The Countdown

Something isn't right...

Po and Tigress walked towards the training hall, Tigress keeping a close eye on their surroundings in case the morning gong had been part of a trick. Her worries were soon allayed however when her and Po entered the training grounds and were greeted by Master Shifu and the rest of the Five whose cuts were now almost completely healed from the previous day.

"Congratulations you two," Shifu said with a small smile. "You've passed the test."

Tigress eyed him. "Test?" she asked.

"Yes. Test. The point of this excercise was to help you learn to be adaptable to various situations. In a normal game of hide and go seek, there's an element of fun to it. However, if was an actual situation where you would be required to hide so as to avoid your own demise, you must jump on the opportunity. Not every moment in a battle will be a moment of actual fighting. There may be times when you need to take a rest in order to get your strength. In those moments of weakness, it may be necessary to take cover from your enemies and regroup to come up with a better plan."

"And chasing us around the Jade Palace with a dagger was necessary for this exercise?" Tigress asked.

"Yes. The point of me using the dagger was to heighten your sense of danger, thus giving you a deeper incentive to hide well."

"Oh!" Po said. "And were the guards outside supposed to be like unescapable barriers or something?"

"Exactly," Shifu agreed.

"Master," Tigress said, slowly, trying to place her words carefully so as to not offend him in anyway. "I hope you don't mind my asking, but why did you come up with this exercise? It's not very congruous with our normal training."

Shifu eyed her. "Now you are the last person I would have expected to hear that from," he commented in surprise. Regaining his composure, he added, "I heard tales about Po's view of stealth mode from all of you during the ride home, if you recall. In line with the recent defeat of a particularly nasty threat, I took it upon myself to revisit that concept but on a more...realistic level."

Tigress nodded. "I see," she said, understanding.

Po let out a sheepish chuckle. "Sorry for not being stealthy enough," he apologized.

"Well, you seemed to have improved on that score," Shifu noted. "Although further testing should help the rest of you improve on that score even further."

"Are we going to play another round?" Viper asked worridly, afraid that there would be more knife slashing involved.

"Not at the moment, no," Shifu assured her. "We'll eat breakfast and then catch up on more training so that I can see how well Tigress is holding up. This exercise will continue some time during the week. For now though, we'll resume out regular training."

The students bowed so as to acknowledge what he said.

"Now, before we eat breakfast, I want to briefly discuss how you all did," Shifu said. He turned to Viper, whom he found first. "Viper, I was impressed with how you used your scales to try and camouflage yourself. However, you need to work on avoiding eyesight and keep good timing. The reason I found you was because I knew that you wouldn't have time to escape between the time you entered the Hall of Heroes and the time that I got there."

"Yes, master," Viper said.

Shifu then turned to Mantis and said, "Mantis, you took good advantage of your size while you attempted to hide which I commend you for. However, you made two mistakes while hiding. The first one was hiding in the same place as Viper, since I could figure out where you were based on the timing of your entry in the hall of heroes. Your second mistake was running the instant that I told Viper to get you. The second that you started to run, I had enough time to run in the opposite direction in order to cut you. When you are hiding from an enemy, you must take care to make quick plans in emergency situations. They can mean the difference between life and death."