The Countdown

"This day just keeps getting better...."

77 days and counting...

Tigress darted out of the rubble caused by Kai and managed to get back outside just as the rest of the roof collapsed even farther.

"Tigress!" Viper called down from the stairs. "Thank goodness you're okay!"

Tigress walked over to her, the orb clutched tightly to her chest. "I just had to grab this," she told her friend. "It might help us find Po and I didn't want it to get damaged."

"How's the lower level?"

"There's some debris and loose rocks, but everything's perfectly intact, thank goodness."

Viper smiled. "Glad to hear it," she said. The serpent and the tiger master walked down the stairs, Tigress noticing that the arena was now deserted. Viper, seeing her look of concern, added, "Everyone's gone to see Scorpion for medical attention. Monkey offered to get everyone back in here to help out with clean-up."

Tigress let out a sigh of relief. "Good," she commented. "How's Master Shifu?"

"Not sure yet. That pendent did something, but I don't know what. Hopefully Scorpion can help out a bit."

The girls headed down the Thousand Steps where they observed the heavy debris that lay around the valley. The part closer to the bridge and the end of the Valley of Peace was barely scratched, but there was still some impressive damage done by Kai's destruction of the Sacred Hall of Warriors. They walked through the rubble until they finally approached Scorpion's medical building which had some damage done to the side of the wall but nothing else other than that. The two headed inside where they found Scorpion and Mr. Ping tending to some of the villagers. Upon seeing them, Scorpion let out a, "Oh, girls! Thank goodness! I was a little worried when Monkey said you were going inside of a collapsed building!"

"Thankfully, the temple wasn't horribly damaged," Tigress told her, not mentioning it being unstable and collapsing on the spot. (Mainly to avoid causing worry). "The lower levels were perfectly intact minus some loose ceiling rocks."

"I'm glad to hear that. Pingy, can you hand me that ointment in the blue jar?"

Mr. Ping grabbed a small blue jar from off the top shelf of the room and handed it to his girlfriend who took to wrapping Mei-Ling's arm along with it. Mei-Ling hardly noticed as she was busy watching over Master Shifu who laid still and quiet in one of the hospital beds.

"Is he alright?" Tigress asked, glancing at her master.

"I can't say," Scorpion admitted. "He's still breathing, but Mei-Ling over here and Monkey mentioned some green pendent that this bull was using and unfortunately, I've never heard of such a weapon."

"Neither have we," Tigress replied. "We know it helps him turn masters into jade-like statues, but that's about the end of it."

"Is Monkey still getting everyone back in?" Viper asked.

"Yes, he should be back soon," Mr. Ping assured her. "I think everyone went pretty far away to avoid getting clobbered. Not that I would know...."

"You still owe me a night for almost killing yourself," Scorpion scolded him, hurrying over to fill one of her basins with water.

"I know, I know," Mr. Ping apologized. "I didn't mean to scare anyone! I just wasn't about to let some mind-controlled master take over my shop!"

Tigress resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the noodle maker's stubbornness. "I'm afraid we have bigger problems besides Kai almost completely destroying the valley," she told the two.