In the Jade Palace kitchen Tigress sat down with a sigh. In front of her was a cube of tofu and next to it was chopsticks as well as a scroll about fighting techniques she was reading. Today was an extremely peaceful morning and she was determined to enjoy it after the stressful week she had been having. She took the chopsticks in hand, picked up the tofu and was about to put it into her mouth when someone called her name, "Tigress."
Turning to her right she saw Master Shifu in the kitchen doorway, "Yes master?"
"Do you know where any of the others are?" He asked looking around.
"No master. Po is on a trip with his father, you sent Monkey and Crane to escort a local dignitary and you also sent Viper and Mantis to a ceremony two villages over." She answered him.
"Hmm what about Vish?" He asked stroking his beard.
"In the training hall, master." She told him, "Is something wrong, master?"
"Yes, a prized artifact is being transported through the Valley of Peace on its way to a village in the north. Right now, all that's guarding it is a few royal guards, but I fear that bandits may try to steal it." He thought for a minute before nodding, "I'm sending you and Vish as extra security to ensure the sapphire remains safe."
"But, master, I'm sure I could handle it on my own." She protested.
"I'm sure you could, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Besides this will be an excellent opportunity for, Vish, to do some field work." He told her before walking away to go inform the serpent of the arrangements.
Tigress sighed before looking back at her scroll and tofu. After that conversation, neither was very inviting now.
A few hours later Vish and her had joined the royal guard as they made their way through the Valley. Now they were in going up a large hill as they made their way into a lesser traveled part of the bamboo forest.
The two of them were in the rear of the column that was composed of four antelope guards with spears at the front followed by a large chest that was carried by four rhinos with spears and flanked by two rhinos with axes and two antelopes with crossbows. Looking to her side Tigress saw Vish looking at something in the distance. The sight of it made her breath catch in her throat and her eyes widen in shock. Below them in the distance was a white structure in the shape of a cylinder with a gray overhanging roof, around it were a few trees with a large one poking just over the top of the structure. It was the Bao Gu Orphanage, her previous home, her one-time prison and where her life had truly begun.
"Tigress!" She heard Vish call snapping her out of her state. Looking up she saw that he was now ahead of her and that she had apparently stopped once she had seen the orphanage. Shaking her head, she ran to catch up with him and was soon keeping pace once more. "So, what is that structure?"
She willed herself not to look at her former home, "It's nothing just a storage place." She lied hoping his limited knowledge of her world would make him buy it. No such luck however.
"It's obviously not nothing otherwise you wouldn't have been staring at it for a whole minute." He replied obviously not convinced.
"I was not staring at it and like I told you it's just a storage place." She told him walking quicker now.
He rolled his eyes but decided to let it go. He could tell that she had been very agitated with him lately and he understood why. First, she had been proven wrong about him instrument, then she went through all that work to pass his test about ambushes and she had still failed. Viper had told him that Tigress saw him as some sort of a rival just as he did her so this was not a shock to him. What surprised him was that she was being so protective when it came to that structure. The way she was acting was just like their argument before the Lin Kuei captured them. But why should he care? He was going to be back in his world once he found a way back, then he could just forget about this whole thing. For now, though he had to put up with Miss Attitude.
An hour later they stopped at a clearing deep within the bamboo forest. The guards had decided to have lunch before they continued. Standing on top of a boulder Tigress kept a lookout while she ate an apple, in the trees to her right was Vish who was doing the same except he had eaten earlier. Glancing over at him Tigress pondered on her reaction earlier. Sure, she was tough as nails and was entitled to that sort of reaction when it concerned her past, but she wouldn't have acted that way around the others. Then again, the others knew about her past and knew not to pry, plus they were her friends and Vish was merely her rival. But he had saved her and the others plus the town from the Lin Kuei and Po had done the same though it was from Tai Lung. She had treated Po the same before accepting him as a friend after he defeated the snow leopard, so why wasn't it the same with Vish? Was it because of their first meeting or was it because she didn't know anything about him and didn't want to share her past with him. Then she remembered what Viper had said a week ago, 'you two are very like each other'. She could see that his personality was like hers, but she didn't see how else they were alike. She'd have to ask her about that when she got back.
Then she saw Vish lean forward like he was looking at something before returning to normal. Raising her eyebrow, she walked over to him, "See something?"
"Not sure," He replied without looking.
"Well what did it look like?" She pressed.
"Something quick. Could just be the wind." He told her with a chuckle making her frown before walking back to her rock. Vish just rolled his eyes, "And, Viper, says I'm uptight."
In the distance a figure clad in white watched as Tigress walked away yet not seeing her companion. Looking to the side the figure saw its companion give a signal. With that they slowly made their way back to their camp. Once they made their way back they approached a female snow leopard who was waiting for them. "Report."
The two figures stood at attention before delivering their report, "The artifact is being guarded by a few rhinos and antelope of the royal guard with crossbows and spears."
The female cackled, "Ppperfect, this will be easier than I thought."
"There is one thing Commander." One of them said.
"Hmm?" The commander asked.
"A member of the Furious Five, Master Tigress, is guarding it as well." The other told her.
The commander growled, "That complicates things then, but I'm certain I can take her." She glanced at the two in front of her plus the others around the camp, "You all just make sure you follow your orders."
"Yes, Commander!" They chanted snapping to attention.
Back with the Vish and Tigress the group had finally finished lunch and were now making their way out of the forest. After their brief conversation Vish had been on the lookout for more figures and was now in the trees to the left of the group while Tigress stayed behind the group keeping her eyes to the right. Once she had seen Vish go into the trees she knew something was up though she wondered what he had seen. Strangely though she found that she wanted to be attacked by who or whatever Vish had seen. This trip had been very boring compared to most of her escort missions, she decided it was due to the absence of someone who would talk to her. While the amount of talking Po and the others did could get on her nerves its absence got on her nerves even more. Maybe she should try to talk to Vish on the way back? She shook her head, no I'm Master Tigress! I don't need to talk to that serpent! Besides what would we even talk about? No stop it! Dispelling the thoughts from her mind she turned back to the forest before hearing a tree snap.
She felt someone hit her in the head and send her flying. Before she hit the ground, she landed on her feet and looked back at where she had been. Standing there was female snow leopard dressed in white ninja clothing. At first, she thought she was part of one of the many snow leopard groups she had run into before, but the white clothing was unique. Guess it doesn't matter she told herself before jumping towards her. The leopard dodged before throwing a punch at her which she blocked before throwing a punch herself. The leopard smirked as she dodged under it and gave her an uppercut sending her back. Tigress checked her chin but found no blood still she growled at the smirking leopard. The hit she had got in seemed to give the leopard confidence because now she ran towards her fist clenched. Tigress saw what was coming before it happened and dodged to the side of the punch before swinging her fist at the surprised leopards head. The leopard crumpled to the ground and didn't get back up.
Catching her breath, she looked up and saw six other leopards in similar outfits fighting and winning against the royal guard. She tried to spot Vish in the melee but found he wasn't even there. Did he abandon them or was he fighting some in the woods on the other side? Whatever the reason was she couldn't think about it now. With a growl, she leapt back into the action quickly taking down a leopard who was fighting a rhino. The rhino nodded his thanks before running to help his comrades. Tigress looked around for another person to fight before she saw a flash of movement to her right, snapping her gaze to it she saw another leopard near the box that held the artifact. In all the confusion, the guards had abandoned it to defend themselves leaving it vulnerable. Getting on all fours she launched herself at the figure and kicked them away from the box.
Sent skidding across the ground the figure growled at her attacked before smirking, "Well if it isn't the ferocious Master Tigress."
"You seem to be more of a talker then your friends, so answer me this. Who are you?" Tigress asked getting into her stance.
The leopard chuckled, "We are the White Orchids and I am Commander Chen Lan."
"Commander?" She must be their leader Tigress mused though now that she got a good look at her she could see the outfit she was wearing while like her comrades had silver dragons lining it.
"Yes, and it is my utmost pppleasure to inform you that we will be relieving you of that artifact." Chen Lan told her flicking her tail. Tigress smirked at her lisp.
"Sorry, but we refuse." She told her getting into her stance
"Oh, too bad dearie this is mandatory." Chen Lan said lunging at her.
Blocking the punch that came Tigress attempted to land one of her own, but it was dodged. She tried to kick her in the chest but Chen Lan grabbed her leg before throwing her. She looked up in time to see the Commander give her a flying kick sending her into the bamboo trees.
Chen Lan walked over to the trees that Tigress had crashed into looking for her foe. Her eyes widened in shock as Tigress tackled her to the ground before she kicked her off. The two got back into their fighting stances before Tigress went to punch her again only for her to jump back and dodge it. Seeing an opening she tried to give the tiger a kick only for it to be blocked. This went on for a while with the both either blocking each other's moves or trading blows. She saw that Tigress was tiring and figured that the tiger would try to finish this quickly. She was proven correct when Tigress rushed towards her and tried to punch her in the face. If it connected it would probably knock her out, lucky she didn't plan on it hitting its mark. With a smile, she back flipped simultaneously dodging the punch and kicking her foe in the face.
Tigress hit the ground hard before lifting her head to see Chen Lan walking towards her. She tried to get up but she was too exhausted and fell back down. Looking around she saw all the royal guard was knocked out or had fled and once more Vish was nowhere in sight. Where was that dang snake!
Chen Lan chuckled, "You fought well, Master Tigress, ppperhaps if you weren't worn out from fighting one of my subordinates you would have even stood a chance. A pppity we will never find out." She said before walking towards the box containing the artifact.
"No." Tigress groaned weakly.
Just as Chen Lan began to open the box a voice was heard throughout the clearing, "Hey lady! You dropped this!" Shocked by the voice she spun around in time for one of her underlings to slam into her chest. Looking where the snow leopard had been thrown from Tigress saw Vish exit the broken trees. Where the heck had he been!?
After a few seconds, Chen Lan emerged from her underling and rose glaring at Vish, "Oh, look at this girls a little snake trying to play hero."
Vish wore a confused expression at her remark, "Little? How am I little? I'm like three feet longer than you." He asked making her confused.
"Well what I mean, I mean meant was, well you know?" She growled, "Never mind just leave us snake."
"Sorry I'm not letting you take that artifact." He told her.
Chen Lan narrowed her eyes before gesturing to one of her minions. Nodding the minion jumped at Vish claws ready. She raised an eyebrow as Vish sat there looking bored and swaying from side to side. Just as her minion reached him he exploded upwards and slammed her minion into the ground with his tail.
"Who's next?" Vish asked flashing his fangs making a few of them step back.
Chen Lan growled as she weighed her options. She could try to fight this serpent but even if she won it could take too much time allowing more of the royal guard to show up. Luckily, she had a second option.
"Count yourself lucky worm for I'm letting you and your friend go." She said reaching for a small pocket on her waist.
"Oh? And how do you plan to get away and take the artifact?" Vish asked intrigued.
"With this!" She said revealing cylinder objects in her palm, "White Orchids disappear!" With that she threw them down and summoning a cloud of smoke that shrouded her and her comrades from view. When it faded all the leopards including Chen Lan were gone and so was the box holding the artifact.
Vish gave a hiss in irritation before slithering over to Tigress who was slowly pushing herself up. "What took you so long?" She growled as he helped her up.
"I had to take down four of them in the trees over there." He told her simply as she stood up.
She decided that was a good enough reason. "We have to get the artifact back." She told him grabbing her aching chin.
"And how do you propose we track them? You're in no condition to move let alone fight and the only idea we have on where they went is the fact they went deeper into the forest." He asked her.
She had to admit that everything he said was correct but they still had to try. "I don't know, but we have to try."
He sighed seeing that she wouldn't be swayed, "Fine, once the guards wake up we'll head for where I first spotted them. Unless you have a better idea?"
She shook her head and he began to move away. As he turned she saw red on the back of his head, "Vish you're bleeding!"
"What?" He asked before using his tail to check where it was. When he got to his head he felt what she was talking about and to her surprise he chuckled, "Oh, that's not my blood it's there's. One of them got ahold of me so I broke her nose."
She smirked, "I take it you don't follow the code of not hitting girls?"
That got him to laugh, "If I followed that I'd be dead a hundred times over. Besides that, sounds stupid, almost every female sex of every species in my world that I know of is deadlier than the male."
"Sounds like an interesting world." She jested.
"It is." He told her with a smile before going to check on the guards. As she watched him go her smile stayed.
A half hour later they had woken up all the guards though one had a black eye after he tried to kiss Vish in his sleep. Reinforcements had also arrived in the form of gorilla and more rhino guards. They had taken off to find the White Orchid's while Vish and Tigress walked back to where he had seen them. By the time, they got there Tigress was more or less at fighting strength though her chin still hurt every now and then. Once they reached their former camp they checked the surrounding area for signs of the snow leopards but only found an abandoned campsite. Vish turned to Tigress, "These leopards are skilled."
"I have to agree with you. They remind me of the Wu sisters that Po told Mantis and me about." She said as she saw something on the ground. Kneeling down she saw it was and emblem of a white orchid.
Vish raised an eyebrow, "Wu Sisters?"
"Yes, they were a trio of snow leopards who terrorized China many years ago." She explained.
"Interesting." He said scratching his neck. "I think we should keep going seeing as there's nothing here." She nodded and they took off.
They traveled for a while till they were back at the hill that overlooked the Bao Gu Orphanage. They had looked far and wide but had found no trace of the White Orchids and now it was getting dark. Vish believed that they should stop while Tigress had other ideas.
"You want us to just let them go? We need to keep searching for them!" She protested.
"Tigress, it is getting dark and even your night vision can't see that far. What if we find them and it's an ambush? You do remember what happened last time don't you?" He told her getting fed up with her unwillingness to see reason.
"Of course, I do, but we can't just give up!" She replied.
"Look I know you don't want to fail your master I really do, but you have to face facts. One we don't have any idea where they are, two it's almost dark and even with their white clothing it will be near impossible to spot them from far away, three it's the two of us against like twelve of them and those aren't good odds. Do you think Shifu would want more the artifact or you back safe?" He told her.
Tigress bit back a reply at those last words. What would her master want? Well as her master he would probably want the artifact back, but as her adopted father he would rather want her back more than he would want the artifact. "You're right." She admitted bitterly.
Vish nodded, "Let's head back then." As he turned to go back something caught his eye making him stop.
"Ok then." She agreed walking down the hill. She had gotten ten feet before she noticed he wasn't beside her. Looking back up the hill she saw him looking at something in the distance, "Vish?"
"Well, Tigress, looks like you're gonna get that rematch after all." He said not taking his gaze away from what it was locked on.
"Huh?" She made her way back up the hill and looked at where his gaze was. In the distance was the Boa Gu Orphanage. She didn't understand at first, but then she saw it the sun's rays reflected off something and it was moving. She cracked her knuckles and smirked, "Let's go say hello."
Well what do you guys think? Please let me know in a review. Also I can see that the ending might be a bit confusing given that they are doing everything Vish warned Tigress about. The reason for this is that they know where they are now so they don't have to worry about an ambush and they know they can take the numbers. The entire reason I had Vish mention the numbers was for him to persuade Tigress. Next chapter will be up when I get it done which will be a while since my job leaves me very tired at night. Also I hope you all have a good father's day.