Once the lunch rush was over, Lam and the rest of the girls said goodbye to Mr. Ping and headed back up to the Jade Palace. They checked up on Jai-Rong who was treating her hives and was feeling a little better, but still needed to rest and take care of herself before she was free to move about. Po, Shifu, Monkey, and Mantis had heard the commotion from the girls coming up the stairs and had been keeping a close eye on the colubrid to make sure she was alright. When everyone had finally come back to the Jade Palace and met back up with Po, they wasted no time telling him what a pleasant time they spent with his father and how he had helped them with doing kitchen tasks and some of the cooking. Destiny had felt a bit embarrassed but was glad the old goose didn't hold her clumsiness and slow speed against her and was more than eager to hear about how Lam's session had gone since some of them had left before she had even began. Tai Lin kept quiet during the whole conversation since she was busy tending to Jai-Rong who wished she had been more helpful to Mr. Ping, but she soon joined in in telling Po what she had done while down in the restaurant. Po was glad his dad seemed to get along with everyone and he decided to privately find out later what his dad had personally thought.

The commotion soon died down and Po and the girls had lunch and separated to ponder over the experience they had. Po headed down to the village to help his dad with the afternoon rush to talk and hang out where he saw first hand Tai Lin's handy work on the counter. Po was impressed, but Mr. Ping admitted that despite Tai Lin's skill, personality-wise she didn't seem like a good match and he advised Po to drop her from the group as soon as possible. Her and Madame Zhou, since Mr. Ping still didn't approve of the age gap, and upon reflection, never actually got to talk to during the session.

"She had to use the bathroom, and then she left with Tai-Lin to take care of Jai-Rong," Mr. Ping explained. "So we never actually got to talk or work together in the kitchen."

However, Mr. Ping had gotten a better chance to learn about the other girls and after spending time observing them and learning a little more about them, he had a much better idea of who Po was more of a fit for. Po didn't talk over these opinions with the girls, but he did talk them over with Shifu since Shifu had offered to help take care of any needed dismissals and with his friends since they were good at offering advice on things Po was fuzzy about.

"I think dad likes Lam the most, if we're being honest," Po noted in the middle of training one day. The girls had decided to spend the morning hanging out by themselves in the valley and Po had decided to take the opportunity to train with his friends and talk things out. "He talked forever about stuff they did in the kitchen."

Monkey laughed. "It sounds like your dad really misses having help in the kitchen" he said.

Po ducked a fan swing from Viper while he struggled to hold onto the Fire Staff and work with the newest extension Shifu had placed onto it. The Five and Po had already adjusted to the recent extensions which included side mirrors for the staff and dust inside of the fan. The newest addition to the fan were darts which came from the sharp tips where the metal met on top of the fan, and for the staff, which Po now struggled with, two swords which could be slid out of the bottom half and wielded on the wrist as a doubled weapon. Between the weight, the fire, and Po trying to not open up the mirrors or stab himself by accident, it was a lot for Po to try and get the hang of and he honestly felt like he'd never get the hang of Heart of Yang.

"What about the other girls?" Viper asked, sending the darts in Po's direction.

Po blocked it with the staff (with one just narrowly missing his face) and tried to think as he maneuvered his way around Viper. "Um...he said....he doesn't like madame Zhou....I don't blame him, but Zhou was doing business, and now she's recovering from her bee sting-"

"Oh, please. She's perfectly fine," Tigress interrupted from the sidelines. "She may be old but she isn't fragile!"

"I know, I kno-AHH!" Po yelled, trying to talk while also trying to avoid getting hit. "I just figured I'd let her rest is all. I'd appreciate it if it were me. Um, oh and dad doesn't seem to like Tai Lin which I don't get because I think she's nice."

"Ordai and some of the other girls think she's too unrealistically romantic," Viper explained.

"Yeah, I don't see it, and they keep mentioning it. I don't know. Maybe I'm too oblivious to th-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHTT!!!!"

"Right now you're being oblivious to your surroundings and to your opponent," Shifu told him sternly. "Get yourself focused and keep trying. Then you can try again to speak."

Po did as was told and managed to fend off Viper for a bit before biding himself more time to talk about the girls. "I don't think there was really anyone else he really didn't like, except for maybe thinking we're not compatible," he told his friends.

"What specifically did he say?" Mantis asked. "Like...did he say something generic or did he have a comment for everyone in your group?"

"Uh-ah! Uh.....he said Destiny was a bit emotionally strained but cheerful....he said Lu-Shi was like catching up on old times and he still likes the idea of us getting togeth-EEEEEEEEEEEER!!!"

Monkey laughed.

"He said Ordai has great promise and skill though he doesn't get her style of dress, Snow Leopard he thinks is someone up my alley though it'd be strange to marry someone with a kid old enough to be my wife....Jai-Rong he thinks is helpful and nice, and Kay doesn't do much talking but she seems sweet and seems to just get with the program without much help. Oh, and Xiao-Niao seems nice enough. That was all he had to say though. But they all seem nice to me...well, mostly, but I already went on about th-AAAAAAAAAAAT!"

Po tried his best to figure out why the fire staff needed extra weapons in the first place, but his need to survive Viper's more skilled usage with the fan soon outweighed those thoughts and he switched to a pretty basic survival strategy in order to try and beat her. His struggling wound up costing him the match, but Shifu assured him that this was to be expected.

"Overcoming a weak side is never easy," he explained to Po as he hobbled back to the sidelines and gave the staff to Mantis and Viper gave the fan to Tigress. "But the more you practice, the better you'll get Master Po. And then you'll be able to use that fan more effectively in combat than you ever will have before."

"I'll keep that in mind," Po said, trying to smile through the pain.

For that training day, half of the masters were allowed to work with their favorite weapons while the other half tried to get the hang of the ones they liked least. A few of them were glad to have an advantage going into the sparring session and came out after training as happy as larks with such swift victories under their belts. (Though to the credit of the other half of the masters, they put up a solid fight).

Because the Emperor's son was still unwell, the masters still had to deal with Ming and Superintendent Woo who did nothing but bark orders and demand things whenever they showed up at the Jade Palace. However, since nothing in particular was really going on, they hardly ever did show up except to make sure that all the decor was still perfectly in place which gave everyone the needed breathing space that they needed. It also gave Po the freedom to come up with activities that would be fun for the group to enjoy without worrying about an unwanted interruption.

One particular day while the masters were training and Po and his guests were sitting about on the grounds just hanging out with minimum conversation, Po suddenly suggested "Let's have a wok pan race down the stairs!"

"Do what now?" Snow Leopard asked with a strange expression on her face.

"Race down the Jade Palace stairs on wok pans! I love doing that! I even showed Song when she first came here...." Po said, though his face fell when he realized Song wouldn't be able to enjoy the activity again. "Man, she would have loved that...."

"It sounds fun to me," Lu-Shi interjected, hoping to keep the conversation light. "I can go grab the wok pans now if you want me to!"

"Just one minute," Leopard interjected. "Number one, that's going to make a lot of noise and attract a lot of attention. Number two, we're not all going to fit on the stairs; it's not wide enough. And number three, not everyone here has the control to stay on the steep path down. If someone falls off, then what?"

"The guards can catch us!" Destiny suggested excitedly. Then turned red when everyone looked at her. "Or...no?"

"The guards need to be stationed at their posts to watch for intruders or any other dangers," Leopard reminded her.

"And the other half of the guards are supposed to watch Crane," Po added.

Tai Lin laughed curtly. "Well they're not doing a great job then if he was able to add sleeping tonic to tea drops," she replied.

"Our job was to follow him and keep him from harassing Master Viper," one of the guards suddenly interjected with an offended tone. "Not to babysit him."

The group turned to see the ussuri bear and the rhino guard who had been guarding the gate peering through the slightly opened main gate at the group with a displeased frown. Tai Lin turned red. "Sorry," she apologized. "I just meant that-"

"We know what you meant," the rhino guard told her. "I understand it's distressing, but you have to understand that there's only so much a few guards can do. And he's never done anything that extreme before, so Grandmaster Shifu didn't think watching his movements inside the barracks or the bathrooms was necessary."

Tai Lin just mumbled another apology and turned away from the guards.

"Bad experience?" the rhino guard questioned.

The snow leopard spun her head violently to look at him. "No why?" she asked.

The ussuri guard laughed. "Don't worry, we're not judging," he promised. He gave the group a smirk and added, "You know, to make up for being such terrible guards, we'd love to have the honor of catching your falling ladies, Master Po."

Destiny giggled erratically.

"You can catch the younger ones all you want," Madame Zhou told him. "My freefalling days are over."

"In that case, you can do all the judging," Po suggested. "We can race down the stairs two at a time and then each of us race the winners from the other group until we have an ultimate wok pan champion!"

"And the guards can catch us if someone slips! Works for me!" Lu-Shi exclaimed.

"I'm more concerned about noise control," Leopard admitted.

"Ah, don't worry! No one really minds; I promise," Po assured her. "I've done it so many times I'm sure the people who got annoyed just started tuning me out."

Snow Leopard looked skeptical about this, but soon complied and went with Po to get the wok pans to slide down the stairs. Kay quietly walked around the grounds for a bit while waiting for them to come back and started to pick up little flower petals which had flown from the peach tree off in the distance. When she had collected a small handful, she sat back on the ground and started to quietly fiddle with them. The rest of the group looked at her in confusion but didn't say anything about it. Po and Leopard soon came back with two wok pans upon which Kay quietly put the flowers down and said, "Are we picking randomly or...."

"I think Po should pick who go first," Ordai told her. "Since he's our host."

"Oh is that what you were doing?" Destiny asked, ignoring Ordai and picking up one of the little petals. Kay had made a small hole in the petal, indicating the person was to go first. The higher the numbers got, the more creative Kay had gotten with inserting holes: Five was a line and anything higher had extra holes inside, until number ten which had 2 lines.

"This is cool!" Destiny said. "Let's do the drawing thing! That'll make it more fun."

"Uh, let's take a vote," Po said, hoping to keep things fair without causing anyone to get irritated. (Not that he was too worried about it, but just in case...) "Anyone for me picking?"

Ordai and Xiao Niao raised their hands, but the rest of the girls were all for picking the petals and so they went with this method instead. Po drew first, getting the number seven, and then the rest of the group followed suit. The first two racers wound up being Lam and Jai-Rong. The pair would be then followed by Kay and Destiny, Snow Leopard and Ordai, Po and Xiao-Niao, and Tai Lin and Lu-Shi. With the groups all arranged, Lam and Jai-Rong grabbed their wok pans and on Madame Zhou's direction, went flying down the stairs on the wok pans. Jai-Rong let out whoops of excitement as she went violently flying towards the valley while Lam simply clung to the sides of the pan for dear life and eventually went sailing off the stairs right before she hit the bottom.

"I think I'm getting a little old for this," she muttered, cracking her back before heading back up the stairs with the colubrid.

Kay and Destiny were then handed the wok pans and started down the stairs. Destiny immediately started spinning around in the wok pan, resulting with her immediately flying off the stairs and sailing through the trees where the Ussuri bear managed to catch her before she suffered any fall damage. Kay, who wasn't much for thrills, hesitated to sail down the stairs for a moment, but then took a breath and pushed herself forward down the steep slope. She bumped and bounced high in the air from time to time due to her small size but somehow managed to maintain enough control to safely make it down to the bottom where she promptly got out of the wok pan and hid from passersby who were looking over in curiosity at all the commotion. Once they had left, Kay immediately headed back up the stairs with Destiny who had been waiting for her in the bushes nearby. Ordai and Snow Leopard then took their turn and nearly tied, except Snow Leopard leaned too far to one side and did some mast minute maneuvering to keep herself from falling off, allowing Ordai to slide past her and win the race. Leopard didn't seem to mind too much since she got to spend more time talking to the girls who hadn't won the race. After them, Po, the master at wok pan racing, beat Xiao Niao, and afterwards Tai Lin and Lu-Shi went neck-and-neck down the stairs until Tai Lin pulled off a sneaky maneuver that gave her more speed and caused her to slide ahead to the finish line.

"Hey, that was pretty cool!" Lu-Shi exclaimed. "You're a natural!"

Tai Lin smiled. "Thanks," she said. "You know, maybe I should have done kung fu as a career instead of waitressing. This seems like a lot of fun."

"Oh that's right!" Lu-Shi noted as they headed up the stairs. "I forgot you mentioned that during 60 questions! I'm surprised Mr. Ping didn't let you wait tables!"

"He never asked."

Tai Lin suddenly paused on the stairs, twitched her ears about, darted her eyes about. She looked nervous, though this expression was quick to fade.

"Are you okay?" Lu-Shi asked, putting a hand on her arm.

Tai Lin sighed and nodded, almost forcefully. "Don't worry about me, I'm fine," she promised. "I just thought I heard a weird noise is all."

"Ah, don't worry. It could have just been the guard. Here, I'll test it for you."

Before Tai Lin could even protest, Lu-Shi leaped off the stairs with a "Whoohoo!" and fell through the trees before being caught by a guard. This time it was the rhino guard.

"Are you insane?!" the guard scolded.

"Just reassuring her is all," Lu-Shi said and she immediately ran back up the stairs to Tai Lin with a laugh.

Once the wok pans had finally been delivered to the top of the Jade Palace stairs, it was time for the next round. Since there was an uneven number, Kay offered to sit out while the four winners drew again to see who would race who. Jai-Rong drew the lowest number and wound up racing Ordai. The two were both pretty good, but Jai-Rong had more experience with controlling her surroundings with little to no friction and thus wound up winning. Po and Tai Lin went next, though their race was briefly interrupted when Tai Lin slipped out of the wok pan half-way down the stairs and nearly fell off. She managed to grab hold of the edge of the stairs and save herself the long fall and Po was quick to jump off the wok pan to go and help her up. Despite the guards assuring the snow leopard that she'd be fine and to just jump into their arms, Tai Lin held on firm and eventually got helped up by Po when he finally reached her. (The wok pan had taken him pretty far down the steps). Tai Lin thanked him and offered to forfeit her turn since she technically fell off and it would be a long journey down to get the wok pans, but the guards were able to toss it back up to the duo and they went back to the middle of the stairs to resume the race, Po winning anyway since Tai Lin decided to take it a little slower to avoid falling off again.

With the winners all set, Kay stepped back into the race, this time against Po, and the two made their way down the stairs once more. Kay was still very scared of how fast they were going down the stairs, but managed to keep herself composed enough to slide by Po and reach the bottom first, much to Po's surprise and amazement. They then went back to the top where Kay and Jai-Rong went sailing down the stairs in a final face-off. Half-way down, Jai-Rong spotted a cart going through the village with fresh strawberries and quickly sped up her wok pan to get there faster, flying down the stairs and through the village until she stopped right by the cart. And then realized she needed money and slithered back up the stairs to grab it. Kay had in the meantime taken advantage of everyone staring at Jai-Rong and quickly made her way back up the stairs to avoid being seen. Seeing that their work was done, the guards also made their way back up the stairs.

"Congrats, Jai-Rong!" Lu-Shi exclaimed. "You really know how to use wok pans."

"Thanks!" Jai-Rong said with a big grin. "Leave that there though. I saw fresh strawberries and I'm taking the fast way down when I get my money!"

Po grimaced as she left. "I don't get the appeal of strawberries," he admitted. "Blueberries I get. Strawberries I don't."

"What's the matter with strawberries?" Madame Zhou asked in surprise. "They're so sweet and juicy."

"And sometimes bitter," Po added. "And the texture is gross, and I hate the little seeds on the outside; they always get stuck in my throat and then I have to wash it down with something."

"Ah. I see."

Lam laughed. "You're really something else, Master Po," she noted. "I don't think I've ever met a person who hates strawberries."

Po suddenly spotted Master Shifu coming towards them with the Furious Five and he quickly waved to say hi. "How was training?" he asked.

"Tigress got to knock Crane through the back of the wall," Mantis said. "I beat my record in how fast I can take a weapon through fast moving obstacles, and Viper got to do the Loop trick with Monkey without missing a ring. So all in all, a pretty good morning."

Tigress smiled triumphantly.

"That's awesome! We've had a pretty fun morning too."

"As I see," Shifu noted, looking at the wok pans laying motionlessly on the ground.

"Since we're not doing anything," Snow Leopard said. "Do you mind if I have a word with you, Shifu, before lunch?"

Shifu looked confused. "A word?" he repeated.

"Yes, a word. We need to talk."

"Oh. Um...sure, of course. But first, I figured I should warn all of you-where's Jai-Rong?"

"Getting money to buy strawberries," Xiao Niao answered.

"I see. Well, you can let her know when she gets back I suppose. I just received a letter this morning from King Murius of Madagascar. There's a war between them and the kingdom of Achita, so in anticipation of an invasion, all civilians and families of warriors are being evacuated to avoid civilian casualties."

"What does that have to do with us?" Po asked.

Tigress laughed curtly. "Oh, you'll love it," she said sarcastically. "It means Ella's coming back."

Destiny looked terrified at this revelation. "WHAT?!" she cried. "WHY?! SHE'S SO MEAN!"

"Ella's father is one of the front lines of special soldiers meant to guard the king," Shifu explained. "And as part of the special royal guard, their family is being evacuated to provinces under imperial protection. Ella's mother apparently was already traveling with friends before this occurred, so Ella will be traveling alone. Normally the designated Safe Zone would be one of the kingdoms on the fire ring, but since they're not available at the moment, she's being sent here as the second best option, as agreed on by Master Oogway back when the agreement was first signed."

"Wait...does that mean we have to babysit her?" Po asked worriedly.

"No. She has her own guard. We just need to make her feel at home until she's allowed to return."

"She's a warrior chief's daughter?!" Lu-Shi exclaimed in surprise. "Actually, that does explain a few things...."

Shifu sighed. "She is to arrive here by the end of the week, which unfortunately will put her and Ming in the same vicinity. But hopefully the emperor's son will have fully recovered by then so that we only need to deal with that fallout for a few days."

"Maybe we could plan some activities to keep Ella away from Ming as much as humanly possible. Again, just until Ming and Superintendent Woo finally leave," Tai Lin suggested. "Ella's very prissy, and I'm sure her guard wouldn't mind escorting their friend-to-the-royal family around the province for a shopping trip. Just to explore the scenery."

"Oh, that'd be a good idea," Lam said. "I notice Ming doesn't do much exploring. She's normally just sitting in the courtyard at Lord Kenshu's house reading a book."

"How do you know that?" Viper asked. "I thought the Emporia District was a thirty minute walk out of the valley?"

"It is. I had to run an errand, and what I needed wasn't right in the village, so I did some exploring-"

"Hi, I'm back! Hi Shifu!" Jai-Rong greeted as she returned with her money. "Hi Furious Five. Nice to see you, but I have strawberries to fetch."

"Ella's coming back," Ordai told her immediately.

Jai-Rong stopped in surprise, looking shocked and irritated. "WHY?!" she exclaimed.

"Imperial protection," Snow Leopard explained. "We'll fill you in on the details after you get your strawberries."

Jai-Rong agreed and immediately took the wok pan and flew down the stairs in it. Monkey laughed. "You know, I like strawberries too," he said. "I'm going to grab my money too."

As he left, Po said he'd make lunch and Snow Leopard took the opportunity to pull Shifu aside to talk in the Sacred Hall of Warriors. Tigress decided to meditate by the peach tree until lunch was ready with Viper offering to join her since she needed some peace and quiet. Crane offered to join as well and thus Mantis felt obliged to follow him and the girls when he refused to leave.

"Don't worry," Viper promised after Mantis apologized again for not being helpful. "That's why Shifu hired guards."

As if on cue, the rhino guard who had been standing by the gate made his way into the Jade Palace, grabbed Crane by the shoulders, and proceeded to pull him outside to "chat". Mantis then breathed a sigh of relief and decided to just go to the barracks for a bit. In the meantime, Po's group had all but scattered to try and pass the time before lunch was put on the table. Lu-Shi opted to stay and hang out with Po, though this was mostly to talk with him as Po soon found out.

"I know I've said this already," she said. "But it's been a ton of fun hanging out and catching up. It's a shame we haven't been able to do this more often."

"I know. I've never had someone to swap and compare action figures with! No one else seems to get it."

Lu-Shi laughed, but then quieted down. "Listen, Po," she started. "I've been thinking...as fun as this contest has been...I don't think we're compatible. Or at least...I'm not feeling any sparks."

"Oh," Po said, with a look of surprise.

"Yeah. I hope I didn't hurt your feelings...especially because I know we did sort of like each other the last time and I hurt them pretty bad then-"

"Hey, don't worry about that, Lu-Shi. Honestly, I was sort of thinking the same thing. Not that I don't like you, but...I think we're better off just as friends."

"Oh, good. I was worried I was going to make you upset again."

"Nah, we're cool."

The two reached the kitchen and headed inside where Po began to make lunch and Lu-Shi sat down at the table. "So...should I pack to leave then?" Lu-Shi asked, looking a little disappointed. "Because I still enjoy hanging out with everyone here."

Po thought for a moment. "Who said you had to?" he suggested. "I mean, we still haven't looked over our action figures...if I could find mine...and there's still three years to catch up on before I have to go back...and maybe you could help me with figuring out if I click with someone else in the group since we have similar tastes...."

"Oh that's a great idea!" Lu-Shi exclaimed excitedly. "Yeah, let's do that! And since we're being honest...I think you and Tai Lin make a good match."

Po looked at her in surprise. "You know, you're the first person to tell me that," he admitted. "Everyone else keeps saying she's the worst choice for me."

"Yeah, but I think she'd be perfect. She knows a thing or two about cooking and running a restaurant, what with all she told us during 60 questions, and she seems to really like kung fu and doing fun stuff like racing down the stairs in wok pans, and she's a ton of fun and super nice....and she seems to be really patient with kids which is a bonus. Though then again, so is Ordai, but she has siblings so I guess that's kind of expected."

Po laughed. "Yeah, it sounds like a nightmare to have siblings," he admitted. "Um...nothing against your brother. He seems lovely."

Lu-Shi laughed. "Reax, you dork," she teased. "I know you were joking. Siblings have their pros and cons, but I wouldn't trade my brother for anything or anyone else!" She eyed Po and added, "Was there anyone you think isn't really working out? Aside me?" she asked.

"Madame Zhou," Po admitted. "But there's been a ton of stuff going on lately that I haven't really been able to address it. Though now that she's feeling better, it might be a good time to tell her. And also make mention of it to Shifu. What about you?"

"Honestly...and don't judge me....but I don't think Snow Leopard or Xiao Niao are a good idea. I mean, she's an epic kung fu legend and that'd be so awesome and Xiao Niao's a sweetheart, but they don't scream "Wife of my best friend Po!" you know?"

"Gotcha. I'll keep the insight in mind and...I don't know. Figure things out I guess."

"You're welcome!"