CHAPTER 5 Tigress vs The Penguins
Tigress had been watching the penguins for four days, and she didn't like what she saw.
The Five trained in the hall while she stood at the doorway, eyes fixed on the courtyard beyond. The penguins sat with Po on the steps, laughing at something Skipper had said. Po attempted a clumsy punch and the short one — Private — clapped like he'd split a mountain.
"Don't you find them suspicious?" Tigress said.
Viper glanced up from her forms. "The penguins?"
"They appear suddenly. They're always with Po. They have strange abilities."
"They seem friendly — "
"That's what infiltrators DO."
Crane landed beside them. "Infiltrators?"
"Think about it. Perfect timing. A portal device. Combat training they won't explain." Her claws flexed against the stone floor. "I don't know who sent them. But I intend to find out."
She tailed them through the Palace for an hour. The penguins ate. Talked. Helped Po stretch before afternoon training. Nothing suspicious. Tigress followed anyway, jaw tight, waiting for the slip.
It came when Rico pulled a wrench from his throat and fixed a broken cart wheel in the corridor. Casually. Like swallowing and regurgitating tools was normal behavior.
"WHERE do they keep getting things?" Tigress hissed to herself.
Enough watching. She found them in the courtyard after Po left for training.
"You. Penguins. We need to talk."
Skipper turned. "About?"
"About who you really are."
"We told you. Penguins from New York."
"I don't believe you."
"That's your problem, Stripes, not ours."
Her eyes narrowed. "You have combat training. Advanced tactics. Devices that shouldn't exist."
"Yeah. And?"
"I think you're spies."
"For who? We don't even know who the players are here."
"Prove it." She dropped into stance. "Fight me. If you're innocent, you'll lose quickly. If you're trained warriors — "
"We don't want to fight you."
"Too bad."
She struck.
* * *
Tigress was the strongest of the Furious Five. The penguins had no intention of testing that.
Her fist cratered the flagstone where Skipper had been standing a quarter-second earlier. He belly-slid between her legs, popped up behind her, and kept moving. Kowalski rolled left, calculating angles — she swung right, he ducked right, she anticipated and swept low, he'd already hopped backward.
Rico moved like a pinball. No pattern. No logic. Tigress couldn't predict him because there was nothing to predict — he bounced off a pillar, cartwheeled sideways, somersaulted through a gap in the railing.
Private dodged with his flippers over his head. "Sorry! Excuse me! Coming through!"
"STOP RUNNING!" Tigress roared.
"No thank you!" all four said at once.
She accelerated. Faster. Harder. A training dummy exploded under a missed strike. A wooden post splintered. The penguins slid under obstacles, weaved around pillars, used the courtyard's architecture like a playground. Every time she cornered one, the other three drew her attention. Every time she committed to a strike, the target was already gone.
"FIGHT BACK!"
"We'd lose!" Skipper yelled from behind a water barrel. "We're THREE FEET TALL!"
Viper arrived first. "Tigress! What are you DOING?!"
"PROVING THEY'RE TRAINED WARRIORS!"
"By chasing them around the courtyard?!"
Crane landed on the colonnade. "This is getting excessive."
"They're SPIES!"
"They look more like panicked birds to me," Monkey said.
Mantis hopped onto Monkey's shoulder and squinted. "Technically impressive panicked birds, though. Look at those evasion patterns."
Tigress cornered them against the east wall. Four penguins, backs to stone, nowhere left to run.
"Nowhere left," she said, breathing hard.
"We've got plenty of tricks left," Skipper said.
Rico hacked. A smoke bomb clattered to the ground. Grey fog swallowed the courtyard. Tigress swiped blind — hit nothing — the smoke cleared and the wall was empty.
"WHERE — "
She looked up. They sat on the Palace roof, legs dangling over the edge.
"We could do this all day," Skipper called down. "But it seems pointless."
Tigress roared and leapt.
* * *
Po had been practicing forms — badly — when the crashes started. He abandoned his stance and ran toward the noise, rounding the corner in time to see Tigress launch herself onto the Palace roof where four penguins scrambled across the tiles.
"TIGRESS! STOP!"
"STAY OUT OF THIS!"
"They're my friends!"
"They're SUSPICIOUS!"
He climbed. The roof was steep and his paws slipped on the tiles, but he hauled himself up by the guttering, grunting and panting. The penguins spotted him.
"Po! Go back! You'll get hurt!"
"Not without you guys!"
Tigress swung at Skipper. The penguins scattered. Po threw himself between them, arms spread wide.
"Can we all just TALK about this?!"
"After I prove they're dangerous!"
"They saved a goat from a fire! That's the OPPOSITE of dangerous!"
"That could have been a cover!"
"A cover for WHAT?!"
Tigress had no answer for that. She lunged past Po at Skipper — and Po stepped into her path.
She couldn't stop. Her palm caught Po square in the chest. He staggered. His feet found the edge. His arms windmilled against nothing.
"OOF — "
He went over.
"PO!" Every voice at once.
The penguins didn't hesitate. Skipper dove off the edge and caught the gutter with one flipper. Kowalski grabbed Skipper's ankles. Rico grabbed Kowalski's. Private grabbed Rico's and stretched down as far as his body would reach.
Po fell. Private's flipper caught his paw.
The chain snapped taut. Skipper's flipper screamed against the gutter. Kowalski's shoulders wrenched. Rico grunted. Private held on with everything he had.
"I'm too heavy!" Po dangled three stories above the courtyard.
"We've got you!" Private's voice shook but his grip didn't.
Tigress stood at the roof's edge, frozen. "I didn't mean — I — "
Viper was already moving. She coiled around the chain, wrapping the links together, adding her strength. They pulled. Inch by inch. Po's free hand found the gutter. He hauled. The chain hauled. Viper hauled.
Po flopped onto the roof tiles, gasping. Everyone collapsed around him, panting.
"You guys saved me," Po said.
"That's what friends do," Skipper said, rubbing his shoulder.
Po looked at Tigress. "Still think they're spies?"
Tigress said nothing. Her eyes were fixed on Private's flippers — trembling now, the adrenaline fading — and the empty air below where Po had been falling.
* * *
"WHAT is going on here?!"
Shifu stood on the roof peak, ears flat, staff in hand. Nobody had seen him climb.
"I was testing the penguins — " Tigress started.
"By ATTACKING them?!"
"They're suspicious! They have combat training!"
"So do YOU. Does that make you suspicious?"
"That's different — "
"HOW?"
Tigress had no answer.
Shifu addressed the group, his voice low and sharp. "Attacking guests. This is not our way." He turned to Tigress. "You could have KILLED Po."
"I didn't mean to — "
"Intent does not matter. Results do."
Something broke behind Tigress's eyes. A crack in the stone she kept around herself. She looked away.
Shifu turned to the penguins. "Are you harmed?"
"Just bruised egos," Skipper said.
"I apologize for this attack."
"Accepted."
Shifu faced Tigress again. "What did you learn?"
"That I was wrong."
"Wrong about what?"
"They're not spies. They're just... strange."
"We'll take it," Kowalski said.
"They saved Po's life," Shifu said. "Despite you attacking them. Why?"
He directed this at Skipper, who shrugged like the answer was obvious.
"Because he's our friend."
Tigress stared. "But I was trying to hurt you."
"So? He's still our friend."
"I've been wrong about you."
"It's okay!" Private said. "We understand! You were protecting your home!"
"That doesn't excuse — "
"We forgive you anyway."
Tigress blinked. The words hit her somewhere she wasn't prepared for. She nodded once, stiffly, and looked away.
They climbed down in silence. Po nudged the penguins as they reached the ground. "Thanks for saving me. Again."
"Getting habit," Rico said.
"Good habit!"
Viper fell into step beside Tigress at the back of the group. "They're growing on you, aren't they?"
"No."
"You're a terrible liar."
"...Maybe a little."
* * *
Tigress had never apologized to anyone outside the Five before, and she wasn't sure how it worked.
She stood in the doorway of the penguins' storage room that evening, spine straight, arms at her sides. Formal. Like reporting for duty.
"May I enter?"
"Come in," Skipper said.
She stepped inside and took in the room — the tactical board with its chalk map, the blankets arranged into nests, the crates serving as furniture. They'd made a home out of a closet.
"I came to apologize. Formally."
"Oh. Okay?"
"I was wrong. About you. About your intentions. About everything." She spoke like she'd rehearsed each word. "I thought protecting the Valley meant distrusting strangers. But you've proven you're not enemies. You're..."
"Friends?" Skipper offered.
"...Yes."
"Can you forgive me?"
"Already did!" Private said.
"That quickly?"
"Holding grudges is exhausting."
Something happened to Tigress's face. A small, rare, impossible thing. She smiled.
"You're strange creatures."
"We've been told," Kowalski said.
"Your combat style," she said, and her voice shifted — professional now, curious. "The dodging. It's effective."
"We're not strong enough to trade blows with kung fu masters," Skipper said. "So we avoid damage entirely."
"Smart." She paused. "Could you teach me?"
Every penguin stared.
"Your evasion techniques. They could enhance our style."
"You want to learn from US?"
"If you're willing."
Skipper looked at his team. Kowalski raised an eyebrow. Rico shrugged. Private nodded vigorously.
"Deal. We teach you dodging, you teach us kung fu basics."
"Agreed." Tigress shook his flipper. Firm. Formal. Final.
"Did Tigress just ask to LEARN from you guys?!" Po's head appeared around the doorframe, eyes the size of dumplings.
"Appears so."
"That's AMAZING! Can I join?"
"Of course," Tigress said.
"We start tomorrow," Skipper said. "Oh-six-hundred hours."
Po frowned. "What time is that?"
"Six AM."
Everyone groaned.
Po and the others filed out. Tigress lingered in the doorway.
"Skipper? Why did you save Po? When I attacked."
"Because that's what you do for family."
"He's not your family."
"Neither were you. But you apologized. Came here, looked us in the eye, said you were wrong." He met her gaze. "That takes courage. Respect."
Tigress held the look for a long moment. "Thank you." She turned and left.
The next morning, the courtyard rang with a sound the Jade Palace had never heard before — penguins barking orders at kung fu masters.
"SLIDE! ROLL! WADDLE!"
Po belly-flopped across the flagstones. Tigress executed a perfect tactical slide, then stood up looking faintly disgusted with herself. The other Five watched from the colonnade. Viper turned to Monkey.
"Should we join?"
"Absolutely."
Shifu watched from the balcony above. Below him, penguins and warriors trained together — clumsy, mismatched, arguing about technique — and something that looked like a team was forming.
Far to the north, past the Valley's green hills and peaceful villages, past rivers and forests and mountain passes, Chorh-Gom Prison sat carved into the frozen peak. A thousand guards watched a single prisoner chained at the bottom of a pit. The chains held. The guards held. Everything held.
For now.
— End of Chapter 5 —
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