Hero to Zero Chapters 9

Tiger walked into the room he had been given to sleep in. Looking around his first impression was not good; the place was a mess, bowls and other things that shouldn't be in the room littered around the place. 'This dragon warrior sure wasn't clean' he thought to himself. 'Looks familiar though?' He decided to lie down to get some sleep, missing the wire attached to the pillow. Yelping as his head hit the pillow and he saw a bag fall towards him. Twisting out of the way he almost managed to dodge it, catching his arm the bag burst covering his arm in a thick paste. Tiger took one look at it before a roar of anger escaped his throat. Five minutes later after everyone had ran to the commotion it had all been cleaned up and everyone was back in bed waiting for the long day tomorrow.

The gong rang loud waking up everyone nearby, signalling the start of the day as the sun broke over the horizon. "Good morning everyone" Shifu spoke ignoring the fact no one had greeted him this morning under current circumstances; everyone was waiting for the healer for a check-up excluding the two who didn't know the rules. "Meet me in the hall of hero's at lunch today after seeing the healers and taking your time to recover." He heard a chorus of "yes master" and decided to take his leave waiting to sort this all out later.

Tiger woke up at the gong and upon hearing the grandmasters greeting and request gave a reply of understanding before getting up properly. He noticed his arm where the paste had hit was devoid of fur. He almost lashed out in anger before remembering something his companion had given him, pulling out a small red object he smiled to himself.

Everyone met in the hall of hero's at lunch as requested. The healers had said that Mantis was fine, Viper had a minor concussion but was fine and should just lie down if she got light headed and Monkey and Crane had been bandaged up. Monkey limped into the hall last on a pair of wooded crutches, shock overtook him as he looked upon the tiger but he overcame it, that he would have to mention later.

"Monkey" his master greeted him as he arrived "now that everyone is here would you mind explaining our predicament to the newcomers?"

"Yes master." Monkey started sitting down with difficulty before starting his side of the story, with all eyes and ears on him. "I went down to the village looking for my friend."

Monkey walked down towards the village as the sun shone down, leaving heated hazes as a sign of the great heat of the day. It didn't take him long to find his friend who had gone down to the village to bask in the glory of the weather on his day off.

"Monkey" Po greeted glad to see his friend "Come here look at this."

"What is it?" Monkey questioned staring at the boxes that had a few threads sticking out.

"Some absolutely awesome fireworks." Po stated as if it was obvious.

"Ok why?" Monkey was still confused as to what the Dragon Warrior was up to.

"Because I'm going to set them off everyone will think it's an attack which will be funny as the fireworks go off and then make everyone day with their spectacular beauty."

"I went along with it thinking it would be cool, but the fireworks just exploded damaging the village and we ended up in jail. After that Po was framed and the bandits rolled in after Po was gone, along with our other comrade that tried breaking him out." Monkey took a deep breath before carrying on. "We believe they died and now we are trying to deal with the current threat, but with their numbers and our low spirits and moral we are doing a poor job." Monkey finished

"Well will you help?" Shifu asked the tiger and leopard hoping that they would as they could not hope to beat the bandits now with the state of the team, physically and mentally.

Autumn sighed in defeat "we're not going anywhere with them stopping us so we will help but how do you know we would be of any help?"

"You because of your posture and actions too disciplined for normal folk and the tiger because of Monkeys accounts of yesterday with how you saved him." Shifu spoke happy they had some help; maybe they now stood a chance?

"Ok we can help; we are ok at fighting but no promises." The tiger spoke having sat quietly while the situation was enlightened and his services were pretty much going to be given whether he liked it or not.

"Great." Master Shifu stated while the others also gave their thanks. "Mind telling us all a little bit about yourselves so we can assess your skills? And get to know you a little better." Shifu asked

"Not much to tell we came from a small village." The leopard started "where we worked as guards until …" she stopped to consider her next words. "A misunderstanding led to us needing to leave. We found small work travelling until we were attacked. Tiger suffered a hit to the head and has amnesia so we came to the valley and you can gather the rest." Autumn finished.

"A lot of amnesia lately." Mantis chuckled only to shut up as he realised his joke was not taken well.

Shifu shook his head at his students comment before standing "Go to the kitchen there you should be able to get some food."

"Awesome food!" the tiger shouted running towards the kitchen he had been shown this morning in a tour of the palace. Five shocked faces looked after him after his familiar behaviour but recovered quickly. Everyone followed after the tiger except for Monkey and Shifu who stopped where they were, Monkey asking for a private word with his Master.

"Yes Monkey how can I help?" Shifu asked when everyone had departed.

"Master something is wrong with the two." He stated "they act as if hiding something and that paste that hit the tiger last night should have easily have taken the fur on his arm away from him?" Monkey explained

"We have just met them they will not reveal everything." Shifu explained "and as for his arm what are you saying? Do you believe concealment of some kind or visual changing of his appearance?"

"I'm not sure master." Monkey started confused about the tiger and leopard. "He also felt as if his frame was that of a bigger animal when he was carrying me, and he tired really easily for someone of his build."

"And the leopard?"

"She disturbs me in a less obvious way, she appears to be trying to fight her natural instincts trying to act differently then she is and it comes across slightly fake but in a way that is almost professional it's hard to pick up on but defiantly there." Monkey finished

"Hmm" Shifu contemplated "you are correct they are defiantly not who they say they are. The shift stones were stolen earlier as well; Zeng reported that before he left, wonder if there is any connection, keep an eye on them and try and find out more."

"Yes master." Monkey got up and bowed as best he could on his crutches, receiving a curt nod in return from Shifu.

"But remember we still need their help so be subtle." Shifu called after Monkey who was on his way to join the others."

"Of course master Shifu" Monkey made his way towards the kitchen he had a lot to consider and even more to discover.

A/N thanks MasterTigress4444 and AlienHeart1915 for your reviews and hope you enjoyed it

Everyone else, thank you for reading and please leave a review to help me improve or just tell me what you thought. (Writers are more likely to write if they feel people enjoy their work ;)) also last thing how many words should i aim for in a chapter? at the moment i'm hitting 1300 odd.