Rage.

That was all I felt as my body threatened to rip itself apart.

How did this happen? My memory was foggy, making even the simplest of memories hard to grasp. I was in pain. I was struggling. And I didn't even know why. Attempting to focus, I tried to see if I could recover my memories. If I could just remember, then perhaps I could save myself.

In my furious drifting through an indescribable void, the first memory to familiarize itself was what I was: A government sanctioned Wraith.

I remembered that the kind of Wraith I am is from the Alsvartr Sunna Clan, or Black Sun Clan, stationed in the United States. My task was assassination, and apparently, I was adept at it.

What I learned next was the most unnerving thing, even more so than my skill in what was essentially murder.

I was supposed to be dead. I didn't know how I died, or what I was doing before I was killed, but I knew I was dead.

If I couldn't remember how I was killed, there were other things that I could at least attempt to remember. I needed to know who I was. Did I have a family? Where did I come from? What year was I from?

What was my name?

Come on, dammit! What's my name...?

But it never appeared. As of that moment, I was nameless. I remembered a few other things, like certain things about the world, but nothing else.

Those were the only memories I could recover. Everything else remained foggy. So close, but yet I couldn't make them out. Not what year it was. Not who my family or friends were. Not even my own name. Only my Clan and task, along with a select few other things. But why was I so angry? My rage was almost insatiable. Was it because I was killed? No, this was something more. It had to be.

But as I looked around, I discovered that was not as important as my current situation. Where was I? Some kind of void, obviously, but what was it exactly? Purgatory? It couldn't be Hell, as I didn't feel punished, and it wasn't Heaven, considering my profession.

Moving felt as though I was attempting to move through some kind of thick liquid, like syrup, and the silence was deafening. I couldn't even hear the sound of my own blood rushing, or my heartbeat. Even with the abilities I had, I was still human. That meant I should at least have a beating heart. But as I forced my arm over to my chest, I felt nothing. Just...

Silence.

Perhaps this was Hell. The silence was terrible. I couldn't stand it.

I couldn't... fucking... stand it!

Looking over, I saw my weapons and bag floating nearby. Grabbing them, I searched through my supplies to see if I had everything.

Mark 17 Lancer Energy Rifle, two Dual-Heated-Edged Combat Blades, portable solar energy collector, my trusty fixed-blade buck knife, some kind of medical box, and my holo-phone. The most important thing was easily the energy collector, but it helped to have weapons. The phone was nice too.

But they wouldn't be worth shit in this void. Looking at my gun, I thought long and hard for what I estimated to be ten minutes about just ending myself to escape the endless void. But would it even work? I was already dead...

Only one way to find out.

Before I could turn the gun on myself, a flash of light cut through the dark void. I covered my eyes, blinded by the light. My body continued to fight itself, feeling as though it was shredding itself apart. Wisps of black smoke rolled off of my arms and hands, my gloves feeling hot to the touch. My hands were shaking hard, vibrating and sometimes outright disappearing briefly. If I could have screamed, I would have.

Feeling a tugging sensation, I considered resisting, but figured it was likely better than where I was now. Either that... or I was actually going to Hell now.

'Best not to delay the inevitable.' I thought.

Letting go of any resistance, I let myself go limp as my body was rapidly pulled toward the source of the light. As I approached, my body felt like fire, and my rage grew to the point that I was lashing out at nothing, even when every movement was torture. I was blinded entirely by the light, and a loud buzzing filled my ears, growing to deafening levels.

Then, there was nothing.

When I awoke, I felt warm, though my hooded cloak likely contributed to that, and my body was no longer forcing itself apart. My rage had also practically vanished. But most of all, the silence was gone. I could hear the sounds of rushing water, as well as... birds? Perhaps it was because of my broken memory, but I don't remember the last time I had heard a bird. I mean, it would be strange to hear one when the remaining living birds were in captivity for their own safety. Same with most other animals that didn't adapt to urban life.

That's what happens when the world turns into a mostly urban, cybernetic mess.

Oh well. It didn't affect me, so why should I care? At the moment, survival was most important. But that brought up another important question.

How was I alive? I was certain that I was dead. I thought I had been killed. Yet, here I was, next to a river in the middle of a clearing in some forest. More than anything, my surprise came from the fact that I was in a forest. That meant I was in either some national park or the Amazon rainforest, and this sure as hell wasn't the Amazon. So it must have been a park.

Realizing I was still lying in the grass like a moron, I sat up and took a look at my surroundings.

Trees, a river (or was it a creek?), and more trees. Standing up, I took off my mask to get a breath of fresh air. However, when I took the deep breath, I felt something quite odd. Confused by the feeling in my chest, I opened up my cloak, only to drop my mask in surprise. In the center of my chest was a hole, small wisps of smoke pouring out of it slowly. I didn't feel as though it was doing any harm anymore, but it was still a cause for concern. Just as strange was that black wisps of smoke rolled off of every part of my body.

But I was already dead, right? Still, that breath of fresh air kinda went to waste. Oddly enough, I no longer felt the need to breathe in the first place. But what was strangest was that I was actually here. Usually, Wraiths just... dissipate when they are killed as to not leave a trace.

Well, at least I kinda knew how I "died" because of the hole in my chest. Emphasis on "kinda".

Picking up my mask, I observed it. I knew that I had made it myself, as that's what all Wraiths did. They would supply themselves, though clans would sometimes help out their members. My clan was the most famous clan because of how well they operated and treated their members, as well as how high their estimated kill count was. Technically, it was illegal, but the government "couldn't find evidence" of the assassinations. That's all I remembered, though I'm certain most knew it was total bullshit.

How people even found out Wraiths existed was also something I couldn't remember.

Sighing, I brushed off the dirt from my mask, admiring my craftsmanship. It was made to look like a skull, painted black to match the rest of my outfit, though you could barely see that the eyes were actually a very dark red when light would shine on them. It also could light up a number of different colors if I gave the mental command, though I only did that to be intimidating.

Not that I wasn't already.

Putting the mask back on, I let the HUD readjust while I put my bag back on. Lifting my rifle, I put the strap around my shoulder and put my swords on my waist. Seeing no signs of people, I began my journey down the river/creek/who cares, as water led to civilization. At least it used to. Oh well. It was a better lead than nothing.

I decided to see if my abilities still worked as a way to move faster. Focusing on a particular area about 20 meters away, my body dematerialized and reformed at the spot, drifting through something similar to that void in a split second. Most just called it teleporting, but the Wraith clans called it "Rifting".

Really, they were kinda strange. In fact, the whole thing was strange. I wasn't even sure why they were called "clans". Did it even fit the definition for "clan"?

To be honest, it didn't matter, and never would. After all, I had more important things to do.

I traversed the forest, and would Rift every once in a while to speed up the process. I could have Rifted the whole way, but it was important to observe my surroundings, which was impossible to do when I was constantly teleporting. However, people could observe me just fine if they manage to catch a glimpse of me. As a Wraith Rifts, they don't just teleport. They do so with this human-sized cloud of black smoke. While it only lasted for a moment, it was still there, making our jobs a bit harder.

Still, it was a great ability to have. From the memories I retained, I could tell that I had done quite a good job with Rifting. Especially when my targets aren't expecting it.

Good times...

After a while, I checked the time on my holo-phone, seeing that it was only 5:40 in the morning. Good. Plenty of daylight left.

Or at least I hoped.

As I walked, I spotted something else peculiar. That thing was bamboo. Now, seeing plant life at all was a bit rare for me, but bamboo was definitely rare. It wasn't common in the United States, even before mass urbanization.

So why was it here? I mean, bamboo could grow in the U.S., but this looked too uneven to have been planted. That being said, it was likely natural. Shrugging, I carried on. Before long, I spotted what appeared to be a trail. Where there were trails, there were people.

Or herd animals.

But that was besides the point, especially since it was too clean-cut to be made by animals. Somebody had made the trail, and I was going to find that somebody. Or at least a somebody. Continuing onward, I just pondered on my interesting situation. After dying, I came back to life and ended up in some kind of park. I was also fully armed and carrying a bag of gear that would likely cause extreme suspicion. The hefty bag also made me wish that quantum-storage was finally perfected.

By my predictions, it would be in full use by the military in a few decades.

Once again, I observed my surroundings. The trail had not led me anywhere yet, but it was looking more and more used as I traveled. This was a good sign that I was headed toward a populated area. However, something very strange caught my eye on the side of the trail.

A sign. But not just any sign.

A sign in Chinese. With a small rush of memory, I knew that I could speak some of almost every language, as it helped when in different countries, but it wasn't enough to read the whole sign.

Thinking hard, I attempted to read the sign.

'The... something of Peace'

Well, at least I got most of it. But why was it in Chinese? I was nowhere near China, or anything like Chinatown.

So why?

The longer I was here, the more bewildered I was. This was truly strange, but I needed to continue on my way. Deciding to run down the path, I increased my speed to an unnatural amount, surpassing what was likely eighty-eight, possibly even ninety kilometers per hour. If Wraiths were anything, we were fast. And efficient. It made us unparalleled in our areas of expertise. That's kinda what happens when you tamper with our bodies with some kinda hocus-pocus bullshit with the sole purpose of creating an improved human being.

Only problem with it was how dangerous it was. I couldn't remember what was so dangerous, but I knew it was something pretty severe, making the government try to keep the Wraith project a secret, though they apparently failed somehow.

As I ran down the trail, I thought I could see something in the distance. It looked like some kind of village surrounded by mountains, the architecture...

Also being Chinese?

Was I in fucking China? It was impossible! Not only because China had been industrialized to the point of having zero non-human life, but because there was also no logical way for me to have gotten there! At most, I could Rift about fifty meters, and it took a bit of effort to do. I would have drowned in my attempt to get across the ocean.

Architecture like that also didn't exist in American national parks, so what was it? I decided that I was going to just accept it as is, not wanting to hurt myself by thinking too hard about it. Approaching the village, I considered my options. I could try to blend in, or I could sneak around in the shadows...

Sneaking it was. I was terrible at pretending, and my guns didn't really help. To get a better view of the village, I used another ability, called "Hieing". Essentially, it just turned my body into a black vaguely-human-shaped smoke cloud that could fly around for a short period of time. It was particularly helpful for aerial views and getting through vents.

I went to Hie, feeling my body change and vibrate before I shot into the air, observing the village from above. I couldn't see much from the distance I was at, but I thought I saw movement near what looked like a farm. Which was strange, as farming was completely industrialized. Heading back down, I Rifted across the river, running the rest of the way to the village.

I was going to get to the bottom of this.

Hearing the sounds of people, I became quite hopeful. In fact, it sounded like... English? How curious...

So far, I had yet to see any people, though I suspected that was due to being so early in the morning. I didn't bother looking at the farmer, as there was no point. What good would they do me? Besides, I was trying to stay hidden. Placing myself up against a wall, I listened for anyone nearby before taking a quick look around. With the coast clear, I moved to the next wall, staying in the shadows as best I could.

Now that I was here, I could finally figure this out-

Wait... what the fuck?

I couldn't believe my eyes. Walking carelessly through the village were some kind of... bipedal rabbits. Two of them to be exact. It was hard for me to believe that this was real.

I blinked. Then, I shook my head before blinking again.

How could this be? I knew there were rumors of creating human/animal hybrids, but I didn't think it had actually happened. I suppose it was only a matter of time. If Wraiths were created, then the next crime against humanity wasn't far behind.

I let out a sigh, watching a small puff of black smoke escape from my mouth. Rather than being concerned, I just watched the bunny people walk down the road, talking about simple things. Taking another look around after noticing their clothing, I realized the severe lack of modern, or even vintage technology. They were very clearly incredibly far behind.

"My son has been gaining quite the interest in those Kung Fu masters from the legends recently. I worry that he'll hurt himself trying to imitate them!" one of the female rabbits half-joked.

The other rabbit laughed in a feminine voice, patting the other on the shoulder.

"You worry too much! How often does something bad ever happen to either of us?"

The first rabbit chuckled, turning to the other with a smile.

"I guess you're right. I just hope my husband can convince the boy to calm down."

The pair was coming close to where I was, so I prepared to Rift away when I felt my pseudo-sixth sense tingle. Looking around, I saw some kind of feline hiding in the shadows with a knife. The feline jumped out of the shadows at the rabbit females when they came near, brandishing his blade at the two.

"Hand over everything now. And keep it quiet!" he demanded.

The pair of bunnies were petrified, one turning to the other and speaking quietly.

"You just had to open your mouth."

The feline grew angry, bringing the knife to the rabbit's neck, ready to use the blade.

"I said quiet!"

Seeing the fear in the pair's eyes, I debated my next course of action. I could keep hidden, or I could do a good deed, possibly saving the lives of the two innocent women.

Stay hidden it was.

Focusing on another alley, I prepared to Rift away when the feline happened to turn his head in my direction, doing a confused double take. Frozen for a moment, they faltered in their confidence for a moment. Once again, I let out a smoky sigh.

Since my cover was already blown...

I Rifted behind the thief, grabbing him and Rifting to a different alley. Before he could recover from the shock, I pulled out one of my own blades, not bothering to activate the heated edges. Both edges were sharp enough as they were. With my other hand, I disarmed him by twisting his wrist rapidly, causing him to drop his knife and let out a yelp of pain that I quickly covered with my hand.

Curious, I looked over at the rabbits, who were looking around in confusion. Looking back at the thief, I saw the fear in his eyes. Wanting to show him just how intimidating I could be, I activated my masks lights, mentally choosing the color red. As soon as I turned on the lights, I decided to try blowing out smoke to add to the effect, and to my surprise, it actually worked, the black smoke billowing out of the sides of the mask and between the teeth.

The thief's eyes widened, and he struggled in my grip, his muffled shouts of fear filling the quiet air. As he did, I slowly began pushing the tip of my sword into his shoulder and spoke in a low, gravelly voice.

"Leave, and never return."

I pulled the sword out of his shoulder, but didn't quite let him go. I was going to use another one of my abilities. One that I loved the most, and not many others could do.

I was going to Brand him.

Placing my gloved hand on his face, I though about what my symbol would be. I could do the symbol of my clan, or... something else.

I decided on something else.

Focusing, my hand began to tingle, and the thief was in too much shock to scream as I burned the image into the side of their face. Releasing their face, I admired my work. The symbol was simple, but it represented the current me quite well, I thought. It was an image of a skull with smoke coming out of its mouth, a set of small horns on its head.

With his free hand, the feline touched the side of his face in a panic, feeling the burn. Releasing him entirely, I stood up and pointed my sword at him.

"Run far away."

In a panic, he nodded his head, taking off in a random direction, mumbling to himself incoherently. It was a good feeling. Not saving the pair of rabbits, but the feeling of knowing I had power over another person/animal/thing. Though, it was nice to have done a good deed.

However, I didn't stick around for some kind of compensation for my efforts. Taking one more look at the rabbit pair, who were sill searching, I Rifted away to an area more toward the center of the town. I was going to learn more about this strange place that seemed to be a polar opposite of the cybernetic borderline-dystopia of a world I had lived in, and the best way to do that was to observe the average day in the village, as well as take careful note of the culture and places of interest.

Climbing to the top of a tall building and staying low, I took a look at the valley, seeing just how large it was. I also noticed a very large staircase leading to what looked like it may have been a palace of some kind. Keeping that in mind as a location of interest, I observed the village below. Remembering my phone, I took it out of my bag and turned on the camera, taking pictures of buildings that looked important. I also noticed that people were finally leaving their homes, ready to go about their day.

It quickly became boring.

I suddenly realized that this was likely why I was an assassin rather than a ranger or something. I wasn't patient when it came to gathering intel. The only patience I had was when I was anticipating a kill. It was kinda fucked up, to be honest.

But that was not a concern of mine. My focus was now on that certain place of interest. Rifting across the rooftops, I stayed as hidden as possible until I reached the staircase, running up the steps. Nobody else seemed to be making the trek up or down the stairs, so I was safe to go on my way. The journey up was longer than expected, but I did eventually make it.

And it was a brilliant sight.

The palace, or whatever it was, was a work of art, reminiscent of old Chinese architecture for royalty, indicating that it was, in fact, a palace. It was so different from what I was used to, that being bland utilitarian buildings meant for efficiency only.

Rifting into a tree, I took in every detail I could with my camera. There were multiple features, such as some kind of garden full of statues, other buildings, and some other things. I wanted to investigate further, but I was a bit worried about getting caught. I knew I was made to be the ultimate master of stealth, but you could never be too careful.

For the moment, I decided to head up a hill I saw. Moving quickly and silently, it didn't take long to reach the top. What caught my attention the most was a lone tree with pink blossoms. Upon further inspection, it appeared to be a peach tree. After a bit of consideration, I figured, "Fuck it," and grabbed a peach. As I went to remove my mask, however, I heard the sounds of someone coming up the hill.

Quickly, I Rifted away to hide behind a large rock not too far away. Stuffing the peach in my bag, I listened to the person's footsteps, hearing them stop by the tree. I heard I light thump, possibly meaning they sat down. After a while of waiting, I decided to take a look. When I poked my head up over the rock, I saw who was sitting at the tree.

Sitting at the base of the tree was a tiger in some kind of red clothing. They were sitting in the lotus position, seemingly in a meditative state. I observed their tranquility, and somewhat envied them. As they meditated, I considered the possibility of speaking to them. I needed information, and they were alone.

Letting out a sigh, I Rifted behind the tiger, and noticed that they had not noticed me. Looks like I've still got it. "It" being a mastery of stealth, of course.

"Do not be afraid. I am here with peace in mind."

They turned around rapidly, getting into some kind of fighting stance, eyes widening upon seeing me.

"How did you get here? Who are you?" they asked in a feminine voice.

Really, I just had to tell her a half-truth.

"I do not know. I awoke merely minutes ago, and have no memory of who I am. I only know what I am."

"I do not believe you."

Of fucking course not.

"But it is the truth. I know not where I am, and I know not how I arrived here, other than my arrival was painful."

She did not back down from her fighting stance, but did look curious.

"Well... what are you?"

I chuckled, black smoke spilling from my mask.

"I am a Wraith."

"And you are very far from home."

Surprised, I turned around to see a... tortoise with a staff?

"Master Oogway!" the tiger exclaimed, bowing to the tortoise.

"Good to see you've made a new friend, young Tigress."

She was confused at first, but then glared at me.

"He is not my friend. He is an intruder."

Oogway shook his head, putting a hand on "Tigress's" shoulder.

"Oh, but he is. He comes in peace, so he is just a friend you don't quite know yet." he said with a laugh.

Okay then, you weird tortoise dude.

"Come, friend. We would love to have a guest at the Jade Palace. I'm sure Shifu will welcome you."

"Who?"

Oogway chuckled, but Tigress growled, as if I had offended her.

"Oh, an old friend of mine. He is Tigress's Master, and has taught her well in the art of Kung Fu. He has only five students, but I hope we can change that."

I certainly hoped he wasn't insinuating that I would join some stupid-ass Kung Fu school, or whatever. I had my own style of fighting that I liked to call, "Actually Fucking Works". Kung Fu was just a bunch of fancy bullshit that took too long to learn, in my opinion. And that "code of honor" shit? Yeah, not my kind of thing. I was an assassin, not some kind of samurai.

We approached some kind of building, and the doors swung open to reveal a... red panda, I think. Was this Shifu? Hard to imagine this little animal was a Kung Fu master-

"Master Shifu!" Tigress exclaimed, bowing as she did for Oogway.

Well never-fucking-mind, then.

"Tigress. Master Oogway." he said, addressing the two.

He then laid eyes on me, his look becoming one that I couldn't quite tell what he was thinking.

"Who is this?"

Master Oogway motioned to me, smiling at Shifu.

"This is our guest. He knows not who he is, but he is far from home."

Shifu opened his mouth to speak, but said nothing, instead just nodding his head.

"He can stay at the student barracks. There is an extra room for him." Shifu said, nodding to me in acknowledgement.

I nodded back, giving a respectful bow to him.

"Thank you. Your hospitality is appreciated."

He just gave a small smile and turned to leave, walking into the building, motioning for Tigress to follow. Tigress followed him inside, as did Oogway, so I figured that I might as well follow too. Inside, there was a lot to take in. There were these wooden mechanisms made to look like warriors, a bunch of bladed rings on the ceiling, swinging clubs, some spinning shit, and some green bowl that looked like a turtle.

What kind of death trap was this? What kind of training can you get out of this?

Shifu looked back at me, then back to Tigress.

"Tigress, run the gauntlet. Let's show our guest what you can do."

Tigress nodded her head, immediately leaping into the death trap. She expertly navigated across the spinning whatevers, avoiding the swinging clubs, though I personally thought she was a bit slow. She leapt over the turtle bowl and made her way through the wooden dragons after swinging on one of the bladed ceiling rings, entirely destroying one of the wooden contraptions before landing on... some tubes?

Whoa! Fire!

Tigress expertly avoided the flames, ending her gauntlet run with a bow after she reached the end.

Shifu looked to me and waved his hand over to Tigress.

"Impressive, yes?"

I thought about it, and yes, for the average person it was impressive, and was about the level you were supposed to be before becoming a Wraith. As Tigress approached, I decided to give Shifu my honest answer.

"I can easily say it was quite the spectacle to watch. Very flashy. Very showy. She's obviously very skilled..." I trailed off.

Shifu gave and almost defensive look at me.

"But...?" he asked a bit aggressively.

I thought about how to word my concerns, fully aware of Tigress watching me closely.

"But... how does she do against a live combatant? A gauntlet and a person are two different things."

Shifu gave a small laugh.

"She is adept against a live opponent. It's not like I just make her run the gauntlet."

"Then I'd like to see it. I'm a warrior, I think, so I would like to see where I stand as well."

Shifu was a bit shocked, as was Tigress. But I knew what I wanted. I had yet to face a dangerous opponent here, and my memory was still foggy. So naturally, I wanted to gauge where I was at.

"Are you certain? Tigress is a master of Kung Fu, and you don't even remember who you are."

I put my bag on the floor, along with my weapons.

"Of course I'm certain."

Shifu nodded his head, motioning for Tigress to join me. I wasn't going to cheat and use my abilities, so it would be fair. I got into a loose fighting stance, watching Tigress get into one of her own. I stared her down, lighting my mask up with red lights and blowing out black smoke.

It was quite fun to do, actually.

Tigress did not react to my intimidation method, but I could see confusion in her eyes. Likely because she did not know how it worked.

"Begin!"

I gave Tigress no time to move, rushing over to her as fast as I could, closing twenty feet in a split second. Her eyes could only widen as I struck her midsection, sending her back a few meters. Not wanting to lose distance, I approached fast again, and had to dodge a punch she threw, as well as a kick to the head. Grabbing her leg, I threw her into the wooden dragons and leapt into the air.

She leapt as well, meeting me in the air and sending a flurry of punches that I had to block. She was quite slow, but that was because I was a Wraith. Had I been a normal human, it would have been quite a bit more challenging.

I returned my own series of strikes, Tigress blocking a few punches, but could not block all of them, resulting in a few strikes to the face and gut. When we landed, I faked a punch at her face and kicked her legs out from under her when she blocked high. Getting on top the moment she hit the ground, I rapidly pounded her head, her skull bouncing off of the floor with each strike.

When she tried to block her face, I punched her in the gut until she threw me off. Skidding across the ground, as well as dodging the wooden arms of the wooden dragon things, I leapt back at Tigress. She did a flying kick at me, which I narrowly avoided. Catching her by the tail, I slammed her into the ground hard. When I saw the ground crack, I worried for Tigress until I saw her eyes shoot open in rage.

Not letting her get up, I kicked her in the head hard before grabbing her by the arms. She kicked at me, managing to land a few good strikes before I jumped up, throwing her into one of the swinging clubs. She broke the club mid-air as I jumped at her and took her moment of distraction to kick her upward. When she busted through the ceiling, I followed.

Tigress was on her knees and coughing, but locked eyes with me. She immediately began running at me on all fours, so I retaliated by kicking upward as she pounced, causing her to fly over my head and through the hole. I jumped down with her, striking her in the face and sending her flying into the top of a wooden contraption, her gut slamming into it hard. I gave her no chance to recover, as I struck her back, busting the wooden warrior and sending Tigress to the ground.

She attempted to pick herself up, but could not. I wanted to continue, but it felt wrong.

But the urge was so strong. My body begged to go for the kill. I craved it. I lusted for it.

I needed it.

No... I couldn't. I had to stop myself. Why would I have such an urge? I know I was an assassin, but that didn't necessarily mean that I was some blood-thirsty maniac.

"I refuse to fight while she is down. I have seen her skill."

Tigress lifted her head, and started to stand, getting into an unsteady stance.

"I... am not done... fighting." Tigress said between breaths.

"Yes you are. If you attempt to strike me now, I will not fight back. It would be like hitting a cripple."

Her face became one of rage, and she charged me, losing her composed form.

"Tigress, no!" Shifu shouted.

But Tigress had already leapt. However, I had a trick up my sleeve.

I stepped to the side.

Tigress struck the ground, bouncing off of the floor, attempting to get back up just to fall on her face.

"Tigress... you have done enough. Do not hurt yourself." Shifu ordered coldly.

I could see it in his eyes. A look of disappointment. As though his strong, fast, skilled student was but an insignificant whelp. I couldn't understand how he didn't hold a look of pride in his eyes for her. I was a Wraith, yet she managed to strike me not just once, but many times. That was a legendary feat in itself, as we were known to dodge bullets.

"Your student is quite the adept fighter. I'm so terribly sorry to have ever even doubted her. You must be very, very proud!" I praised.

Shifu looked a bit confused, looking at the beaten form of Tigress.

"But she was so easily beaten by you. I am proud of her, of course, but why are you impressed?"

I laughed, billowing out more black smoke.

"Why, she managed to land plenty of good hits, and survived what would have been killing blows for others. I only recall Wraiths with such admirable skills, though that may be due to my amnesia." I admitted, looking over at Tigress, who looked at me with a look I could not discern.

Shifu nodded his head, and I could see a smile tug at his lips. I looked to Oogway for a reaction, and saw an interesting look on his face.

It was a look of uncertainty.

Shifu saw this and immediately asked what was wrong.

"Master, what is the matter?"

Oogway turned to Shifu and motioned for him to follow, which he did. They exited the training hall, so it was just Tigress and I. Walking over to the tiger after gathering my things, I attempted to help her up, but had my hands smacked away.

"Don't touch me. You've humiliated me enough."

I ignored her protests and helped her to her feet.

"Don't be upset. You are a fantastic warrior."

She huffed, looking at the floor.

"A fantastic warrior doesn't become so easily acquainted with the floor." she said.

I laughed, much to the anger of Tigress, but could not help it. It was pretty funny, honestly, though I did feel bad.

"I'm... I'm sorry. But that was funny. However, I meant what I said. You are a fantastic warrior, and though your master doesn't show any appreciation for your skill, I am willing to say you should be very proud of your skill. You managed to hold your own against me, someone artificially molded into the ultimate warrior."

Tigress' eyes widened, showing her shock at the statement.

"What do you mean?"

Right. Like I would tell you if I knew.

"I don't quite remember, but I'm not naturally that fast, or strong. I was changed through some kind of process involving advanced technology, and what's best described as sorcery."

She looked as though she could not believe her ears.

"Sorcery? I was battling a creation of sorcery?"

I nodded.

"Though, I did not use the full extent of my abilities."

Then, she went back to being disappointed.

"Hey. Don't be so hard on yourself, Stripes."

"Don't call me that. I am a master of Kung Fu, and deserve at least some respect."

I shrugged, leading her out of the training hall.

"I'm just being friendly. You don't have to be so serious. Life is better if you don't take it so seriously."

Tigress broke contact with me, stopping me in my tracks with her hand. She looked me in the eyes, leaning in very close to my face.

"Maybe for you, but I am a self-respecting warrior, trained since childhood to be the best Kung Fu master I could possibly be. To have you show up and do everything you can to humiliate me is the last thing I want, and I won't have it. I am not your friend, and I want to see you gone. You aren't even supposed to be here."

I wasn't going to take that shit. I grabbed onto her arm and pulled her even closer, staring straight into her eyes, though it was pointless with the mask.

"Listen here. I didn't come here to humiliate you. All I want is information about this strange land I found myself in. Information about myself. You may not believe it, but those are the facts. And I may want to be your ally, but I will not hesitate to put you in your fucking place."

She struggled in my grip, but I held tight.

"Do I make myself clear?"

She hesitated, but eventually nodded. As soon as she did, I let her go.

Where did that sudden anger come from?

"I'm... sorry. I don't know where that came from."

She nodded her head, turning to look at me.

"No, don't apologize. I... You're right. You are justified in your anger, and I only have myself to blame for my failure. If Oogway trusts you, then... then I can trust you."

I smiled beneath my mask, though the action went unnoticed. However, in place of the smile, I decided on something else. Reaching in my bag, I pulled out the peach I had picked and handed it to Tigress. She looked at the peach, hesitating for a while, but eventually took it. It was a small gesture, but it was a sign of good will.

"I... Thank you... um, what's your name?"

I shrugged, but did have a name I liked in mind.

"I'm not quite sure, but you can call me... Teivel."

"Alright then, 'Teivel'."

I thought it suited me. Especially here, it's what I was. A demon. The Devil himself. It was certainly a name that defined me. Tigress bit into the peach as we stepped outside, almost half of it gone with a single bite. As we exited the training hall, we saw Shifu on his knees alone in the courtyard.

"Master!" Tigress shouted, dropping the peach and rushing to his side.

I caught the peach before it hit the ground and walked over to Shifu to join Tigress.

"Oogway... foresees Tai Lung escaping prison. I have sent Zeng to Chorh-Gom prison to tell them to double their efforts. But... I believe we need to host the tournament to find the Dragon Warrior." Shifu said.

"We will be ready for him. We have trained for this." Tigress said proudly.

Shifu shook his head.

"No. You are not ready. None of you are. Not yet. Until we find the Dragon Warrior, nobody is."

What a strange issue.

"If this 'Tai Lung' is such a concern, why don't they just kill him before he escapes?" I asked.

Tigress gave me a harsh glare, and I shrugged, genuinely confused. Shifu stayed silent, just waving us off.

"But Master-"

"No. Go find the others and give them the news. We will host the tournament tomorrow."

Tigress did not argue. Immediately, she ran off, presumably to find the other students. Deciding to leave Shifu be, I headed to search for my room.

"The student barracks are that way." Shifu said, pointing the opposite direction, not looking up at me.

How the hell did he...

"Of course. Thank you."

Ignoring how weird that was, I just went to the building I could see in that direction, taking a shortcut by Rifting to it. Entering, I found it empty. All of the doors were closed except for one on the end, which I assumed was mine. Entering, I saw it was simple, having a bed and... a candle holder? Shrugging, I set my things on the bed when I noticed a box under the bed.

Opening the box, I set my things inside, placing my weapons up against the wall. Sitting on my bed, I looked at the peach in my hand. Why the fuck did I save it? It had a bite taken out of it, and I also felt no need to eat. Sighing, I went back outside and threw the peach hard, but was surprised when I saw a hand catch it. The hand belonged to Tigress, who was followed by a number of different animals.

When they reached the building, most stared at me curiously, but Tigress approached to introduce me after finishing the peach.

"This is Teivel. He is the warrior who cannot remember who he is."

I nodded, but was a bit disappointed that she introduced me herself.

"Come on. You could have said I was something cool, like, an angel or something."

"But that would be a lie."

"Or is it?"

Tigress started to speak, but froze instead, her eyes widening.

"Are you really?"

I laughed and shook my head. She just rolled her eyes and went inside. I observed the other students, seeing that they were a monkey, a bird, and some kind of snake. I had thought there was another, but supposed I must have missed them.

I shrugged and turned to go inside when I noticed a mantis on my shoulder.

Whack! Whack! Whack!

After smacking the insect off of my shoulder, I turned to go inside when I heard a noise.

"O-Ouch."

Turning back around, I looked for the source. Hearing a faint moaning of pain, I looked down to see the mantis.

Wait.

The fifth student.

Oh SHIT!

"Oh damn, I'm sorry! You startled me!" I sort of lied.

The mantis just waved his front leg, still groaning.

"It's... fine. Totally... understand." he said sarcastically. "Not like I was just going to introduce myself.

Not wanting to leave him there, I picked him up and brought him inside. Entering the barracks, I put the mantis in the room he told me to before heading to my own room. Before I entered, Tigress exited her room and turned to me.

"We will be training more in just a moment. If you need anything, bother one of the servants instead."

I thought about it, but decided on something much simpler and more entertaining.

"I'll just join you instead."

Tigress nodded, and I saw the snake exit its room and lock eyes with me.

"Oh, hello! Are you a new student?"

Like hell.

"No, just lost." I said with a laugh.

The snake laughed as well, smiling at me.

"Well, it happens to all of us. I'm Viper! Your name was Teivel, correct?"

I nodded my head. Wait... her name was Viper?

"That's correct. I will also be joining you for training today."

Viper looked excited, approaching me.

"That's great! Tigress spoke highly of-"

Tigress shot Viper a glare, making the snake back down.

But it was too late.

"Aw, you think I'm praiseworthy? Aren't you just the sweetest?"

Tigress was less than amused, rolling her eyes and pushing passed me and heading out the door. Viper just looked at me, and we both started to laugh. She was just too serious, I thought. Perhaps a result of Shifu's cold method of training?

I headed to follow Tigress to the training hall, and I heard the other students leave their rooms. I saw the mantis was still in rough shape, but was relatively fine. We headed to the training hall. and they introduced themselves along the way. Their names all seemed to be the name of their species. It brought up an interesting question.

"So, are those, like, your titles or something?"

Crane shook his head.

"Nope. Actual names. We get that question more often than you'd think."

Right...

We reached the training hall, and the Five (minus Tigress) looked at the mess made by Tigress and I. The hole in the ceiling was larger than I remembered, and there were a lot of wooden splinters as well as spikes littering the floor.

"Man, you guys really tried to kill each other, didn't ya?" Mantis asked.

I shrugged, entering the training hall where I spotted geese trying to sweep up the mess.

"Pretty much. She was quite the worthy adversary, landing a good number of hits. Is she your best?"

Viper made her way passed me, answering my question.

"I would say so. But that's what happens when you're trained by Shifu since childhood."

That explained a lot.

I nodded my head in understanding, making my way over to where Tigress was already standing. She looked up to me, but did not acknowledge that I was there. To be fair, though, she didn't acknowledge anybody at all. But I just assumed it was part of who she was. She was obviously quite reserved, if showing a bit of a temper every once in a while. At least she wasn't really annoying, or something. I'd rather her pretend she hates my guts than for her to be overly friendly.

"Are you ready?" Tigress asked the group.

Receiving multiple answers of affirmation, she got into position.

"Then let's begin."

And so we did.

For hours.

By the end of it, however, the Five were in much worse shape than I was, as was the training hall.

Exiting the training hall, I headed to the student barracks. When I noticed the Five were much farther behind, except for Tigress, I slowed down for them. Once they reached me, I stayed at their pace.

"Tigress... wasn't exaggerating. You're fast!" Viper said mostly to herself, still breathing hard.

Feeling pleased with myself, I entered the barracks. I headed into my room, but I sensed someone by my door. Turning around, I saw Tigress in the doorway.

"I wanted to know what you would be doing during the tournament."

I chuckled.

"Why? Worried about me?"

Tigress rolled her eyes, stepping into my room and shutting my door.

"No, I just need to know that you aren't going to get into trouble."

This time, it was my turn to roll my eyes.

"Just who do you think I am? I don't 'get into trouble', and if I do, I can get myself out of it." I explained, holding up a sword for emphasis.

Tigress approached me rapidly, staring me down.

"I don't trust you. Do you understand that? Especially when you just showed up out of nowhere armed."

"And here I thought we were becoming friends. What happened to that 'Oogway trusts you and so do I' thing?"

Tigress backed down, staring at the ground.

"I did say that, didn't I? I suppose I just... I'm worried. Tai Lung has me on edge."

I had a question about that.

"Who is this 'Tai Lung'? Why don't we just kill him?"

Tigress let out a long sigh, then looked me in the eye.

"He was Shifu's first student. He raised him since he was just a cub. Shifu saw Tai Lung was a prodigy in Kung Fu, and Tai Lung mastered the thousand scrolls of Kung Fu. But when Oogway denied him the title of Dragon Warrior, Tai Lung only proved Oogway right, unleashing his dark anger on the Valley of Peace. When he attempted to take the scroll by force, Shifu could not fight what he had created. After Tai Lung shattered Shifu's hip, Oogway used the chi block technique on him, paralyzing him. Now, Tai Lung is in prison."

Tigress broke eye contact, looking past me at nothing in particular.

"Ever since, Shifu has closed his heart to others. That is why he does not show his pride in us."

Something told me that she told herself that exact thing every day.

But that reminded me.

"Where has Shifu gone, by the way?"

"He is likely in the Dragon Grotto. It is where he meditates when he needs some time on his own."

"Everybody needs some time all alone."

Because nothing lasts forever in the cold November rain.

Ha.

It was going to be a lot less fun making references from my culture to people who didn't understand it.

Tigress just nodded in agreement.

"Yes. It is important for keeping a peaceful mind."

I sat down on my bed, pulling out my sword. I rolled up the sleeve on my cloak and removed the armor on my forearm before placing the blade on my arm, testing the sharpness by shaving the hairs on my arm. Satisfied by the smooth bald patch it left, I wiped the blade off and put it back in the sheath before doing the same for the other blade.

"What are you doing? You could hurt yourself!" Tigress exclaimed.

Putting the other blade away, I looked at Tigress while I put the armor back on.

"Well it doesn't help when you shout, potentially startling me."

Tigress put a hand on the back of her head, rubbing it in embarrassment.

"Right. But still. Don't do that."

I scoffed, partially offended.

"What, you think I'm some careless moron? I don't cut myself by mistake."

Tigress nodded her head, but then had a look of extreme concern. Realizing the mistake with my word choice, I quickly corrected the worrying error.

"To be clear, I don't do it intentionally either."

Tigress looked relieved. I pulled out my holo-phone and looked at the time, while Tigress was mesmerized by the device.

"What is that?"

Turning the phone back off, I waved in in my hand, motioning to it.

"Just a holo-phone. From what I remember, everyone back home has one. It lets us communicate from anywhere in the world as long as the other person has one, and if we are connected to something called 'the internet', we can access the culmination of all of our knowledge and media. We can also take pictures with it, as well as a few other things, like play games, or track our health as just a couple of examples."

Tigress appeared amazed, but seemed to have a question.

"What do you mean by 'take pictures'?"

"Oh, it just means that with a device in the phone called a camera, it will essentially make a copy of whatever image you want it to simply by giving it the command. However, I think that it would be best just to show you."

Turning on the camera, I stood up and approached Tigress, turning the camera to the front-facing one. When Tigress saw herself on the screen, her face lit up in surprise.

"Smile."

She did not. However, I took the picture nonetheless. Oddly enough, it almost seemed as though I was slightly... transparent. Shrugging it off as "I was probably dead", I showed Tigress the picture. This time, however, she did smile.

"That's amazing. It's so accurate!"

Damn right it is. But we weren't done yet.

"Then you'll love to see a video."

When she gave a look of curiosity, I aimed the camera at her.

"Just trust me on this. When I give the signal, do a high kick, or some kind of move."

She hesitated for a moment, but nodded, getting ready. Putting the camera on video mode, I pressed the floating (and honestly gimmicky) "record" button and gave a wave with my hand. Tigress immediately kicked her leg up into the air, following it up by leaping into the air and giving a flurry of kicks before landing and bowing. Ending the video, I smiled wide and moved to show Tigress.

She looked at the phone, her eyes full of curiosity and anticipation. When I played the video, her smile only grew as she viewed herself execute the moves so perfectly on the screen. I pressed the replay button for her, letting her see it again. After it was over, she reached over and started it again herself, having figured it out. She seemed completely awestruck as she viewed the perfectly smooth video.

"This is amazing. And you can watch it whenever you want?"

When I nodded, she got excited.

"This would help so much with training. I already know how I would implement it."

"Hey, uh, could you keep it down?" I heard Crane shout from the other room.

Tigress did not appear to listen, instead moving over to open the door leading to Crane's room.

"Crane. You must see this."

Crane put a wing on his forehead in a pseudo-facepalm.

"Fine. If it's got you of all people excited, it must be the greatest thing since... what is that?"

This was going to take all night.

I let out a sigh as I saw light coming in from outside. Tigress had felt the need to let everyone know about the phone. If I had thought Tigress was excited about it, the others practically went berserk over it. I couldn't get them to leave it alone. Eventually, I got Tigress to help me throw them out. After an apology from Tigress, we had bid each other a good night, Tigress going to sleep while I just attended my equipment.

I kind of wished I needed sleep, since it was boring with nothing to do. I could have went into the village, but I worried the villagers would see me as some kind of demon and riot. But that was a problem for later.

Getting up and heading to the door, I stretched, letting out a deep sigh of content. It was somewhat fun to blow the black smoke clouds, even if it was a bit concerning. Ignoring the potential issue, I opened the door, singing quietly to myself.

"~Make up your mind, and I'll promise you, I will treat you well, my sweet angel!- oh."

Down the hall was Shifu, giving me an unamused look as he stood next to a gong. Shaking his head, he hit the gong. The Furious Five immediately exited their rooms, greeting their master.

"Good morning, Master!"

I just stood with my hands in my pockets, hoping nobody else heard me singing.

"Good morning, students. Today is the day of the tournament. I expect you to do better than you ever have today. Oogway will choose one of you as the Dragon Warrior, so I want to see only the best."

"Yes, Master!"

Like trained dogs. Shifu looked down the hall at me, pointing a finger at me.

"You! If you would like to watch the tournament, join us. Otherwise, do not interfere."

Well that was the harshest invitation I've ever received. Well, at least I think so. Y'know, 'cuz of bad memory and whatnot.

"I wouldn't miss it. Thank you."

With that, they headed off to prepare. Not really certain what to do, I just followed with my swords and rifle. I was going to use them, as I needed to get the satisfaction of doing so. The Five headed to what I believed to be the entrance of the palace. I knew it had some kind of enclosed courtyard, where I assumed the tournament would be held.

When I reached the training hall, I entered to see it completely empty, and repaired.

Whoever did the repairs here deserved a huge fuckin' raise.

Looking to the "wooden warriors", as I learned they were called, I propped the door open with the dummy thing and rifted into a tree in the distance that still allowed me to see the warriors while giving a challenge. Taking aim with my rifle, I rapidly blasted a hole in the heads of the wooden warriors. It had only taken about two seconds, and I had managed to get them right on target. One shot per kill.

Damn, I was good. But I didn't feel satisfied. I realized that the swinging clubs were not active, so I Rifted inside and got them going. Watching them swing, I chuckle in satisfaction.

This would be good.

But I needed something else...

A timer! A could use my phone, but why not try something?

Grabbing a piece of rope, I used the same ability that branded people to set the rope ablaze. As soon as it was lit, I leapt onto the spinning logs, avoiding the swinging clubs and blasting the wooden warriors. Not a single other club had the chance to swing at me before I had shot all of the heads of the wooden warriors.

I still needed something else...

A classic closed-eyes challenge would do fine.

Shutting my eyes, I listened carefully to the sound of the swinging club coming, leaping out of the way. I fired to where I remembered the wooden warriors to be, dodging another club. I knew there was still one I had missed. And that rope was only getting shorter. Leaping into the air, I pulled out a sword and activated the heated edges, slicing the chain of an oncoming club as though it were water.

Landing, I realized that the rope was likely almost burned out. But I was going to have my fun.

Was that the sound of someone at the door?

Wait, shit! On a time limit! No distractions.

Sword in hand, I jumped toward the final wooden warrior, blasting the chains holding the two swinging clubs I heard coming my way. Raising my blade, I swung down, cleaving through the contraption and part of the floor.

I opened my eyes and turned to admire my handiwork when I saw Tigress standing at the doorway, her eyes wide as she processed what she saw.

"This was... uh... like this when I got here."

Tigress shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"Well now I know what that weapon does." she said before regaining her composure.

"Anyway, the tournament is going to begin soon. Oogway wants you to stand with him as a guest, though Shifu doesn't seem to understand why. Come with me."

Sheathing my sword after deactivating the heated edges, I leapt over to Tigress and followed her to our destination. I could hear the sounds of cheering as I approached, and I could easily tell that this was something the people looked forward to. Eventually, I found myself standing with the Five, staring at the large crowd coming.

Oogway spotted me and waved me over, smiling widely.

"Ah, my new friend. How has your stay been?"

Letting my rifle hang by its strap, I looked at Oogway, seeing his wise eyes and calming smile.

"It's been quite pleasant. The training hall is quite something."

He laughed softly, nodding his head while waving at the crowds of people.

"It is, isn't it?"

He then turned to Shifu, who was watching carefully over the crowd.

"Are they ready?"

Shifu turned to the tortoise, then to the Five.

"Of course. More than they have been for anything."

Oogway smiled, looking back at the crowd.

"Excellent." he said, turning to me. "How exciting. Makes me wish I had something to capture the moment."

Oh, how interesting that very specific wish was. Good thing I had something on me just for that very specific wish.

"Funny you say that. I have just the thing."

Pulling out my phone, I showed it to Oogway and explained what it does. He smiled, watching as I showed off the features.

"How interesting that you just happened to have something to fulfill that specific wish."

Yeah, I know right?

I could see the Five getting into positions around the arena, and the doors started to close. Hitting the record button, I turned to Oogway.

"This is gonna be good."

Oogway laughed.

"I would hope so."

Then, it was my turn to laugh. I liked this old tortoise! Shifu took in a deep breath, putting his hand into the air, making the crowd become somewhat quieter.

"CITIZENS OF THE VALLEY OF PEACE, IT IS MY GREAT HONOR TO PRESENT TO YOU: TIGRESS, VIPER, CRANE, MONKEY, MANTIS. THE FURIOUS FIVE!"

The crowd went wild as the Five leapt into the air, chanting "Furious Five!" when the Five landed, striking their poses. It was quite amazing to watch, but hard as fuck to record. Shifu started the tournament, Crane going first.

Each of the Furious Five went their turn, showing off their skills in amazing spectacles full of suspense. I thought it was kinda hokey, but it was still fun.

"AND FINALLY, MASTER TIGRESS! BELIEVE ME CITIZENS, YOU HAVE NOT SEEN ANYTHING YET!"

Well that probably sucked to hear for the other members of the Five.

Tigress prepared to face "Iron ox and his blades of death" when Oogway held up his hand, making the whole arena go silent.

"I sense the Dragon Warrior is among us." Oogway said softly.

The Five lined up in the middle of the arena, and Oogway slowly made his way down the steps. The suspense was unreal, and somewhat exciting, though I really wanted to see Tigress perform. When he reached the five, I saw him raising his hand to Tigress when I heard a cracking and fizzing sound in the air. Looking up, I zoomed in with my phone to see the ball of flames in the air. I couldn't make out what it was, but eventually it starting falling down.

Then, I realized it was a person-

SMACK!

And now they were dead.

Or so I thought. Their eyes began to open, and the panda quickly got up, apologizing for getting in the way. I could see Oogway was pointing at him, but Tigress stepped up.

"Master, are you pointing at me?"

"Him!" Oogway said cheerfully.

The panda moved around, but Oogway's finger followed.

"Who?" the panda asked.

"You!"

"Me?" he asked again.

Oogway lifted the panda's arm into the air, speaking to the crowd.

"The universe has brought us the Dragon Warrior!"

What?

"What?" the panda asked.

"What?" Shifu shouted.

"WHAT?" the Five shouted.

"WHAT!?" some goose dude at the entrance shouted.

A gong sounded, and music played as the crowd cheered. Realizing I was still recording, I quickly aimed it at "the Dragon Warrior" and observed a group of geese attempt to carry the panda while Shifu scrambled to stop them.

But as expected, the geese were struggling.

Letting out a sigh, I jumped over to the panda and picked him up myself, carrying him over my shoulder to the palace, shrugging when I saw the confused looks of the Five. I heard Shifu speaking with Oogway about something as I carried the panda up the steps. I brought him into the building, seeing the place myself for the first time.

Setting the panda down, I greeted the panda.

"So, Oogway thinks you're the 'Dragon Warrior', eh? Well I've never seen a regular person just walk off a fall like that, so who am I do judge? I'm Teivel, the Wraith." I said, blowing out black smoke to make an interesting first impression.

The panda just stared slack-jawed at me, waving his hand through the black smoke. He then just stared at my mask, so I decided to give him a little surprise. I rapidly flashed the red and white lights in my mask while blowing smoke out rapidly through the mask, making him jump back and yelp while giving me a good laugh.

"Ah, never gets old. Who are you, Dragon Warrior?" I asked, letting the lights settle on a dark green before shutting them off.

He stuttered for a moment, but eventually composed himself enough to speak.

"I... I'm Po. I, uh, think there's been a mistake, honestly."

Yeah, you and everybody else. But Oogway insisted.

"Well that may be the case, but you never know, right?"

"How optimistic of you."

Turning around, I could see Shifu standing in front of some kind of pool with a dragon head above it. Shifu approached Po, staff in hand, and observed the panda.

"I can see that you have met our guest, panda. But know this: he is much, much more optimistic about you than I. Just look at you! You're a flabby, fat, utter waste of oxygen. To be the Dragon Warrior and receive the Dragon Scroll," Shifu said, pointing at the metal dragon, "as well as its secrets to unlimited power, you must master the highest level of Kung Fu. But that may not be possible for someone like you."

Po looked at himself, looking quite upset.

"Like me?"

Shifu turned to Po, and poked him in the gut.

"A fat, clumsy fool of a panda."

Po looked at the ground in shame.

"Oogway may have chosen you, but when I'm through with you, I will make you wish he hadn't." Shifu said, turning to leave.

Something told me he held back only because I was here. I didn't want to know what he would do to the panda if I wasn't.

Po looked defeated, but followed Shifu nonetheless. I followed as well, following Shifu to the training hall. Opening the doors, I could see the Five already inside, sparring with each other or testing their skills. As we entered, Tigress broke one of the remaining clubs with her hands, flinging the pieces our direction.

Fortunately for Po, I caught the one headed directly for his head with my right hand. Tigress just looked at me in frustration, as if hitting Po with it was exactly her plan. Honestly, I didn't doubt it a bit.

Turning to Po, I patted him on the back, pointing to the obstacles.

"Don't worry. They're only just as difficult as they look." I joked.

But then I remembered who I was talking to. For the panda, this was a death trap. Shifu seemed to find it funny, however, as he laughed to himself.

"And that is a fact. Well then... go ahead, panda."

Po's eyes widened, and he backed away.

"Well, I don't think I can do all of those... Kung Fu moves. Can we start off on something a bit easier?"

I had an idea.

"I can get you started with some slow paced sparring, if you'd like."

Shifu seemed like he wanted to argue, but did not.

"Alright then. Go ahead, panda. Show us what you can do."

I set my things down on a table and out of the way before posting up. Po hesitated, and didn't seem to know what he was doing with his hands, but got into some kind of abomination of a fighting stance.

At least it was something.

"Alright. We'll start off slow. You can go as fast as you want, and I'll match you. We'll start with punches. You will punch at me, and I will attempt to dodge. Then, I will throw the punches, and you will dodge. Understood?"

The Five had stopped their own training to observe, making Po nervous, but he nodded his head anyway.

"Yeah, sure. I got this!"

Sure thing, man.

"Whenever you're ready."

Po nodded, then started speaking a bit quietly, his words appearing to mostly be words to hype himself up. Then, he cocked his arm back and punched.

Very slowly.

I ducked out of the way, then weaved left for the next punch.

"Come on, work on that form! Keep it consistent! That punch was sloppy."

Avoiding an attempt at an uppercut, I moved back into place, circling Po.

"Faster. Don't let me get away from you. Lean into your punches, and make your swings fast. You want to send as many punches my way as possible."

He quickened his speed, but his form got sloppy again, so I corrected him. After about five minutes, he seemed to already be tired, so I decided to switch it up.

"I won't tell you that you did well, because you didn't. If I was a crippled great-grandmother with a knife, I would have killed you." I said, making the others laugh.

Po looked put down, but I wasn't done yet.

"And your form was dreadful. But I'm glad to see you at least attempted to improve, and your form was actively getting better. But now it's time for you to dodge."

He gulped as I posted up. He started to speak, but couldn't. Swallowing again, he finally spoke.

"Ready...?"

I wasted no time taking the swing. However, I made it slow enough for him to process. Unfortunately, he still wasn't fast enough, and was laid out immediately. To his credit, he got up and shook it off, ready to continue.

So, I swung again, Po dodging it this time by moving his head back.

"Don't lean too far back or you'll lose your balance. Watch my every movement. They will tip you off on what I will do next."

I stepped forward and punched at his gut, only to have his hand deflect it.

"Good!"

I then faked right and hit him in the gut.

"But don't let it go to your head."

For the next five minutes, we did the same thing, and he honestly got a bit better. Once we were done, I put my hand on his shoulder and chuckled.

"Well that was the slowest fight I've ever had. But in time, you'll make to be a great piece of cannon fodder."

Po just gave a half-hearted chuckle.

"Right... so, what now?"

"Well I'm tired of this shit, so you'll fight one of the wooden warriors."

I jumped into the gauntlet, ripped a wooden warrior from its spot, and leapt back up to Po, placing the wooden warrior in front of him. Shifu put a hand on his forehead and sighed.

"You could have just grabbed a replacement from the back. One of the ones not already installed."

Oops.

"Too late now. Sorry 'bout that."

Po stared at the wooden contraption, confused until he pushed one of the arms, only to have it swing around and hit him in the back of the head. He turned to me, so I just shrugged, and gave a thumbs up. The others were bored, so they just went back to training while I watched Po. He fearfully tapped the arms, just ducking instead of deflecting them.

"Go on. Hit them. Fast, strong hits. Pretend it, like, stole a cookie from you, or something."

"Ha... ha... right." Po said with a fake smile, afraid to get hurt.

Goddammit.

I sighed, looking around for some padding and rope. Finding both, I wrapped up the arms of the wooden warrior and motioned for Po to continue.

"If this still hurts you, I'm killing you myself. By cooking you in the Field of Fiery Death."

Yeah, it's quite the name isn't it? I thought it was pretty pessimistic.

"Okay then...wow... uh..."

Po experimentally hit the padded arm, and smile wide before striking it a bit harder, deflecting the arm swinging around. He continued to do this, becoming faster and more confident. Without a way of getting hurt too badly, he was able to hone his reflexes. Shifu at first held a look of disapproval, but smiled at me. He approached me, smiling.

"That's quite the way to start him off. Not bad at all. But you do realize it won't make him strong enough to defeat Tai Lung, right?"

I chuckled and grabbed my rifle, holding it up for Shifu to see.

"That's what this is for."

I then pointed the rifle at the chain of one of the remaining swinging clubs, blasting it in half as it sailed toward Tigress, who shattered the remains. Shifu was in awe at the weapon. Hell, why wouldn't he be? It was accurate, could fire over five hundred shots without recharging, had multiple places for accessories like the scope on top and plasma flamethrower (my personal favorite), and could melt steel.

It was amazing.

"No. It is the Dragon Warrior's destiny. Just not that Dragon Warrior."

Shrugging, I set the gun back down.

"Just a suggestion."

Shifu let out a sigh and looked dejectedly at Po.

"I just can't believe Oogway would pick someone like him when there are so many other actual masters. He was going to point at Tigress, and then that flabby panda fell in front of him. Even you would make for a much better applicant. and you don't even use Kung Fu."

Running a gloved hand over my rifle, I let out a heavy sigh of my own.

"I understand. But I can tell that Oogway is wise. He knows things that I don't even understand how he knows about them. So surely, he sees something in Po over there. We should at least work with what we have, right?"

Shifu shook his head.

"We shouldn't have to work with that."

"I know, but are you saying that Oogway doesn't know what he's talking about?"

He gave an angry look, clearly upset at the implication.

"Of course not! You dare insinuate such a thing? It's just... I don't understand. How do we turn that," he asked, pointing at Po, "into the Dragon Warrior?"

I shrugged, watching Po deflect the padded arms of the wooden warrior. I decided to try something.

Picking up a ceramic disk, I shouted Po's name, and threw the disk at him as soon as he turned around. Immediately, he ducked out of the way, but I had already thrown another. This time, he stepped to his left, accidentally smacking into an arm of the wooden warrior, forcing him to deflect multiple padded arms.

I leapt toward him, tossing a few more, the panda opting to run away. Not having it, I chased him down into the course, forcing him to attempt to keep balance as I tossed the next ceramic disk. When he leapt down screaming, I pulled out my rifle and blasted at his feet, forcing him to run where I wanted him to. When he entered the Gauntlet of Wooden Warriors, I tossed the last disk at him, forcing him to make his way through the wooden warriors.

I watched as he got smacked by a few of the arms, but deflected the rest, making his way into the Field of Fiery Death as I activated my flamethrower attachment, burning the air around him. But after he was on the Field, I stopped.

"When you hear the whistle of flammable gas, run."

He looked confused until he heard just that. He leapt out of the way, only to immediately have to roll to avoid turning into a crisp. Eventually, he escaped the perilous course. I approached him, nodding my head in approval.

"See? That wasn't so hard, was it? I knew you could do it." I said to the heavily breathing panda.

"What... are you... talking about? That sucked!" he said between breaths.

I laughed, much to the chagrin of the panda.

"You aren't dead, are you?"

"Might as... well be."

What a baby.

Looking around, I saw the Five, as well as Shifu, were watching. The looks were mixed, mostly being of surprise.

"I didn't think he could make it." Crane admitted.

"Yeah, me neither. But I'm also surprised he survived the trip up the stairs to the palace." Mantis joked, making Viper shoot him a dirty look.

Viper slithered over to the tired panda with a smile.

"Well I thought you did great. Of course, Teivel's 'inspiration' probably helped."

Po stood up straight, staring at the Five in awe.

"The Furious Five... it's so amazing to meet you guys!"

Oh, because the technologically advanced ghost assassin isn't cool. Yeah, thanks.

"And you have so much cool stuff! You're awesome!"

Never mind.

"Yeah, but I'm just a lost soul around these parts. Though, I think I'll be here for a while."

Tigress approached Po, an angry look on her face.

"You aren't here to be our friend. You shouldn't even be here. If I were you, I'd have run away already."

Po looked downtrodden, fiddling with his hands.

"I... I know. But still, it's good to-"

"Shut up. You're a disgrace. I don't know why Oogway would choose you over someone who actually knows Kung Fu."

I put my hand on Tigress' shoulder, making her turn to look at me.

"Tigress, give the guy a break. We've all given him shit for being here, and we're stuck with him. Might as well try to, uh... inspire him to become better, you know?"

Tigress looked as though she was going to throw up at the prospect.

"Right, because he's worth any of our time, right? As if he'll ever become anything."

"Well, what else are we going to be doing? As if training some more is going to change a whole lot for any of us, so we might as well train with him. According to Oogway, who knows more than we do, it's his destiny to stop this 'Tai Lung' guy, not ours. Makes sense to help him out."

Tigress scoffed, crossing her arms.

"So you've been here for a day and a half, and suddenly you know better than us?"

"I certainly like to think so. I also know that your jealousy blinds you."

"WHAT!? You think I'm jealous of that fat, worthless panda?"

I laughed at Tigress, making her look as though she was going to try and gut me.

"Of course you are. To be trained by the cold teacher that is Shifu for so long, only to have the title of 'Dragon Warrior' given to some random panda? No doubt in my mind that you're jealous."

Tigress wanted to argue, but couldn't, instead opting to stay silent. Her arms stayed crossed as she glared at the panda. Po just watched the floor as he headed to leave the training hall. I honestly felt bad for the guy, as he seemed just as surprised to be told he was the Dragon Warrior as everyone else was. Turning to the others, I gave a huff of frustration.

"You know, it's not like he asked to be chosen as the Dragon Warrior. We shouldn't give him such a hard time. Tell me, have any of you ever been ridiculed for something you couldn't help? I don't know if I have, but I imagine it sucks. Don't be a bunch of dicks. Tigress."

They looked a bit guilty, though it was mostly Tigress. Viper didn't hold a look of guilt, but that's because she wasn't exactly cruel to Po. Tigress let out a heavy sigh, excusing herself to leave. When she headed out of the training hall, she bowed to Shifu before leaving. I decided to follow her, and maybe find Po.

Actually, it was probably better to let him decide if he was willing to put up with the ridicule himself. If he couldn't handle insults, then he couldn't handle combat. Instead, I just Rifted into my room when I realized that Po still needed somewhere to sleep. Though, I wasn't sure if he would come back. Oh well. I would just find somewhere else to keep my things if Po was going to stay. Maybe Tigress' room? She didn't seem like the type to look through the belongings of others.

Guess I'd just wait to find out.

For the next few hours, I sharpened my swords and knife, charged my rifle with the solar energy collector, and polished my armor. It wasn't much to do, so I just kept sharpening my blades. Though, I didn't want to take off too much material. The whet stone I used was just one I found lying around, and wasn't as good as the one I remembered using.

Eventually, I heard the others enter their rooms, talking to each other. After they went quiet, I heard a creaking in the hall. Stepping out of my room, I saw it was Po. I had to hand it to him, since he had gotten quite the verbal lashing. But he was also making a bunch of noise.

"Just hurry up and get in here."

He nodded his head and tip-toe ran over to me, but Tigress stepped out of her room and got in his way.

"I'm surprised you came back."

Po just gave a nervous chuckle, rubbing the back of his head.

"Me too, honestly."

Tigress sighed, crossing her arms.

"Listen here, panda. You are not Dragon Warrior material. But fortunately for you, Teivel has convinced us to give you a chance. I may not think you deserve the title of Dragon Warrior, but I will respect Oogway's decision. However, we will not expect anything less than what the Dragon Warrior should be capable of from you. We will give you a chance. Do not let us down."

Po seemed stunned for a moment, as was I. I had not expected such a thing to come from her. But there it was.

"Thank you, Master Tigress. I won't let you down!"

She huffed, turning back around to her room.

"Good."

Before she entered her room, I tapped her on the shoulder.

"Since he's staying in that room, I would like to put my things in your room. I trust that you will not touch my things."

Tigress nodded her head, so I grabbed my things and entered her room, sliding the box under her bed for safe keeping. I stood up and stretched, looking back at Tigress, who tilted her head, apparently thinking about something.

"So, with that panda in your room, where will you be sleeping?"

Great question, Tigress.

"I don't really need to sleep. I just need something to occupy my time."

Tigress thought for a moment, but could not think of anything.

"I can't imagine what you could do besides train some more."

Lame. But that did give me an idea.

"What if I just watch over the valley at night? Like a vigilante of some kind."

Mulling it over, Tigress nodded her head.

"It could work. The people of the Valley have already seen you before, so they will likely not be afraid if you come to their rescue. Well, they might, but they also might not."

"Thanks, Tigress. Really great to hear." I said sarcastically.

She just shrugged as she got onto her bed, preparing to sleep.

"Goodnight, Teivel."

I nodded, running a hand over my rifle.

"Same to you, Tigress. Want a kiss goodnight?" I joked.

Tigress smiled a ghost of a chuckle coming from her.

"Might be nice. Just to show me you care."

I thought about a response, but had another idea instead. Pulling my phone from my cloak, I placed it at the foot of her bed after changing the language to Chinese and taking off the passcode.

"Just in case you can't sleep, press this button," I said, pointing to the power button, "to turn it on. From there, just do what you want. It's easy to figure out."

"Why would I not be able to sleep?"

Shrugging once more, I gave a simple response.

"Don't know. That's why I said, 'Just in case'."

With that, I turned to leave, waving goodbye to Tigress, who gave a small wave back.

She was going to play on that thing all night.

Are we really doing euphemisms now, Teivel?

Gross.

Ignoring that thought, I left the barracks and headed to the edge of the cliff before leaping down, landing silently and weightlessly on the roof of a home. Running across the rooftops, I scanned for trouble. After finding none, I went back again, watching like a hawk. Even if I found nothing all night, I would still continue doing this the next night. If I could help anyone, I would.

Eventually, I got my wish when I heard some low voices.

"Shut up! We don't want to wake them up, idiot!" a low voice barked.

"Don't tell me to shut up, or else you can unlock this door yourself." a feminine voice replied.

Looking down, I spotted a gorilla, a boar, a wolf, and a crocodile. Figuring that they were up to no good, I turned my white lights on and leapt down, pulling out one of my blades and grabbing my rifle.

"And just what do you think you're doing?"

They all turned around rapidly, the wolf attempting to hide the lock pick.

"Nothing. Uh... oh hey! You're the guy that was standing with Shifu and Oogway during the Dragon Warrior selection!" the crocodile pointed out, attempting to distract me while the others moved to surround.

"If I were you guys, I would go right back to where you were standing rather than get nicely bisected."

The wolf did as told, but the boar and gorilla did not.

"Right. Like you could take all of us." the gorilla said, pulling out a mace.

Before he could react, I shot a laser bolt through his skull, spraying smoking grey matter onto the ground before his body was disintegrated.

Just another perk of being a Wraith: no mess. I just had to make their bodies disappear.

The other thieves stared in horror until the boar charged me. I gave him no chance to realize how grave his mistake was before decapitating him. As his body disintegrated as well, I approached the last two.

"On your knees."

They did as told, and I put away my sword as I prepared my Brand. Blowing out a black smoke cloud, I placed my hands on their faces, burning my symbol into their features. They attempted to scream in agony, but could not. When I finished, I let go of their faces and grabbed the wolf by the collar of her clothing, knocking out the crocodile with a kick to the skull.

"You will leave this valley. If I see you again, I will likely kill you. However, there is something I want you to tell those who come across your path."

"Y-Yes! Of course! Just don't hurt me!" the wolf woman begged.

Laughing, I let the wolf go, staring them down.

"Tell them that The Wraith watches over the Valley of Peace. Now, go. Never return."

She nodded her head and ran, leaving the crocodile behind. Not wanting him to just get away after he woke up, I picked up some nearby rope and tied him to a tree. Hopefully, he would tell those that found him of me. I wanted a message to get through to the world.

Standing at the top of a large building, I looked over the valley. My time here had been quite interesting so far, and I was happy to have a purpose. One thing was certain, though.

Teivel the Wraith was going to make history.

Howdy, y'all. This idea had been floating around in my head for a while, so I just finally got it down so I could stop thinking about it. More will be coming soon, even though I didn't like how this turned out. But all will be worked out. So tell me, what did you guys think? Did it suck? If so, why? If you have any questions or concerns, be sure to let me know. Until next time!