Kung Fu to the Rescue! Read online

  If there was anything Po loved more than kung fu and dumplings, it was telling a good story:

  “Legend tells of the awesomely awesome giant, Charitable Chan. . . .”

  The Furious Five was all ears as Po told the tale of his favorite hero, the giant panda who sought out the rich, giving their shiny coins to those in need.

  “Da, da, da, daaaaaaah!” Po sang as he rattled a pot filled with coins.

  Like Charitable Chan, Po was collecting for the children’s hospital. The Furious Five knew a good cause when they heard one, so Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, and Viper each dropped a coin into the pot. But when it came to Crane . . .

  “Sorry, Po,” Crane said. “I spent my last few coins on a new nasal irrigator.”

  Crane held up a squeeze bottle used to suck out stuffy noses.

  “But I’d be happy to donate my services in any way I can!” Crane said before clearing his nose with a loud HONK!

  Po’s eyes lit up. His allergic bud had given him the most awesome idea!

  “We can all donate our services!” Po suggested. “We’ll hold an auction. Whoever bids the most gets to spend the day with their favorite kung-fu master!”

  Monkey hated the idea. What if Mrs. Yoon bid on him? She smelled like paste!

  “Where’s your furious feistiness?” Po demanded. “You guys are just ssss-cared that you’ll get ssss-moked!” Po teased that he would make the most money since he was the most popular kung-fu master.

  The Furious Five glared at Po. Who was he calling ssss-cared and ssss-moked?

  One by one the Furious Five agreed, and the Jade Palace Fancy-Pants Auction was on!

  “Another victory for Charitable Chan!” Po cheered. “Da, da, da, daaaaaaah!”

  The auction was set up in a flash. Almost everyone in the Valley of Peace gathered in the square to bid for their favorite kung-fu master. . . .

  “First up,” Ping announced from the stage. “Master Tigress!”

  Tigress shot up high in the air. She scissored her legs, chopping airborne blocks of wood with her feet. The blocks landed on the ground in a perfect pagoda!

  “Twenty yuan!” the villagers bid.

  “Twenty-five!”

  “Thirty!”

  “Forty!”

  “Sold for forty!” Ping said, pointing to a family of bunnies. “You win a day with Tigress!”

  Next was Monkey’s turn. Everyone oohed and aahed as he balanced on his tail, juggling plates in the air. As the plates dropped, Monkey chopped them into teeny-tiny pieces!

  “Fifty!” a voice bid.

  “Fifty yuan wins a day with Monkey!” Ping declared.

  When Monkey saw the bidder, he gulped. It was smelly Mrs. Yoon!

  “You’ve got a hard act to follow, Crane.” Po smiled.

  “Oh yeah?” Crane smiled back. “Just watch!”

  Spreading his wings, Crane rocketed into the air. He touched down and said, “Hi-yaaa! Hi-yaaa,” while he sliced boards in half with his speedy, spindly feet.

  The crowd was mystified by Crane’s kung-fu ease . . . until he let out a huge wet sneeze!

  “Ew,” a little bunny said.

  As Crane kept honking, his price kept dropping.

  “Come on, people!” Po urged. “This is Master Crane we’re talking about!”

  But Crane was a no-sale. Especially when everyone saw his nasal irrigator.

  “Sorry I ruined your auction, Po.” Crane sighed.

  Po watched as Crane headed sadly back to the palace. He felt bad for his friend, but the auction had to go on.

  “Let’s keep the good times rolling with the Dragon Warrior!” Ping declared.

  Po struck a fierce kung-fu pose. But just as he was about to perform some excellent moves—

  BOOM!

  A murky shadow loomed over the square. Everyone looked up to see a dark-spirited owl, hovering above the square!

  “Fenghuang!” Tigress declared.

  The steel-eyed villain cackled evilly. “You didn’t think that pathetic cage could hold me,” she sneered. “Did you?”

  She’s going to attack!” Monkey shouted.

  Like a fighter plane, Fenghuang crashed into a building. It crumbled to the ground, all over Po and the Furious Five!

  When Crane heard screams, he hurried back to the square. Staring at the rubble, he gulped. “Po? Tigress? What happened?”

  “I’ll be happy to show you!” Fenghuang shouted.

  With needle-sharp talons, Fenghuang lifted Crane into the air. She spun him around and around before smashing the dizzy bird into a building—beak first!

  Po poked his head out from the rubble. When he saw Fenghuang zooming toward him, he held up an iron wok. Fenghuang flew closer and closer until—WHAM—her talons rammed painfully into Po’s shield.

  When Po saw Fenghuang’s twisted talons, he grinned. “You guys!” he said. “Her talons can’t cut through iron!”

  Fenghuang’s secret was out. The Furious Five had a field day blocking and attacking the owl with iron bars and bolts.

  “My beautiful talons!” Fenghuang moaned.

  Madder than ever, Fenghuang soared back for more until Po sent her flying with a bouncing belly bump!

  “Hi-yaaaaa!” Po cried.

  The villagers cheered as their feathered foe flew off with twisted talons and a broken wing.

  “Let’s hear it for the Dragon Warrior,” Ping declared. “And the Furious Five!”

  “More like the Furious Four,” another duck said. He pointed to Crane. His beak was still jammed into the wall.

  “I’m okay,” Crane muttered as the villagers laughed.

  Po knew Crane had to sharpen his kung-fu skills. But back at the palace, Crane’s skills turned into embarrassing spills. Even the punching bag punched back!

  “My life’s a lie,” Crane groaned. “The people I’ve sworn to protect think I’m a joke.”

  Po tried to change Crane’s image with a fashion makeover. But when Crane worked his color-splashed hat and Fu Manchu mustache, the villagers laughed again!

  “Face it. I’m a joke!” Crane said.

  Viper, Monkey, Tigress, and Mantis weren’t laughing. They had spotted Fenghuang high in the mountains nursing her broken wing.

  “This is our chance to capture her!” Tigress said excitedly. “We’ve got to get up there while she’s still weak.”

  “I’m not going,” Crane said.

  “Crane, we need you!” Po insisted.

  “Po, you saw me freeze up when Fenghuang attacked today,” Crane argued. “You heard everyone laughing too!”

  “Po, he’s made his choice,” Tigress said. “We’ve got to get going.”

  There was no time to waste. Soon, Po and the others were scaling the snowy mountainside to reach Fenghuang.

  “Come to me!” Fenghuang sneered, spying from above. She waited until her foes settled on a ledge. Then using her good wing, she sent chunks of rock tumbling below.

  “Rockslide!” Monkey shouted.

  A humongous boulder crashed down between Tigress and the others. It was a trap! Fenghuang swooped down toward Tigress, her talons protected with iron gloves.

  Po tried to help Tigress, but he couldn’t reach her. Tigress put up a good fight, but her skills were no match for Fenghuang’s armored talons.

  With one deadly swipe, the vengeful owl sent Tigress tumbling over the icy ledge!

  “Tigress!” Po shouted as he watched his friend tumble down the mountainside. “Noooooo!”

  Tigress thought she was a goner as she plummeted toward the ground, until a save by Monkey’s long arm stopped her fall.

  “Got you!” Monkey declared.

  Po and the others formed a lifeline to keep from falling. When Fenghuang saw it, she brandished her talons, slashing the lifeline apart. Next she soared to the mountaintop where she sent down a powerful snowy avalanche.

  “It’s over, panda!” Fenghuang shouted.

  Meanwhile down in the peaceful valley, Crane swept the
courtyard with his friend Zeng.

  “Why didn’t you go with the others, Master Crane?” Zeng asked.

  “Because I’m a joke, Zeng,” Crane replied.

  A loud rumble filled the air. Crane and Zeng looked up to see snow cascading down the mountainside.

  “Shouldn’t we do something?” Zeng gasped.

  A horrified Crane watched as tons of snow poured down. Po . . . Tigress . . . Mantis . . .

  “What do we do, Master Crane?” Zeng asked. “What do we do?”

  Po and his friends dragged themselves out of the fallen snow. The wicked owl thought it was a hoot—especially when Tigress began clawing up the mountainside.

  “Kitty still wants to play?” Fenghuang sneered. She soared off the mountaintop to attack Tigress. Po jumped to the rescue, grabbing onto Fenghuang’s feet.

  “Gotcha!” Po said.

  But for Fenghuang it was game on. She spread her wings, taking Po on a sky-high joy ride.

  “Mama!” Po gulped as they rose higher and higher. The thin air made him dizzy and weak. So weak he finally lost his grip.

  “Scratch one Dragon Warrior!” Fenghuang laughed as Po dropped through the air toward the ground.

  Po groaned as he saw a giant panda-patty in his future. But his luck was about to change because flying to the rescue was another kung-fu warrior. It was Crane!

  Crane swooped under Po, planting his feet on a bamboo stick. Then the two soared straight toward Fenghuang!

  “No!” Fenghuang cried when she saw Po.

  “Up, up, and in your face!” Po shouted.

  Po was on a roll. He struck Fenghuang with a series of forward strikes. Then with a masterful airborne flip, the Dragon Warrior sent Fenghuang flying!

  “This is very bad for sinuses!” Crane honked.

  Po and Crane thought they saw the last of Fenghuang until she returned to knock Po off his bamboo perch.

  “Double gie!” Po groaned as he tumbled toward the ground. The villagers gasped as the panda landed flat on his face.

  “Po, come on!” Crane shouted down. “I can’t defeat her by myself!”

  “What’s the matter, little birdie?” Fenghuang taunted. “Lost your confidence?”

  Crane bristled at the owl’s sinister laugh. He was sick of being a joke. He was an accomplished kung-fu master with an important job: to protect the Valley of Peace from evil. Evil creeps like Fenghuang!

  “I just found my confidence!” Crane declared.

  The battle of the birds raged from a talon-biting chase through a bamboo forest to claw-to-claw combat in the village square.

  “Ooh! Aah!” the villagers gasped.

  Feathers flew as Fenghuang swiped at Crane. With a swift move Crane grabbed Fenghuang by the feet, hurling her down a deep, craggy chimney. Moments later the owl staggered out, eyes rolling inside her head. Everyone waited breathlessly until a dazed Fenghuang fell flat on her face!

  “Crane, you did it!” Po said excitedly. “You beat Fenghuang!”

  “Mas-ter Crane!” the villagers cheered. “Mas-ter Crane!”

  Crane grinned as he felt the love. Not only were his kung-fu skills back—he was a hero.

  And that was nothing to sneeze at!

  Taste the sting of my steel!” grunted a rhino captain as he slammed his playing piece down on a game board.

  “Nice move, Chief,” said his opponent, a rhino guard.

  They were watching over a bridge on the Chinese border . . . but it was a quiet night.

  Then a stone tumbled down from the rocky cliffs behind them, and the two rhinos looked up. A small emperor tamarin monkey with a white beard was bounding across the bridge toward them.

  “Border patrol! Identify yourself!” demanded the captain.

  “Fools! You are like worms challenging a large dog or perhaps a midsized cow,” said the monkey, his voice full of contempt. “You are helpless before me—Pai Mei, high priest of Abusive Lotus!”

  He struck a kung-fu pose.

  “Pai Mei? Wasn’t he that traitor who tried to destroy the emperor?” the guard asked.

  “Get him!” yelled the captain.

  They charged at Pai Mei, pointing their spears at him, but the little monkey backflipped out of the way. Then he kicked the spears out of the rhinos’ hands and posed again, holding his paws in front of him. They glowed white with mysterious energy.

  Pow! Pow! He struck each rhino once in the chest, and the great beasts toppled over, groaning.

  “Now, you unworthy soapmongers, direct me to the kung-fu master known as Shifu,” Pai Mei demanded.

  “Shifu?” the captain replied, his voice shaking with fear. “He’s in the Valley of Peace.”

  Pai Mei grinned, satisfied. “He shall be my next miserable victim,” he said, and then leaped away.

  “Next victim?” the captain asked, puzzled, turning to the guard. They both looked down to the spot where Pai Mei’s glowing paw had touched them, which was glowing with white heat.

  BOOM!

  A blast sent the rhinos flying off the bridge, into the valley below.

  “Ugh,” the two rhinos groaned.

  So much for a quiet night.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  SIMON SPOTLIGHT

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  This Simon Spotlight edition June 2014

  Kung Fu Panda Legend of Awesomeness © 2014. Viacom International Inc. Nickelodeon and all related logos are trademrks of Viacom International Inc.

  Based on the featire film “Kung Fu Panda” © 2008 DreamWorks Animation L.L.C. All rights reserved. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. SIMON SPOTLIGHT and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  ISBN 978-1-4814-0511-9 (pbk)

  ISBN 978-1-4814-0512-6 (hc)

  ISBN 978-1-4814-0513-3 (eBook)