-Another world, Oleader-
“What are these things called again Fred?” I smacked the colorful and artistic creature away with an odd magical staff blade that was supposedly a key with a prominent eye at the top of the bladed portions of it and it was colorful blood red, black and gold throughout. I still don’t understand why it was specifically called ‘End of Pain’, but it was mine and it certainly wasn’t called the ‘End of Suffering’ which was a rather specific thing of note. “I find them a bit annoying and there’s this horrible fuzzy sound in my head that just won’t go away. They also almost remind me of Heartless.”
This key-blade thing was a decent weapon at the very least and the magical eye was something Fred could see through, he could always have one eye always open while sleeping now. I also wondered why there are so many weird worlds with those riff raff swarm monsters.
It was as if the Shadow Monsters, Heartless, Unversed, Nobodies and Nightmares weren’t bad enough, they were all so similar to one another it was completely ridiculous. Now we were in another dimension with creatures that had a similar feeling to them and they had earned my ire just by simply existing.
“Well Olly they are called ‘Noise’, THEY ARE QUITE LITERALLY ABSTRACT MUSIC AND ART BASED ENTITIES!” As he said this Fred opened his mouth and devoured an entire group of frogs with blades for legs garnished with a whirlwind minks, belly sliding penguins and a number of screeching bats that had been annoying my ears in particular. In fact Fred started focusing those last ones down with extreme prejudice. “They are apparently made of divine raw power, graffiti, a caustic mixture of EVIL SOUL JUICE and HEAVY NEGATIVE EMOTIONS of this worlds inhabitants. All with a massive heaping of DISCORDANT RYTHMIC ENERGY on top which might result in all the fuzzy sounds you’re hearing Olly. Weaknesses, from what I’ve just learned by ingesting enough them, seem to include positivity, strong emotional bonds, rhythmic emotional connections between two beings working perfectly in tandem and apparently powerful mental psychokinetic soul or magical based energies which apparently can be derived from clothing pins in this dimension. On another note, I FIND THESE THINGS ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS OLLY!”
“They have no idea what they are exactly dealing with do they?” I can already tell that Fred and I were going to be too much for them with just our bond alone. “Well come along then Fred, eat your fill. Maybe we can see about capturing one of these wolf based ‘Noise’ to give to Pom when we find her? I’m sure she’d love to have one as a familiar, I know she loves collecting odd canines.”
A large artistic wolf monster leapt for me, it was caught in Fred’s shadowy claws and he held the massive beast that was thrashing its claws inches away from my unflinching gaze.
“Hmm… far too big and nasty for dear Pom, you can eat it Fred.” I saw the sudden terror in this large Noise’s face as soon as Fred started eating it alive with a sadistic grin. “I wonder if these 'Noise' have inverse versions that are friendlier for Pom, something affectionate like Blighter. It’ll make a good late present for her birthday we’re all going to miss at this rate, maybe we can even find a cuter puppy version?”
I idly flicked my hovering weapon with the barest hint of a though and it completely sliced an incoming Noise in half, hopefully there’s something intelligent behind them and that it will be a much better fight than all those ‘Organization Thirteen’ pansies were.
“Oh… looks like they are building up to a crescendo, let’s make some noise of our own Fred!”
-Another day, Kung Fu Realm, Jade Palace Arena, Pom-
I deflected Shanty’s overhead right hoof swing, the crescent she was creating with her hoof dissipated on impact when the wool on my raised front legs flexed ever so slightly.
I suddenly froze, a really sharp chill ran down my spine.
“What being wrong?” Shanty asked as she backed up and sat down.
“I felt as if someone said…” I paused and looked about in a paranoid frenzy. “Here you go, fifty more familiars. Continue collecting every type of canine that ever was or ever will be, you obviously don't have enough already.”
“I be wanting my own familiar someday, actually I be wanting a lot of things and that be what I’m working towards!” Shanty tilted her head slightly as she looked at me. “I know you can’t be teaching me fluffmancer things, but I be wondering how you be deflecting my hooves when they can cut through cloth and wood like they being butter.”
“Magic.” I stated simply and without a second thought, Shanty nodded in agreement. “Before you even ask, fluffmancer abilities require a uniquely inborn talent for it. Even if a lambkin had all the magic in the world in their body, without even a smidgen of talent to even be a fluffmancer they wouldn’t be able to do any of the techniques. My bark blasts sort of work on the similar principle to my fluffmancer talents, but I can actually teach you how to do that... I think.”
My bark blasts were a completely magical based attack, which I explained to Tai Lung when he had asked me if it was a chi based technique. When the subject of chi came up, Po became somewhat interested in eventually learning how to utilize his.
Today Po was using the training hall to try and teach his friends by leading the exercise routine, I wondered if Tai Lung was correct about how poorly it would go?
Something exploded and we looked towards the training hall to see smoke.
“Po?” I asked.
“Po.” Shanty answered with a nod and a friendly grin.
“Tai Lung was right then, I wonder how smug his smile is going to be today.” My dry statement was met with an upset groan from Shanty.
“I be thinking it being pretty big today.” Shanty was never going to like Tai Lung, but at least the leopard was working out his familial issues with his adoptive father, his adoptive sister and a few other things. So things were looking up for Tai Lung at least. “I be wanting to learn to bark blast Pom.”
We eventually saw Po heading towards us to likely head on down to the Jade District to see his father Mr. Ping. We should join him to make sure he was alright.
“I’ll teach you how my bark blast works later, let’s go try and cheer Po up.” I walked over to the edge of the arena to pick up my bag and sling it over my neck and right shoulder. It wasn’t rare for Po to fail or flounder about, but this time it seemed pretty bad and relying on luck entirely doesn’t always get you through the day.
Ocellus was going to be working on the ‘Yen of Yunshu’ problem for the foreseeable future, since the Jade Palace apparently had a problem with keeping information in an orderly fashion.
Smolder was either out on the town having fun with the local children or she was working with Mr. Ping.
“Hey Po, how did leading the training exercises go today?” I tried to put on a false smile, but even Shanty would see through it.
“Whatever be happening, it cannot possibly be being that bad.” Shanty followed up with a weak grin.
“I destroyed the entire training hall and it’ll take weeks for them to fix everything.” When Po said this, I successfully resisted the urge to cringe. Shanty didn’t resist cringing at all. “I don’t think the guys will want me around for a while.”
“So… noodle soup on me?” It wasn’t like we had much need for money at the moment, Tigress was back to earning funds for the orphanage since I wasn’t taking up all of her side jobs.
I plan to give whatever remains of our money to Po or Ping when we eventually figure out how to use the coin that could take us home. The recent training exercise gone wrong was obviously a huge blow to Po’s confidence.
“I’d like that Pom and appreciate the thought.” Po stated as he smiled to me. “But Dad would probably give it to me on the Dragon Warrior discount, that… and I’m his son. Just pay for yourself and Shanty, goodness knows she’s hungry.”
“Hey, I not be hungry at all times!” Shanty’s stomach grumbled loudly in protest, she blushed vibrantly and ran a hoof shyly through her ponytail. “Though I could use a few bowls of Mr. Ping’s special noodle soup…”
“Heh, good food and company are just what I need right now.” Po stated as we continued down the stairs at a sedate pace. “I never thought that teaching kung fu, even to professionals like the Furious Five, could be so hard.”
“How smug was Tai Lung’s grin?” I asked just to know for sure.
“Very.” Po said with a smile. “At least I’ve certainly made his day.”
-An hour later-
“That over there is my friend Pom, she’s a really nice person unless you get her mad and it really takes a lot of effort to do that.” Po’s luck was absurd. Sure bad things happened, but it eventually lead him to meeting his father Li Shan in a dumpling eating contest and it wasn’t as surprising as I thought it would be. “I don’t remember much of mom, but she’s been like one to me and helping me out a lot since we’ve met. She’s from some mystical place called Huoshan, but I don’t believe her when she says she’s their weakest guard and even Tai Lung agrees with me on that. Oh right, you don’t know about Tai Lung do you?”
“Slow down my little Lotus, we have plenty of time to catch up.” Li Shan chuckled happily. This is the first time I saw another Panda in this world, apparently something made Mr. Li come all the way out here on a gut feeling and I’m beginning to connect the dots on how this world was similar to the last one and ours of Equus.
Like Ocellus and Smolder mentioned to me, the elements of harmony were thing in this world and I’m beginning to see what they meant considering I was watching Li Shan and Po hit it off quickly enough. Po was basically the Element of Magic like Twilight Sparkle was and in general was a good friend.
Shanty was already on her fourth bowl and I really hoped she wasn’t going to clean us completely out as to put us in debt before we could leave this world. I wanted to have a clean conscience before I say goodbye.
I looked to Mr. Ping and saw that he was jealous of Po connecting really well with his estranged father, I sighed as I just knew trouble was around the bend. Po was magnetically inclined towards trouble like the elements of harmony back in our world from the way Ocellus explained them.
A hint of something moving fast out of the corner of my eye made me bleat out loudly in surprise and roll out of my chair.
Several bright green needles pierced straight through the wood I had been sitting on. Po was up in an instant and looking around for my attacker while holding a paw out to Li to be quiet, his eyes were searching the rooftops.
I finally locked my eyes on my attacker and I heard Po gasp as he did the same, they were a pair of green glowing eyes and a body that looked to be made of stone in the shape of a porcupine standing on the nearby roof.
The needles on the masculine porcupine statues back were glowing a sickly green and it slowly reached up to pluck one and placed it in the bow it was holding.
“Shanty…” I quietly widened my stance for evasive maneuvers, this made the goat chug down the rest of her soup and stand up on her seat to glare at the porcupine statue on the roof.
“Is that guy… no way… Master Porcupine?! If I remember right he was said to have died about fifty… no a hundred years ago.” Po… why do I have this sudden sinking feeling concerning what you just said about him? “Oh this is awesome, I never thought that I’d get to meet him, his special style was the thousand quills of death. It was said he could regrow his quills quickly and launch a massive barrage of them with unerringly deadly accuracy, he was almost as dangerous up close as he is at a distance using his needle knife style by using his own quills as blades. Do you think I could get an auto-… wait… no… this is not a good thing is it?”
He had been excited up until the point he took note that they had been aimed at me specifically by staring at my perforated seat.
“That’s a big understatement.” I said while closing my eyes taking a deep breathe to mentally prepare myself for this and then opened them to scrutinize the still figure that was about Shanty’s size. What was Porcupine waiting f…
Two figures burst through the entrance to the restaurant area, leaping high in the air in my direction and they brought both their bo-staffs down on my raised legs that I brought above my head.
The ground cracked beneath my hind hooves and I kept my wool flexed to prevent myself from being crushed under their combined blows and the constant pressure I was now under.
It was two green glowing stony badgers that had me pinned in place as Porcupine finally release his quill.
I have just realized the ensuing problem with this, I was only talented in blocking blunt and slashing attacks…. piercing attacks on the other hoof were actually a big problem.
I tried to move out from under the staffs, but the green badgers kept me locked in this position.
A flash of an upwards crescent struck the quill before it could embed itself in my heart and it instead had been redirected to impaling the nearby wall.
Shanty spun and leapt to knock the right badger off of me by striking its staff upwards and away, this freed up my right hoof which I drove forward into the left badger’s body knocking it backwards.
For some reason the other badger and Porcupine reacted to my strike, I was about to question this when Po spoke up again.
“Oh the Badger Twins, they were known for creating so many bo-staff techniques that are still learned and used today at the Lee Da Kung Fu Academy and you just survived their Double Crushing Gong Technique!” I sent a glare towards Po as Shanty scrabbled backwards when several quills were launched at her. “They died many years back too come to think of it, but this incredible!”
“Now is not the time to be distracted, we’re under attack!” By what were apparently dead guys made of stone if Po was to be believed. I weaved around several green quills and saw a badger coming at me from the right. “They are actively trying to kill me here!”
Speaking of, I blocked a staff strike from my right and kicked up with my left rear hoof to knock them back and ducked under the one coming at me from the left.
I kicked off the ground with my right hind leg and launched a roundhouse to their face with it.
“Well I’m pretty sure they are not doing that on purpose, they were pretty good… right.” Po finally got his head in the game as he saw me deflecting blows from both of the badger’s weapons to the best of my ability while trying not to get pinned down again.
He finally charged in and knocked the badger on my right straight into the wall were it became embedded with a simplistic shoulder tackle.
Shanty quickly darted forward and into the street while avoiding the multiple quills raining down towards us. I quickly stumbled backwards as they were generally aimed at me and barely Shanty or Po.
I prayed to Jiutian, and to be safe Paprika too, for Shanty’s continued safety as I turned to my left and leapt over a sweeping bo-staff to perform a leapinh overhead left hoof swing to the stone badger’s skull while putting my full weight into it.
This only staggered it a bit and made Po’s opponent do something similar before he struck out as well with a confused look on his face.
-Equus, Paprika-
I started to glow and looked about curiously before shrugging. I said ‘yes’ to whatever the glowing was and it stopped immediately.
I then continued to playfully chase after the hydra that was running away from me that tried to play with Hoofington.
It needed a hug and a less destructive thing to play with than the town.
Me!
-God realm of Equus, Jiutian-
“Oh us, she actually has a worshipper!” I said in horror, the universe quaked at the screams of multiple gods. “Also I'll help wherever I can my lost little lambkin.”
-Kung Fu Realm, Pom-
“Hey, I think these guys are made out of jade.” Really Po? I quickly dodge a quill aimed for my right eye and nearly got struck in my left, but I managed to get my left leg up in time to flex my wool just as the blow would have landed.
The staff rebounded and unbalanced my opponent by spinning it around, I threw two right jabs and then went into a crouch for a hard left jumping uppercut that knocked this thing onto its back.
Shanty was distracted Porcupine and stopping the quills. These three monsters seemed to be more focused on me, except for the one Po was holding off.
“Oh, these guys are legends, do you see all the techniques they are using?!” Po shouted excitedly as he caught the bo-staff swinging for his head.
“Yeah, legends that seem to be focusing on me for some reason.” I blithely stated as I kicked up my opponent’s bo-staff with my left rear hoof. I got it in a two hoofed baseball grip, I then brought it around in a full spin to break it against the stone badgers face.
Once toppled, I stomped down on its chest with my left hind leg, while my right hind leg to keep my stance stable.
“I’ve pinned mine down.” I said as it struggled to get up, but I kept the pressure on it. I don’t think I even did any lasting damage to it.
“Hold on, I almost got mine. These badger twins weren’t really good at one on one fights.” Po managed to knock his opponent’s staff out of their hand with a back paw, he kicked them onto their back with his left leg and proceeded to lunge forward to belly flop onto them. “Master Porcupine was better at a distance than close up so Shanty should be able to take him.”
“My little Lotus.” Li Shan said worriedly as he looked to Po.
“Got it Pom! I’m fine father, I get into these kind of things all the time, right dad?” Po said while standing up to put his foot down on the statue thing like I did with mine, I looked Mr. Ping and the goose shrugged while cutting up a vegetable muttering something derogatory about Li Shan and was in the midst of making more noodle soup despite all the customers being scared off. Mr. Ping definitely believed in Po’s abilities. Po went back to looking at the statue he had pinned. “These guys kind of look like zombies, zombies made of jade. Oh, I know, let’s call them Jombies!”
I sighed while putting my right hoof over my face.
-Shanty-
He be very fast, but I not be letting him hit Pom and now he is actually focusing on me as I am being just as quick.
He tossed his bow to the side and pulled two quills out to charge me, I deflected his left swing with a right hoof outwards crescent slash and launched my left forward. My hoof thrusts not be capable of doing a crescent effect, that always required a swinging motion.
My blow be shoving Porcupine back, he be quickly spinning around trying slash my face with all of the stiffened quills.
I positioned my rear half to face him and then launched my left rear hoof upwards for his chin, he plucked two quills and blocked the kick. I be noticing that the quills had cracked, so I bucked my other leg upwards. The quills shattered and he launched upwards and off the roof.
I spun around and charged towards the edge of the roof as he started falling to leap while pulling back my right hoof. With a heave I spun my body forward and hooked my hoof down into the stony face, sending it towards the ground.
Porcupine be bouncing off the ground and I be flipping down into them with swing of both my rear hooves, two cutting edges took large chunks out of its stony hide and bounced them into the restaurant area.
I chased after him and leapt up to stomp all four of my hoofs on him, his quills start impaling the ground and he be stuck like Pom and Po’s opponent. I even be putting my hoof down to make sure he not be pulling free.
“Hahaha, I see you…” The voice be creepily coming from all three of the bodies with slightly shifting mouths. This be when Tigress, Tai Lung and Viper appeared. “Your chi will soon be mine.”
“Uh, which one said that?” I be looking at Po.
“I think it being obvious that this is being one being using three bodies.” I be hearing tales of cursed evil like this from pirate stories, provided a pirate be willing to talk to a sea urchin like me.
“How observant of you.” The three bodies said at once. “You will not be able to protect the Dragon Warrior forever, she will give me her chi one way or another and all of you shall fall to me… Kai!”
“Who?” I be asking confusedly, when suddenly all the three statues shrunk down into being these amulets things of green energy and they soon be disappearing into the sky. “Mr. Ping, can I have another bowl.”
“I was making it throughout the fight, thought you’d work up an appetite from that Shanty.” Mr. Ping be knowing me so well. He quickly placed a bowl of noodle soup on the counter, or at the very least my stomach.
“Well now, guessing from what little we saw, dead warriors are coming back to life as immortal statues.” Tai Lung leaned against the entrance to Mr. Pings. “I don’t know what’s more concerning, that the entity controlling them thinks Pom is the Dragon Warrior or that he might have the power of countless warriors from beyond the grave. If whoever this Kai is manages to control Oogway and raises him as one of these statues...”
The sudden ensuing silence be quite telling as even Tai Lung looked fearful.
I be looked at Pom on the ground curled up and shivering with her pupils shrinking to tiny dots, she not be taking this threat on her life very well.
A sudden strange urge be coming over me to hug Pom as hard as I could, so I be following that urge and my hug seemed to be incredibly powerful beyond what I should normally be capable of.