The Ticking Contingent: The Countdown vo.2

An Antagonizing Entrant

Zhen, needless to say, was not happy about spending the next half hour crawling back up the stairs and catching her breath at the top of the Thousand Steps. Not in the mood for another round with Po (a waste of time, she said), she decided to make her way into the barracks and figure out which room she was going to sleep in. She initially chose Tigress' room since it looked practically empty. However, she was given a very stern correction and grumbled her way into a different room further down the hallway. The masters were all a little surprised that she didn't have more stuff, but apparently all Zhen said she needed were her clothes. The rest were better used in the village with the clan whom she visited on a daily basis.

Po wasn't fully aware of this at first since all he knew was that she tended to disappear from the Jade Palace early in the morning and later in the day. However, Tigress noticed after a while that she was keeping an eye on the community service the former thieves were doing, often casting her and anyone else in charge a suspicious look before heading back up to the Jade Palace.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to keep her in the Jade Palace?" Crane asked Po one morning after breakfast. The masters were all heading to the training hall for another round of training which Po had decided to do in the open air of the Wu Dang mountains. "If you ask me, she sneaks around way too much. What if she's taking things out of the Sacred Hall of Warriors?"

"I'm with Crane," Tigress seconded. "Offering help is one thing, but giving someone, especially someone with bad criminal habits, all of your blind trust, isn't the best idea."

"I'm not giving her blind trust," Po promised, heaving a little for air as they kept on climbing up and up the mountain pass. "She made an agreement on her parents grave, and she seems like somebody with a decent moral code."

"And even if she did have a dishonest reputation," Monkey added in the woman's defense. "Maybe Po being nice to her might help give her a change of heart."

Tigress and Crane just frowned and glanced at each other with a doubtful expression.

"She hasn't even been here for two weeks," Viper told the two. "Just give her a chance."

"We have!" Mantis complained. "And in the week we've known her, she acts like a complete and total jerk and calls us names and acts like a thug!"

Monkey rolled his eyes with a laugh. "She does not," he told his friend. "Trust me."

The masters eventually made it to the Wu Dan mountains and walked over towards the rocks of center and harmony. Po immediately dunked his head into the water to cool off and kept it there for a few seconds before coming up for air.

"Alright, all better! Training time!" he announced.

He glanced down towards the path where they had come in and sighed. "Maybe I should chat with her later," he wondered aloud. 

"Why?" Tigress asked. "She declined to train. That's her own fault if she's a sore loser."

"Tigress is right," Viper told the Dragon Teacher. "We can worry about Zhen later. Let's just focus on training for now and try to enjoy some fresh air."

Po relented and shook Zhen out of his head so that he could better concentrate on the five's training. Today they were going to focus on using their chi to try and move the natural world around them. (A fun secret Po had discovered when he had accidentally slipped down the side of the mountain a year and a half earlier). Po was still getting the hang of such chi tricks himself, but now that he had the basic understanding of how they worked, he wanted to pass this stuff onto his friends. Such chi moves took intense concentration and patience, so Po asked the Furious Five to sit in a meditative position and focus on the easiest thing: the ground beneath them.