The second that Master Shifu said to run, the students wasted no time scrambling out the door and away from the master and his knife. Po was nearly slit on the way out, but thanks to his quick maneuvering, he was able to avoid getting cut. As he raced out the door, Shifu shouted after him, (still running closely behind), "Not bad, panda. But not good enough!"

Seeing Shifu inches from slashing Po, Monkey grabbed a nearby spear with his tail and chucked it at Shifu's head. The red panda ducked and slowed down for a few seconds, giving Po enough time to sprint away from danger. He and the rest of the Five managed to run out of eyeshot as Shifu tried to follow them. Seeing that everyone had gotten away, Shifu chuckled to himself and set out to begin their game of hide and seek. Either he was getting too old for this, or Po was actually doing the warm-up runs he assigned every morning.

When the masters managed to get away from Shifu, they wasted no time hiding so as to avoid getting slashed with the knife. The Five were a little worried that Po would be found first as stealth mode wasn't his strongest skill. However, they didn't mention it to him as he was out of sight shortly following their scramble from Shifu. Po, who was the first to separate from the group, dashed almost immediately to the kitchen with the intention of getting a power snack. However, at the last second, he changed his mind and ran towards the Wu Dang Mountains, remembering that Tigress had promised to get him a fresh batch of cookies if he didn't sneak any food. His stomach loudly protested this, causing Po to hope that the noise wouldn't give him away.

Viper and Mantis were the second ones to hide. As the students approached the main courtyard of the Jade Palace, they flew up the stairs and into the Sacred Hall of Warriors. They had the same intention to hide in one of the sacred artifacts, somewhere they didn't think Shifu would bother to look. Taking advantage of his small size, Mantis decided at the last second to hide in the mouth of the Golden Dragon that hung above the moon pool, climbing up the shelves that housed the Thousand Scrolls of Kung Fu and landing inside the mouth with precision. Viper took longer as the artifact she wanted to hide in, The Legendary Urn of Whispering Warriors, was broken again. (As the masters had a tendency to notice). As she tried to decide where to go, she heard fleeting footsteps come up the stairs to Hall. Knowing it was Shifu, the master flung herself onto the nearest pillar and quickly slithered up to the top, hoping that her scales would camouflage her well enough to fool Shifu. The doors flung open the second that she settled into her hiding spot.

The three warriors who remained, Monkey, Tigress, and Crane, separated shortly after passing the Hall of Warriors. Monkey decided that the best hiding place would be the sacred peach tree of Heavenly Wisdom and tried his best to hide himself in the blossoms. Crane decided to hide in the cellar where the masters kept their boxes, and Tigress decided to try and hide in the kitchen. She had a gut feeling that would be the worst place to hide, as that would be the first place Shifu would look for Po, but with Shifu close behind, (wherever he was), she didn't have that much of an option. She screetched to a halt in the kitchen, managing to hide herself in one of the large pots on the floor under the new order of rice. It was a tight squeeze and it wouldn't give her any room to run if she was caught, but the master shut her eyes and hoped that Shifu wouldn't think to look there.

Shifu flung open the doors of the Sacred Hall of Warriors, hoping to startle someone out into the open. He didn't have any luck with that one however as the Hall appeared to be empty.

I know at least two were in here. He thought to himself. He had seen Viper and Mantis run up the stairs and as he had been nearly right behind them, he knew they wouldn't have any chance to run out before he flung the doors open. The master carefully glanced around, seeing if he could find any of them hidden anywhere. The first thing he saw was a slightly different shade of green by the pillar and the master almost immediately recognized it as Viper. He then glanced again and noticed a speck of green in the mouth of the Golden Dragon. The master thought it would be amusing to hit Mantis first, but as he was so small and Shifu didn't want to risk an emergency room visit, he decided that the safest course would be to take out Viper and then get her to tag the insect. Casually, Shifu walked through the hall until he thought he was close enough to hit Viper without injuring her greatly. He then launched the knife through the air so that it would graze Viper enough to cut her, but not enough to greatly harm her. The serpent let out a cry of pain and fell to the ground from the top, Shifu catching her at the last second. He then caught the knife which had fallen back down to the ground as Viper tried to find something to help nurse her wound.

"Later," Shifu told her. "I need help catching Mantis."

The second that Shifu looked in his direction, Mantis knew he would be in for it if Viper or Shifu raced over to catch him, so without a second's hesitation, he sailed straight out of the Golden Dragon, landed on one of the scrolls, and quickly hopped down and started to run out the side of the Hall. Viper, remembering the rule, obediently slithered after her teammate, grateful that Shifu had slit her on the top of her scales rather than on the bottom where she had to slither on them. Mantis rounded the corner of the Hall of Warriors, running down the stairs and trying to think of another hiding place. However, as he reached the bottom, Shifu came flying out of nowhere and tackled the bug to the ground, gently nicking him on his back so that there wasn't any severe damage.

"OW!" Mantis shouted. "That hurts!"

"Not as much as a shearing," Viper answered, coming up from behind.

"It'll hurt either way," Shifu told them both. "Now comes the bigger question: as the three of us were all in the Hall of Warriors, there was no way to tell where the others went, so it may take some extra searching."

"Po's probably in the kitchen," Mantis pointed out. "He was complaining this morning about not getting his daily feeding."

"And he did look like he was headed over in that direction when he left the group," Viper pointed out.

Shifu smirked. "I figured Po would head over there," he admitted. "Lets see if we can go catch him in the act."

"Alright!" Mantis explained. "Then I can tell Monkey Po's been stealing his cookies unless Po does stuff for me!"

"Mantis!" Viper exclaimed.

"Hey, I'm just saying...."

Tigress was still sitting in the cooking pot, her back getting stiff. I should probably consider getting out of here, she thought to herself. Once Shifu leaves the Hall of Warriors, he's most likely going to come here next, and I don't have any place to run if that happens. The master decided to quickly change spots, but as she began to stand up, she heard voices coming from the entrance to the building.

CRAP!

Tigress immediately ducked back down into the pot, recognizing the voices as Shifu, Viper, and Mantis. Since they were casually talking, Tigress assumed that Shifu had cut them with the knife.

Perfect. she thought to herself. More people to avoid!

After a minute, she heard the door swung open and the master crouched down even further so as to avoid being seen. She gripped her paws together so as to keep them from shaking, knowing that any movement could mean the difference between getting slashed or being able to change hiding spots. As she laid there, she could hear the three talking and, like she thought, found that they had been expecting Po to be unsuccessfully hiding in the kitchen.

"I was certain Po would be in here!" Shifu exclaimed. "This is his favorite spot in the Jade Palace!"

"Yeah, no kidding!" Mantis added.

Tigress heard them looking around the kitchen and moving a few things out of the way.

"Think anyone else is in here?" Viper asked.

"Doubtful," Shifu told her. "No one could comfortably fit in these pots or cabinets unless they were desperate to get caught. My guess is that if Po isn't in here, obviously no one else is."

The three then started to creak towards the door and Tigress heard it shut behind them. Not risking anything, she stayed in her spot for about a good ten minutes, hoping that Shifu wasn't pulling a trick. She then slowly got up and glanced at her surroundings, finding no one there.

That was way too close!

Knowing that they may come back later with more people, Tigress quietly snuck out of the kitchen and darted behind the buildings in order to find a better spot to hide.

Monkey started to get uncomfortable sitting in the tree, but he figured that it would be a bad idea to move as he wasn't quite sure where to go next and he wasn't quite sure where Shifu was so aas to avoid him. As he contemplated where he could go next, he saw Mantis hopping around across the grounds. He looked frantically around and Monkey could hear Shifu drawing closer.

"He's heading over here!" came Viper's voice.

Seeing Mantis start to panic, Monkey figured he was trying to find a place to hide and quietly called up, "Mantis!"

The bug spotted him and almost immediately hopped into the tree, hiding the slash in his back with aid from the peach blossoms. Viper and Shifu passed the tree by, after which the two let out a breath of relief.

"Finally," Monkey said, leaning back and stretching out his limbs. "Company. I haven't seen anyone since we separated back by the gate."

"And even then," Mantis added. "We can't figure out who to really trust since any one of us could get slashed at any second."

Upon hearing that, Monkey immediately looked at the bug in suspicion. "Weren't you just in the Hall of Warriors?"

"Yeah, but then I switched spots after he found Viper. I figured better safe than sorry, so I hid in the kitchen." He grinned. "One advantage of being small," he bragged. "Is that I can go anywhere and I can't be easily spotted by Shifu."

"That is a pretty good thing," Monkey admitted. "Where are you heading next?"

"Probably back to the Hall of Warriors. I doubt Shifu would check there twice."

"That's a good ide-OWW!"

Monkey clutched his arm where Shifu had slit him with the knife.

"Sorry," Mantis apologized. "We have to listen to Shifu after we get slashed, remember?"

Monkey groaned. "Right," he acknowledged, still clutching his arm. He then climbed down out of the tree along with Mantis who he now saw had a cut on his back.

"How'd you get him?" he asked Shifu.

"Viper chased him out of the Hall of Warriors when he decided to make a run for it," Shifu explained. "I simply dashed back around and hid so that I could attack him at the right moment."

"Who's left?" Mantis asked.

"Po, Tigress, and Crane," Shifu told him. "Po isn't in the kitchen-"

"He's not?!" Monkey exclaimed.

"Oh, I know, right?!" Mantis exclaimed. "We all swore he would be in there."

"Either he's taking that bet with Tigress seriously," Shifu commented. "Or his stealth skills have improved. But yes, we haven't found a trace of him yet, surprisingly enough."

"Maybe he's in the village?"

"No, I had special guards outside the Jade Palace in order to keep you in here. If it's not in the Jade Palace, it isn't an available hiding place."

The students nodded to show that they understood.

"Now," Shifu said, thinking for a second. "Where haven't we looked yet?"

After getting cramped up in the box in the basement, Crane decided that he should stretch his wings in the event that he'd have to fly off to avoid slashing. Carefully, he walked out of the basement and into the Hall of Warriors where he contemplated where to go next. He had spotted Shifu, Mantis, and Viper earlier casually walking out and had barely managed to keep hidden before he had gone into hiding. Now though, he decided it would be better to switch spots so as to throw them off track.

Lets see, he thought to himself. They've already searched here, and the kitchen was probably the next place they looked, Monkey's at the Peach Tree, Tigress is...well, I haven't the slightest idea where she is actually. Or Po for that matter. Probably in the kitchen. Crane gulped at that thought. If Po was in the kitchen, like he expected, he was probably already slashed. And if Po was working for Shifu, that meant extra kung fu power to take him down. Crane sighed and thought about his next hiding spot. He looked around the room and spotted the armor of Legendary Flying Rhino and decided to hide in there. He took the helmet off of the armor only to spot Tigress hiding inside. The two locked eyes and instantly let out cries of alarm.

"How long have you been in there?" Crane asked in surprise.

"Not sure," Tigress admitted. "I think about seventeen minutes." She glanced at her teammate. "I can see you haven't gotten cut yet," she noted in relief.

"And considering the fact that you're still hiding, I'm assuming neither have you," Crane said.

"Fortunately. I had a close call though; I was hiding inside one of the kitchen pots and they came in searching. They were only looking for Po though, so they left quickly and I was able to trade spots."

"By they, I'm assuming you mean Mantis and Viper?"

"You saw them too?"

"On my way in. I was hiding in one of the crates downstairs, but I got a wing cramp, so I decided to find another spot to hide in."

"Well, this one's been taken," Tigress told him sternly. "So you're going to have to pick a different one."

"I noticed." Crane glanced around. "I wonder where Po is," he wondered aloud. "No one's seen him."

"Me neither," Tigress replied. "I thought he'd be in the kitchen, but he wasn't."

"I'm going to go out on a limb and assume everyone thought he would go there first," Crane commented.

Tigress looked quickly towards the door. "Listen," she said. "I'd love to chat, but could you put the helmet back on so that I don't get caught?"

Crane snapped back to remembering that he still had to find a place to hide. "Right," he said. He stuck the helmet back onto Tigress' head and said, "Good luck!"

He then headed outside the Hall of Warriors so as to find another good spot to hide in.

Back in the Wu Dang Mountains, Po figured that it would be a while before someone checked up there, but he decided it would be best to scout out the area in order to find good places to hide in in the event that everyone was found and he would be surrounded. He made a mental note of where each of the different caves as well as the placement of the different rock formations so that he knew which hiding spot he could duck into at the last moment. His stomach rumbled loudly, reminding him that snack time was almost over and that he hadn't eaten anything all day. The Dragon Warrior sighed and sat back against the large collection of stones by the Pool of Sacred Tears. He still had the rest of the afternoon to get through and then he had to deal with the challenges of nightfall before the game was over.

Crane's next hiding spot was the Sacred Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom, but he didn't hide in it well enough as he spotted Shifu out of the corner of his eye trying to slash him and had only managed to fly off in the nick of time. As night began to fall, the master frantically tried to find another spot to hide in. He decided to try outside of the Jade Palace as Shifu had never forbade them from hiding in the village. However, as he went to fly out, he immediately saw a crowd of rhino guards waiting for him outside. One of them took a rope and lassoed it around the avian's wing, then throwing him backwards into the Jade Palace where Crane unceremoniously fell into a nearby bush. He groaned and tried to stand up so that he could take off again, but Shifu had quickly darted over, finding the spot where he landed, and slashed the front of his chest with the knife.

"OWW!" Crane exclaimed.

"That was a nice try, Crane," Shifu told him. "But unfortunately, that was also a really bad choice."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Crane muttered.

"We still need to find Tigress and Po," Shifu said. "Although at this point, I'm not sure where else to look. We've tried eveywhere."

"The last time I saw Tigress," Crane tattled. "She was hiding in the armor of Master Flying Rhino. I don't know if she's there now, I mean, she's switched spots before, but that's where I last saw her."

"Where was she before that?" Shifu asked. "Or do you not know?"

"She said she was hiding in one of the pots in the kitchen, but she decided it was one of the worst hiding spots, so she quickly traded spots after you, Viper, and Mantis left the kitchen."

"Wait a minute!" Mantis exclaimed. "She was in the kitchen when we were in there?! IN A POT?!!"

"We didn't see Po in there and we left!" Viper added in equal surprise. "We figured no one would be that dumb to try and hide inside one of the kitchen pots!"

Shifu mentally slapped himself for not checking everything in sight. Under normal circumstances, someone would have checked the pot, meaning that Tigress should have gotten caught when they first came in. "She got lucky," Shifu announced, coming out of his own thoughts. "For some bizarre reason, it did not occur to me to check those pots. I won't be so slippery next time." He looked at Crane seriously. "Now then," he said. "You said she was in the Hall of Heroes, right?"

As it turned out, Tigress was no longer in the Hall of Heroes as she deemed it unsafe. Shortly after Crane left to go and hide, Tigress considered the possibility of what would happen if Crane got caught. Knowing that he knew where she was hiding, Tigress decided to switch spots again so as to avoid a confrontation later. As she left her spot, she racked her brain as to where else she could hide. After a minute, she considered the Wu Dang mountains as it was spacious and would provide plenty of room to hide since it was nearly as big as the Jade Palace itself. With her spot set firmly in her mind, the master dove off to go and hide...again.

Two hours after Tigress switched hiding spots, Shifu, Crane, Mantis, Viper, and Monkey came into the Hall of Heroes to check the armor of Flying Rhino only to find it empty.

"It appears that she has moved spots," Shifu noted, putting the armor back together, having kicked it down upon arriving. "As to where she is now, I haven't the slightest idea."

"I'm more curious as to where the heck Po is!" Monkey said in exasperation. "We should have found him by now!"

"There has to be something that we overlooked," Shifu said. "Where could Po possibly be that we weren't able to find him as soon as we would have liked?"

No one spoke for a while. The question was too puzzling. He wasn't in the kitchen, he wasn't seen around the grounds, and they would have noticed if he had gone outside because one of the guards would have tossed him into the air. After about a minute or two of hard thinking, Viper finally said, "What about the Wu Dang mountains? We haven't checked there yet."

"And the Dragon Grotto!" Monkey added, bouncing off of the idea. "We haven't checked there either!"

"Well lets not waste any more time," Shifu told them, running outside of the Hall. The others followed close behind as he added, "Viper and Monkey, you two come with me so we can scope out the mountains. Crane, Mantis, you two check the grove."

"Yes, Master Shifu," the students answered in unison, and with that, they all sped off towards their designated targets.

When Tigress had gone towads the mountains only hours earlier, she had thought it to still be empty as she was greeted by an empty field of green grass and water. Knowing that it would be a while before anyone checked up there, Tigress began to casually walk around in an attempt to find a good hiding spot. She quickly discovered a few caves lingering around as well as many structures that were standing in convientent spots. Deciding to take a load off for a second, she leaped onto one of the large rocks and ducked down behind it only to land smack on top of Po and send the two tumbling down the hill where they landed with a thud. Tigress, who got stuck on the bottom of their pile, groaned and made an effort to stand up only for Po to keep her squashed on the ground.

"How'd you know to find me here?!" Po demanded, keeping the tiger pinned.

Tigress tried to squirm to freedom but to no avail. "I didn't know," she answered. "I came here thinking no one would bother to look here."

A moment of silence went by as Po got off of her, allowing the master to sit up and face him. Po let out a relieved gasp. "You're not cut!" he exclaimed. "Okay! Okay, I'm still safe!"

"I'm assuming you haven't seen anyone yet," Tigress said, brushing a loose leaf off of her shirt.

"Fortunately no. I think Shifu would slash me before I could even break into a sprint!"

Tigress chuckled. "I was surprised you didn't go into the kitchen," she noted. "That's the only reason Shifu went in there."

"I was actually thinking about it, but then I remembered our little bet, so I figured I'd better not hide where I'd be tempted to eat." He grinned. "Besides," he added. "I can't really hide in there anyway. Unless of course there's a pot I can squeeze into."

"No, but there was one for me to squeeze into."

Po did a double-take. "You hid in the kitchen?!" he exclaimed in surprise.

"Yeah, not the best spot. The only reason I didn't get caught was because they didn't think anyone besides you would hide in there, so I got out of the pot and hid somewhere else the second that I got the chance."

Po laughed. "Man, you were lucky!" he agreed.

"Well next time I might not have been, so it was a good thing I moved spots."

"How many times have you moved?"

"Two. From the kitchen pot to Flying Rhino's armor, and then from the armor to here."

"Has anyone been caught yet?"

"As far as I know, just Viper and Mantis. I haven't seen Monkey since we separated and the last time I saw Crane, he was still in the game."

"Well, anything could have happened between then and now."

Tigress nodded in agreement. "At this point," she offered. "I think Shifu will be at the 'extend-no-mercy' part of this game."

Po swallowed nervously. "Right," he acknowledged, his voice dropping a decibal or two. The two got back up and walked over towards the top of the hill where Po had been originally sitting. "How's your chest by the way?" Po asked as they reached the top and sat down. "Holding up to this intense kung fu game?"

"I've been perfectly fine all day," Tigress assured him. "I mean, I've had a sore spot on my chest muscles every so often, but that's just because they're still healing from the broken bones."

Po smiled. "Well, at least a rib didn't pop out or something," he said.

Tigress rolled her eyes. "Don't get too worried, Dragon Warrior," she warned.

"I'm not. I'm just making sure you're okay. You did take the hardest blow out of all of us."

"And I'd do all over again," Tigress calmly replied. "The people of China and the saftey of the warrior who's supposed to be the deliverer of their saftey always come first."

Po grinned. "First I'm the panda," he said to her. "Then I'm Po, then I'm the Dragon Warrior, and now I'm the deliverer of saftey to all of China?"

"That is your job, Po."

"I know. I've just never heard anyone use that expression before. It makes me into a bigger deal than it should. I mean, you guys deliver saftey to China too, you know."

"I'm aware of that," Tigress acknowledged flatly. "But keep in mind that you were the one that the Soothsayer foretold would defeat Shen. That makes you the sole person responsible in that situation."

Po nodded. "I know," he replied. He then leaned against the rock and let out a yawn. Tigress sat against it and began to meditate in order to keep her head in the game. Blood red clouds suddenly stained the skies as Gongmen City came clearly into view and sparks flew across her eyes, burning holes withiin her vision. The master opened her eyes with a start, wincing when she was blinded by the sun.

"Just the sun setting," Po assured her. "No Gongmen City battle."

Tigress sighed. "I should have those memories in the back of my memory at this point!" she snarled. "It's been over a month!"

"It's no biggie. We've all been having that problem."

Tigress rolled her eyes. "A bunch of cannons and a villain threatening China should not be bothering me for over a month! I didn't have that problem when we faced Tai Lung!"

"Well, he didn't exactly threaten to kill you."

Tigress thought about that for a second. "I guess..." she agreed reluctantly. "But even still...over a month?"

"They'll go away soon," Po promised. "You heard Master Shifu; after a while, they'll be at the back of our mind and we can all go on the way we did before."

Tigress sighed and leaned back against the boulder. "I suppose," she relented. "In the meantime, however, we still have the issue of Shifu and his happy-go-lucky game of knife-tag."

Po laughed. "That actually sounds kind of funny when you put it like that," he said.

Tigress gave him a serious look that made him shut his mouth.

"And that also involves a super fast Shifu carrying a knife," he added sheepishly. "Right. That part."

Two hours following Po and Tigress' initial conversation, Viper had suggested the Wu Dang mountains and Monkey suggested the Grotto. The masters were now on their way to their given locations in the hope that they could find the two masters.

"What if they're not in either of the those places?" Monkey asked, running closely behind Shifu with Viper in tow.

"Then we'll have to go searching back all over the Jade Palace," Shifu answered simply. The three finally reached the mountains, being greeted by nothing but green scenery.

"So, do we just start searching around?" Viper asked.

"Yes," Shifu commanded. "I'll wait right here while you two scope things out. I'll keep an eye on the trail in case either of them try to come in or go out."

Monkey and Viper nodded and began to spread out in order to search for the two masters. Viper headed up towards one side of the mountain where she saw an endless landscape of rocks and caves. "They could be anywhere!" she whispered to herself. "Provided they're actually up here." She looked around the area and finally decided to check behin one of the rock formations that went off to her right. The serpent cautiously slithered over so as to be able to peer over the rock without possibly disturbing whoever might have been over there. As she slithered up the rock and began to peer over it, she came face to face with Po who let out a cry of alarm upon seeing her. Startled, Viper slipped and fell down, hearing Po yelling," RUN FOR IT!"

"Who was it?!" came Tigress' voice.

"Viper! Which means Shifu's probably not that far off!"

Viper quickly slithered back over the rocks, screaming, "MASTER SHIFU!!! OVER HERE!!!!!"

She then began to follow after the running masters as fast as she possibly could. Po wasn't that hard to follow since he didn't run fast enough to stay out of her sights for long. Tigress, on the other hand, had sprinted straight out of sight, leaving Po to fend for himself.

"Oh come on!" Po protested. "I thought we were in this togethe-AHHHHHH!"

As if out of nowhere, Tigress flew in and threw Po up to the top of one of the rocks. Taking advantage, Viper tackled her as Po was released, knocking her down with some surprise.

"Viper!" came Monkey's voice. "We're on our way over! Don't lose them!"

Knowing that she had limited time before Shifu arrived on the scene, Tigress tried to frantically squirm out of Viper's grip, but with limited training due to her bed-rest, her legs were still wobbly and therefore unable to aid her. Her arm strength was fine; she could lift Po in the air with zero problems and she could still run relatively fast. But getting pinned by a kung fu master...different story. Viper was wrapped around her upper body, tying her arms together, meaning that the master was stuck since her legs would be of no help.

"Nice job, Viper," came Shifu's voice. "Hold her still! Monkey, grab her legs!"

Tigress knew that it was a game, but tthe idea of getting slashed with a knife still didn't appeal to her.

"PO!" she screamed towards the top of the rock, managing to turn her head to look. But Po wasn't there. Is he serious?! Tigress thought. Where is he?! The master felt Monkey pin her legs to the ground, so any hope of kicking the knife away was immediately shut down. Shifu walked in fron of the Tigress and smiled.

"The Wu Dang Mountains," he said approvingly. "Not a bad hiding spot."

"Po's the one who found it first," Tigress corrected.

"Then I give you both credit. Now lets save this chat for later, hmm?"

The red panda grabbed Tigress' shoulder and steadied his knife, only for a black pas to grab him and throw him across the grounds. Taken by surprise, Shifu took a second to maintain his composure and get up. In the meantime, Po had managed to knock Monkey off of Tigress upon which Viper decided to go after Po. Tigress managed to catch her by the tail before she could reach him though and she tossed the master over by Shifu who merely caught her and quickly put her back down. Po helped Tigress to her feet and the two began to run for their lives.

"Don't let them get away!" Shifu ordered.

The chase continued through the Wu Dang mountains and even back onto the trail as Po and Tigress didn't get an opportunity to sneak away since the masters were right on their heels.

"Where do we go now?!" Po exclaimed. "There's no where else to hide!"

"Hey down there!" Crane called from above. He and Mantis had spotted the masters running out of the mountains and had decided to keep an eye in the sky in order to make sure that they didn't go anywhere.

Seeing the cut on the avian's chest, Po cried, "You too, Crane?!"

"I tried going outside the boundries!" he explained. "Apparently you can't!"

"Well that stinks!" Po exclaimed.

Po and Tigress ran back down to the Jade Palace in order to find somewhere to go.

"Crane!" Shifu ordered. "Corner them!" Crane dived down in order to pin the two warriors to the ground, but Po grabbed Tigress' arm and dived into the building on the right, smashing Crane into the door. Two then boarded it up with chairs and anything else they could find nearby.

"The kitchen?!" Tigress exclaimed. "Oh yeah, this will really help!"

"Don't put a downer on things yet," Po told her as the masters tried to break into the kitchen "I have an idea."

He grabbed Tigress by the wrist and guided her over towards an iron pot and an enormous tub of black molasses.

"Po, what are you doing?" Tigress asked.

"First though, a quick question," Po said. "How good are you at breaking iron?"

After many unsuccessful attempts at breaking into the kitchen, the masters finally broke the door to the kitchen, expecting to find Po unsuccessfully hide behind a bag of apples or a table. However, the only thing out of place was the table and a bunch of pots which had been used to barricade the door as well as an open window in the back.

"Where did they go?!" Crane exclaimed. "They were just in here!"

"Maybe they went out the window," Viper suggested. "It's wide open and partially broken, so Po might have gone through it."

"Now hold on a second," Shifu said firmly. "The last time I checked the kitchen, Tigress had been hiding in a pot and I didn't even bother to look. I'm not making that same mistake this time. Check everywhere!"

The masters scoured the entire kitchen, checking pots and cabinets and even the ceiling in hopes of finding the hiding masters. But they were nowhere in sight.

"Outside it is," Shifu said. "Keep your eyes wide open though. It's pitch black outside, so it'll be harder to find them."

The masters then exited the kitchen, Crane grabbing a nearby lantern so that they could actually see when they headed outside. Approximately five minutes after they left, Po and Tigress carefully got up, the sides of one the pots Tigress had broken still stuck to them.

"That was way too close!" Tigress told him, managing to unstick herself from her friend. The two had worked together to break two of the iron pots in half, then covering themselves in black molasses and then putting them around each other so as to ressemble one of the pots barricading the door. Tigress was a little worried that they'd get caught, but fortunately, the molasses was dark enough to hide them in the pots' shadows, keeping them hidden long enough until Shifu and the others left the room.

"I know," Po said. with a grin. "I've never felt you shake like that. Actually, come to think of it, I've never even seen you shake."

"That was you," Tigress lied, trying to not flush at the comment. She normally didn't shake, but for some reason, she just couldn't help herself.

"No, that was clearly you," Po said with a grin.

"I'd love to argue about this," Tigress told him. "But they could come back any time, so lets get this stuff cleaned off and get out of here!"

"Right!" Po said, snapping to action. "Molasses is sticky. And I don't want to smell like food when I get up in the morning or else I might mistake my arm for some molasses cookies while I'm asleep."

Tigress shook her head and headed over to the sink where her and Po began to clean themselves up. They had molasses eerywhere except for their feet and paws as they didn't want to leave a tell-tale mess anywhere. It only took ten minutes to wash everything off, but with Shifu and the others lurking around, it felt like hours to the two warriors. The molasses finally came off and Tigress was quick to pull Po out of the kitchen and into the dark where the two began to slink around so as to avoid getting caught.

"Where should we go?" she whispered. "They could be anywhere?"

"There's a cave I found in the Wu Dang Mountains," Po told her. "We can climb up there and take turns sleeping so that we can keep up our strength."

"Lead the way then," Tigress instructed.

Po grabbed her arm so that they didn't get separated in the dark and began their trek towards the mountains. The had a slight advantage as the masters were using a lantern in order to see, meaning that any light indicated to Tigress and Po that it was a bad spot to go to. The two didn't have any light themselves, meaning that even if the masters didn't have a lot, it would be hard to find them anyway. After a while, the two finally reached the Wu Dang mountains where the two blindly stumbled about trying to find the cave Po was talking about. The moon was a mere sliver in the sky, not giving them a ton of light to make out their surroundings. At long last however, Po managed to make out the cave which was deep within the mountains. The two then climbed up a steep slope in order to get to the top, the two finally getting a second to catch their breath.

"Well, this day's been fun," Po laughed. "You know, getting chased with knives and what not."

"The night isn't over yet," Tigress told him sternly. "We still have to wait for the morning gong to go off before the game is over."

Po eyed her funnily. "I take it that you're not going to laugh out our problems with me," he said.

"Not my style."

"Are you sure? Because I'm sure that there are plenty of things we can amuse ourselves with, like-"

"Getting slashed with a knife isn't my idea of fun," Tigress told him.

"It's not my idea of fun either, but at least we've gotten this far, right?"

Tigress sighed and leaned back against the cave wall. "I suppose," she muttered grumpily.

Po grinned and said jokingly, "Looks like someone's up way past their bedtime."

"I'm just not sure what cutting us with a knife is supposed to do," she explained. "It seems...cruel. This isn't the training I know and...." She sighed.

"It scares you?" Po finished.

Tigress gave him a look. "No," she said flatly. "It just...bothers me. That's all."

"Well, maybe Shifu will explain it in the morning. He normally explains the point of an exercise either before or after we do it."

Tigress nodded. "That's true," she admitted.

Po yawned. "Well, I don't know about you," he said. "But I'm beat. I'm going to bed."

"I'll wake you up in an hour to take over the shift," Tigress reminded him, but the Dragon Warrior was already out cold.

The next morning, Po woke out of a sound sleep when he remembered Lord Shen blasting his cannon at his friends. As he tried to calm himself down, he heard a soft moan from next to him, giving him a panic attack.

Crap! he thought to himself. I fell asleep on duty! He examined himself and Tigress, whom he saw had fallen asleep against him, (not that he minded), in order to make sure that Shifu hadn't cut them. He hadn't.

"Did the gong go off yet?" Tigress asked, sitting up and stretching her arms.

"No," Po told her. "It would have woken you up if it had. Sound tends to travel out here."

As a way to demonstrate his point, Po's stomach, still deprived of food, let out a loud rumble that echoed throughout the Wu Dang Mountains.

"That reminds me," Tigress said. "I owe you that batch of cookies."

Po did a silent 'yes' as the two then heard the morning gong go off, echoing throughout the mountains. Tigress smiled triumphantly. "Looks like we won," she said. "Lets head back to the training hall."

"Good," Po said. "Then we're heading right to the kitchen. I'm about to die from lack of dumplings."