Dark Shadow
Po and the masters looked at Zhen in confusion, seeing a look of terror and fury mixed on her face.
"Are you quite alright, dear?" Mrs. Jun asked gently. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
Zhen stood there breathing heavily for a second. Her eyes were fixated on Mrs. Jun, but she didn't say anything. After a moment of standing still and breathing in terror, she quickly left the Sacred Hall of Warriors. Po was equally confused. "Could you guys stay here while I check up on her?" he asked.
"If she's that spooked, perhaps we should give her a minute to regain her computer," Mrs. Jun corrected. "Agitation does not bring peace. And clearly I remind her of someone. I hope no one terrible, but judging from that reaction, I'm afraid to ask."
"She does have problems with authority figures," Monkey said. "Maybe she knew a sheep emperor or something."
Mrs. Jun chuckled. "Now that would be nice," she stated thoughtfully. "But the only place I've lived is on a farm in the country. No royal jewels for me." She walked over to her desk in the corner of the Sacred Hall of Warriors and picked up a few scrolls and handed it to Po. "I take it you're in here for notes and clues," she guessed correctly to Po. "And judging from the few people here with you, I figured something went wrong?"
"Somebody attacked the village with a weapon we haven't seen in almost six years," Po explained. "And then Tigress got attacked by an old foe we met...we want to see if there's something unusual we missed."
"Hmm.... Let's see..."
Mrs. Jun headed over to her desk and stared looking through her notes while Po paced around the sacred hall of warriors. She suddenly pulled out a peace of paper with a triumphant expression, only to catch a staff that had been hurled at her head. The masters gasped in shock and relief.
"Drop something, dear?" Mrs. Jun asked cooly, still holding the staff.
"You....." Zhen hissed from behind her. "Why are you here?!"
Mrs. Jun flung the staff back and kept looking through the paperwork. "You must have me confused for someone else," she said.
"Oh really?" Zhen asked. "You're good at what you do, but I will never get those eyes out of my head. I know those bright baby blues aren't really yours, Chameleon!"
Mrs. Jun turned to look at her. "That's a harsh accusation," she noted. "And pretty risky. You just threw a staff at a frail old lady."
"And you nearly killed me! I'll never forget you as long as I live! You think you can just stroll in here and shape shift into a random civilian and get away with whatever crime you're plotting?! Over my dead body!"
Looking at the masters, Mrs. Jun sighed, shrugged and, then grinned. "I guess you want to go again," she mocked, and immediately began to shrink and transform from a gentle sheep into a scaly and slender chameleon with a long jade dress and a bejeweled headpiece. The masters all stepped back.
"What the-?!" Mantis exclaimed.
"What is happening?!" Po finished.
The chameleon looked at him and made a long sigh. "Well," she admitted. "I was trying finish the next phase of my plan," she admitted. Then grinned a very sharp and malicious smile. "But I suppose while I'm still here...."
Her eyes glowed bright green and she sent a blast hurtling at the Five, and then in Po's direction. The startled panda tried to block it, but found himself thrown into a pillar and dropped his staff in the process. Chameleon ran towards it, but Zhen ran faster and beat her to it.
"You're still an absolute thorn in the side, I see," Chameleon spat at her, and started to absorb some of the woman's chi. However, Po had quickly recovered from the blast and sent a flying golden dragon in Chameleon's direction, knocking her off her feet and forcing her to let Zhen go. Zhen let out a big heave of air and fell to the floor as several golden blasts flew through the air, one of them returning to Tigress who took a huge breath after getting hit.
"Are you okay?!" Po cried, running over to Zhen.
Zhen just nodded.
Chameleon sat up, and upon seeing the Five get up, quickly concentrated and suddenly spat out a long tongue to grab Mantis and yank him over in her direction. She then moved her arms to start absorbing his chi into her body.
"NOT AGAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIN!!!!!" Mantis cried, as he was once again absorbed into an amulet.
"Mantis!!!" Po yelled. He threw more chi blasts at Chameleon, but she created her own explosion of light and had soon vanished out of the Sacred Hall of Warriors.
"No no no no no!!!!!" Po cried. He looked around in the hopes that maybe there was still a chance, but there was no one inside.
"How could you let her in here?!" Zhen cried.
"We don't even know who that is!" Tigress shot back. "Why are you mad at us?!"
Zhen just stood there breathing heavily. She closed her eyes and rubbed her face with her paws. "I know I know..."she muttered. "Gah. What could she possibly up to now?! She's never left the city before."
Po looked at Zhen. "How do you know her?" he asked desperately.
Zhen sighed. "Long story," she said. "Let's just sum it up to: she's the reason my parents lost all their money and trying to get it back didn't go over very well."
Zhen got very quiet and just sat on the floor. "You can spot her easy though if you know her well enough," she said. "The bright almost glowing blue eyes are a dead give away. I used to see her all the time in the city. She hurt a lot of people, but it was mostly scams and cheap tricks and maybe even some dangerous chi stuff. Sometimes she'll lay low, but around when I left, she started getting henchmen and pulling the strings in everyone's pockets.... But this is a whole other level...."
Tigress patted her shoulder in sympathy. Po thought over what Zhen had said and stood against the pillars with a deep reflective look on his face. He was eerily quiet for a while while Lei Lei asked to be carried and Monkey did his best to reassure Zhen that they would stop her from whatever she was planning. After a few minutes, Tigress called over gently, "Po?"
The Dragon Warrior glanced up.
"What are you thinking?"
Po kept frowning. "She took Mantis' chi," he finally said. "Similar to how Kai tried to take ours. You got attacked by Tai Lung. We just got attacked by something from Lord Shen even though he's not here.....". He glanced up at Tigress. "Noticing anything else weird about this?" he asked.
"Yes," Tigress agreed. "It means we've all been duped pretty bad. The question is why. Why go through this whole charade of disguises and faking attacks to make it look like people you've fought before?"
"I don't know if faking is the word I'd use," Monkey corrected her. "You got hurt pretty bad and Viper and Crane are still missing."
"He has a point," Po admitted. "Whatever this Chameleon is up to isn't good. We should find out what it is and fast before someone else gets hurt."
"How are we suppose to find her if we don't know anything about her?" Tigress asked.
"I might have an idea," Zhen admitted.
When the masters turned to look at her, she explained that the Chameleon had always lived in Juniper City, a bustling province that operated almost entirely independently of the lord assigned to the region due to its geography. It was a thick den of thieves and rogues, and the Chameleon had been seen slinking around there for years before she went missing.
"If she's plotting anything, there might be clues," Zhen said. "And since we have something a little more to zero in on, I might be able to help you find it." She smirked at Po. "If you don't mind coming down from the big fancy temple to dance with us sneaky folk," she taunted jokingly.
"If it means saving the world and kicking butt, I'm all in," Po said, cracking his knuckles. "How about you guys?"
"We'll stay here," Tigress told him. "If she is plotting something, the valley should stay guarded just in case she comes back."
"Plus we still need to find out where Crane and Viper are," Monkey added. "We'll keep looking though the notes Mrs.....whatever her actual name is...made and the clues you and Zhen found. Hopefully they're not hurt. Or worse."
Po agreed to this, and then told Zhen to start packing. They were going on a long road trip to the city!
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