The Panda and the Turtle (Book 1)

Chapter 8: Jade Palace Dojo

At the Training Hall, Shifu lead Po and Vee inside, where the panda was struck speechless as he saw the Furious Five combating the various deadly stages of the course.

"Here we are." Vee said. "Welcome to the Training Hall."

Crane was deflecting arrows while balancing on half of a jade-colored turtle shell. Then Tigress leapt onto the shell and briefly sparred with him. Meanwhile, Mantis weaved his way through an army of wooden crocodile warriors. Viper evaded fire spurts on the Field of Fiery Death. Monkey swung across the seven-talon rings. Tigress dodged the swinging spiked clubs on spinning serpent logs, then smashed one with her bare fists. A piece of the club stroke Po on the head.

"Let's begin." Shifu said.

"Wait, wait, wait. What?" Po asked as he stared at the fearsome course in front of him. "Now?"

"Yes, now." Shifu replied. "Unless the great Oogway was wrong and you are not the Dragon Warrior?"

"You wanna give it a spin?" Vee asked.

"Oh, okay." Po replied. "Well... I don't know if I can do all of those moves..."

"Well, if we don't try, we'll never know, will we?" Shifu said as he began to walk along the side of the course with Po and Vee following behind.

"Uh, yeah. It's just— maybe we can find something more suited to my level..." Po suggested.

"And what level is that?" Shifu asked.

"Well, ya know..." Po stammered. "I'm not a master, but uh, let's just start at zero. Level Zero."

"Zero?" Vee repeated in confusion.

"There is no such thing as Level Zero." Shifu laughed.

"Hey! Maybe I can start with that!" Po suggested as he pointed and ran over to a friendly-looking bandit dummy.

"That? We use that for training children and
propping the door open when it's hot." Shifu said. "But if you insist..."

"He could practice punches and kicks." Vee suggested. "Let's see."

At that moment, the Five gathered around Po.

"Whoa. The Furious Five." Po smiled. "You're so much bigger than your action figures — except for you, Mantis. You're about the same."

Mantis's antennae twitched as he glared. Po looked uncomfortable.

"Go ahead, panda." Shifu said. "Show us what you can do."

Po hesitated, as he saw the Five watching him.

"Um, are they going to watch. Or should I just wait until they get back to work or something?..." Po asked.

"Hit it." Shifu insisted.

"Okay. I mean I just ate, so I'm still digesting." Po stalled. "So my kung fu might not be as good as later on..."

"Just hit it." Shifu said.

"Alright..." Po nodded after a pause and he turned to the dummy. "Whatcha got? You got nothin' 'cause I got it right here. You picking on my friends?" He began dancing on the spot. "Get ready to feel the thunder. I'm comin' at him with the crazy feet. Whatcha gonna do about my crazy feet? I'm a blur. I'm a blur. You never seen bear style, you only seen praying Mantis! OR... I could come at you Monkey Style." He made monkey sounds, which made Monkey raise his eyebrows. "OR... I'm comin' at ya snikity-snake..."

Vee, Shifu, and the Five stared at Po as he faced the dummy, Vee shook her head with a sigh and Shifu lost his patience.

"Would you hit it!?" Shifu said, that caused Po to stop dancing.

"Alright... Alright." Po said.

Hesitantly, Po very light hit the dummy with his fist. It rocked back into place.

"Why don't you try again?" Shifu suggested. "A little harder."

This time, Po knocked the dummy all the way backwards.

"How's tha—?" Po asked.

WHACK! The dummy right itself and whacked Po, that sent him flying backwards and knocked out a tooth. Po found himself in the training course. The Five instinctively stepped forward to help Po, but Shifu held up his paw to stop them.

"This could end badly." Vee said.

"You think?" Mantis asked as he jumped on Vee's shoulder.

Po struggled to balance on the serpent logs and eventually ended up doing a painful split on two of them.

"Ow! Oh, that hurts!" Po winced.

He looked up and saw a spiky tethered ball, which hit and sent Po flying into the jade turtle exercise, where it rattled him around. Vee and the Five winced while Shifu looked on with a smile.

"This'll be easier than I thought." Shifu said.

"Feeling a little nauseous..." Po cried out.

The turtle spilled him out and he stumbled into the army of wooden warriors, that proceeded to whack every part of his body.

"Ow, those are hard! Ooh! I think I—!" Po winced before the last dummy whapped him in the batteries and everything became still. "Oooohoohoo... my tenders."

"Ooh." Vee winced. "Right in the fur patch."

Po struggled to get on his feet as he took one step and reached out to a dummy arm...and immediately got pummeled all over again. Po came out the other side battered and bruised and found himself standing on the Field of Fiery Death.

"Uh oh." Po gulped.

There were reflections of fire on Vee, the Five, and Shifu as well as Po's yells as he got singed. After a while, he came crawling into frame, dazed and charred, with the little tuft on his head on fire.

"How did I do?" Po asked as he was gasping for breath.

"There is now a level zero." Shifu replied as he put out the little fire with his fingers.