block the attacks. However, this did not prevent one of the blades from slicing through the tops of his fingers. Po screamed and crashed to the ground in pain. Tigress lunged at the peacock with her good arm, but he took advantage of the master's slowness and knocked her into Mantis. Tai Lung, noticing that the rest of the masters were too far away, kicked the Jade Tortoise over at Shen. However, the peacock was too quick and leaped out of harm's way and onto the rafters of the training hall.

The fallen prince called down to Tai Lung, "Just wait, you brat. This isn't finished!" and then proceeded to disappear into the night.

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二十三- Lord Shen destroys the valley

二十四- Tai Lung escapes and stops Shen